87-year-old man accidentally set world record with unusual hobby
Old man got into the Guinness Book of Records thanks to his daughter (photo: guinnessworldrecords)
Clem Reinkemeyer from Oklahoma, USA, became the new Guinness World Record holder thanks to two factors: his unique collection and his daughter, who decided to organize and count it, Guinness World Records reports.
For most of his life, 87-year-old Clem has been collecting a strange collection of bricks from all over the world. He set up a special storage room for the collection and stored the various pieces there.
While her father was away, his daughter Celia and her husband Dan Bissett, who helped build Clem his special brick barn, gathered friends and decided to count the number of exhibits.
It turned out that the collection had 8,882 pieces and was the largest in the world. They secretly applied for the record and surprised Clem by presenting him with his own certificate.
Clem's collection has 8882 bricks (photo: guinnessworldrecords)
According to the record holder, each brick in his collection can tell its own story, and those that were created with certain imperfections are most valued.
"What appealed to me about bricks is, they have names and you can trace them back historically to places, and that always intrigued me," says Clem.
His collection includes bricks from almost all American states, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and New Zealand. The oldest piece in the collection is over 1,000 years old - a Roman brick that was made in 100 AD.
Among the bricks, there are very expensive and rare pieces (photo: guinnessworldrecords)
His favorite brick is a sidewalk brick made in Washington, D.C., which used to be where the Pentagon stands today. The collector says that there may still be a few of these bricks under the Pentagon.
Clem is a mathematical engineer and real estate developer, but he's long retired and lives in Tulsa. He has been collecting bricks for over 40 years and knows a lot about their history.
