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The exact date Mickey Mouse came into this world is kind of iffy.

Some say it as the day that Walt Disney got the inspiration for the lovable mouse as he watched a tame mouse scamper around his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City Missouri.

Some say it was the day Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. Others say Mickey Mouse was “born” the day an American animator and cartoonist designed, M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

Mickey Mouse is the most popular character of Walt Disney’s animated cartoons and arguably the most popular cartoon star in the world. 

Mickey Mouse turns 92 years old on November 18, 2020. The world-faMOUSE rascal rat first appeared in 1928 on the screen of the Colony Theater in New York City. The film, Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” was the first animated cartoon taking picture. Mickey Mouse’s unofficial birthday is May 15, 1928 when he appeared in a test screening of Disney’s short, “Plane Crazy.”

A local resident collected Walt Disney memorabilia for many years. Much of the collection, of course, featured Mickey Mouse. Rather recently, the collection of Walt Disney memorabilia was sold to a local buyer. For several months, the collection was resold across the country and to far reaches around the globe.

Rather recently, selected items of the collection were donated to the Troy Police Department and the Pike Regional Child Advocacy Center with much of it going to the Troy Shrine Club. The collection is being sold at the Shriners’ Flea Market at the Pike County Fairgrounds on Saturdays from 7 a.m. until around 2 p.m. depending on the weather conditions.

Kathy Sneed, flea market manager and curator of the collection, said the collection came to the Shriners in five 12-foot trailers.

“The Walt Disney collection that was donated to the Troy Shrine Club is made up of thousands of items, actually it seems like zillions,” Sneed said, with a smile. “It fills this entire room and it’s a huge room and a lot of the collection has already been sold. I’ve never seem so much. I didn’t there were so many Walt Disney items and many of these items have never been on the market.”

The flea market manager began to rattle off just a few of the items that were donated – watches, telephones, music boxes, puzzles, cups and glasses, canisters, yard items, Christmas items, Halloween items, cookie jars, stuffed toys, Lenox figurines, plates.

“And it’s not just Mickey Mouse,” Sneed said. “It’s Minnie and Goofy and Pluto and Donald Duck. It’s Tinker Bell and Winnie the Poo. I have never seen so much.”

Sneed said the prices are good and the money raised goes to a great cause.

“The Shriners do so much good for so many,” she said.

“This Disney donation will help a lot of people in a lot of ways. There is no way to say how much it is appreciated. Thank you is never adequate and there is no way to say “thank you” for the generosity of this donor.”