In the small town of Wykoff, Minnesota there is place called Ed’s Museum. No, not that Ed, the other Ed. You know, Edwin “Ed” Julius Krueger, the owner of the Jack Sprat Food Store, who for more than half of his life on this planet never bothered to throw anything out. Blame his dead wife, because when she kicked the bucket in 1940, he lived like a slob in the shop he called home until his death at the age of 91 in 1989. The building and its decades worth of accumulation were left to the town with the stipulation that it all be turned into a museum. Of course six truckloads of crap had to be hauled away before the clutter became display-worthy. Like a true hoarder who saves everything for no real reason, there are player piano rolls, a 1930s lollipop tree, decades of junk mail, oatmeal tins, Hollywood pinups, movie projectors, every issue of TV Guide from 1954 through 1989 (George Costanza’s dad has some competition), various pocket planners and check registers, Smokey the Bear posters, vintage soft drink and laundry soap floor displays…and a box containing Sammy the Cat. No, Ed didn’t stuff his cat. He just put the dead animal in a box and saved it for a rainy day, like everything else he kept. Beware of the museum’s messy second floor, it was left in a pre-cleaned state. One room contains every toy Ed’s son ever owned, including some with the original packaging. The docents…ahem, I mean guides…are a bunch of old people who helped clean the place out after Ed died. They should rename the museum Ed’s Hoarder Palace. That sounds about right.
Ed’s Museum, Wykoff, Minnesota
