Heavy metal buttons

I am of course referring to the buttons with pictures of bands on them that I used to wear on my jacket back in the 80's. Well, okay I still wear them even today and that is because I am a metal dinosaur. I remember the first buttons I got were at Ames back in late 84-early 85. I remember getting Ratt, Twisted Sister and Dio buttons there. The record stores had buttons, but at that time I went to the record store just to get records due to my limited money supply. When I first started buying buttons, I did not have a denim jacket to put them on. So I put them on the shirt I was wearing that day. I am sure that I looked very cool being an overweight kid wearing a Twisted Sister button pinned whatever geek shirt I was wearing at the time. Yet I didn't care much about that, I just cared that I liked the band and could let everyone else knew it. Plus the buttons were cool for me to look at as well. I spent many an hour at school pretending to stare at my paper, but really I was staring at the buttons on my jacket. That would explain my grades in high school. I still have some buttons from high school, plus I have bought some on ebay and at record stores. I now have a shoebox almost filled with them plus a separate small box that contains only Roth era Van Halen buttons. It did become a minor obsession at one time. I remember anytime I would hear a new band that I liked, I would wonder if I get a button of that band so I squeeze it in on my jacket. Unfortunately a number of buttons fell off the jacket and I lost them. I still a few buttons from back, but most of the ones I have were purchased in the last ten years. One of my favorite buttons that I own is a Black Sabbath- Master of Reality button. It means something to me because I bought in 1986 (I think) at a Sound Waves that is long gone. A lot of metal merchandise that was sold back 20 years is no longer sold much today like tapestries and keychains, but it's good to know some record stores still sell buttons.