I’ve visited some unique museums in recent years — facilities dedicated to hamburgers, kites, toys, pirate ships, circuses, shoes, rodeos, mustard and figure skating, to cite just a few.
But all take, ahem, a back seat to a shrine I had heretofore overlooked: the Toilet Seat Museum.
And, no, it’s not in Flushing, N.Y.
As “Texas Country Reporter” Bob Phillips writes in his newest book, “52 More Offbeat Texas Stops” (Phillips Productions; $13.95), Barney Smith’s collection is situated in the garage of his San Antonio home.
Smith’s museum, at 239 Abisco Ave., is open at no charge to visitors who call 210-824-7791 in advance, Phillips writes.
The Toilet Seat Museum is not the only gem uncovered by Phillips, who has roamed the back roads of Texas for 25 years and whose “Texas Country Reporter” television show is broadcast statewide.
In a worthy sequel to his popular “52 Offbeat Texas Stops,” published in 1993, Phillips writes about concrete gorillas in Odem, which is just outside of Corpus Christi; television aquariums in Austin; the Domino and Fiddlers halls of fame in Hallettsville, about 75 miles southwest of Houston; Bat World in Mineral Wells, near Ft. Worth; and the American Funeral Service Museum in Houston.
Not that Texas has a patent on unusual shrines.
In another amusing book, “America’s Strangest Museums” (Citadel Press; $12.95), author Sandra Gurvis takes us on a nationwide tour of eccentric collections.
At the Frog Fantasies Museum in Eureka Springs, Ark., 6,000 frogs are made from almost every conceivable material.
In Columbus, Ga., exhibits at the Lunch Box Museum include 3,000 lunch boxes and 2,000 thermoses.
We learn of the Cookie Jar Museum in Lemont, Ill.; the Barbed Wire Museum in La Crosse, Kan.; the Ice House Museum in Cedar Falls, Iowa; the Tattoo Art Museum in San Francisco; the Bead Museum in Prescott, Ariz.; and the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Helendale, Calif.
And who wouldn’t be intrigued by the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis; Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop and Prehistoric Life Museum in Evanston, Ill.; and Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Mich.?
