Having a Ball

They’re bright. They’re bouncy. And there are more than 800 of them.

Nina Aust, senior computer information systems major, has been collecting bouncy balls since her junior year in high school.

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It all began one night at the movies.

That night, Aust says she and her boyfriend arrived about an hour and a half before the movie started. To kill time, she says they played games and ended up winning about 15 bouncy balls.

The collection just grew from there, she says.

Bouncy balls bring a smile to her face, she says, admitting she thinks it is a corny reason to like them.

“They’re just fun,” she says. “It’s hard looking at that (a bouncy ball) and not just smiling and laughing, you know what I mean?”

Aust displayed her bouncy balls in the front mesh pocket of her book bag. When people saw them, she says they would often bring her some from home.

More than half of the balls were gifts, she says.

The bouncy ball collection is kept in a large, clear plastic storage container.

“I probably have two of at least every single one in here,” she says. “It’s hard not to. There’s not that many different kinds of bouncy balls you can make.”

“It’s hard looking at that (a bouncy ball) and not just smiling and laughing.”

But Aust has a large variety of the colorful rubber balls. She has marbleized balls of various colors, glittery balls, balls with faces on them, neon-colored balls, checkered balls and two-toned balls.

“I think this one’s really ugly,” she says holding up a large, clear bouncy ball with a flower inside of it. “I don’t know who gave it me though.”

Although she still collects them, Aust says the bouncy balls are kind of an inside joke from when she was in high school.

“People from high school kinda get the importance of them a little more,” she says. “And it’s funny because if I ever give a bouncy ball to someone from my high school, they think it’s, like, this big honor.”

Katie Hilbert (khilbert@kent.edu)

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