• A Case of Mistaken Pony IdentityThis past spring, while I was in Baltimore at the MarylandPony Meet, I casually started talking to another collector who grew up in northern Indiana. During the conversation she brought up the fact that she wished I had left some ponies to buy at Kokomo Toys.  I was confused by this comment and I’m sure I had a very puzzled look on my face. She elaborated and told me she had visited Kokomo Toys (a small toyshop that specializes in 80s toys) to look for ponies  while on a trip back home to visit her family. The owners of the shop had told her that Summer Hayes had come into their shop and bought over $500 of My Little Pony toys and pretty much cleared out their inventory.

    Aside from the fact that I’ve never laid down that much cash at a toyshop in my life, I’ve also never been to Kokomo Toys.  Not to say that I haven’t wanted to make a trip up there to check it out (I follow Kokomo Toys on Facebook and they seem to have some really awesome stuff.) Plus, it would be roughly a 3 hour drive to get there (not to mention the 3 hour drive home.) In college, I might have been all “ROAD TRIP!!”  but now I’m not quite as eager to burn gas and time.

    So, I’ve got to say that this kind of bugged me. Clearly this girl had been thinking for months that I swooped down on her pony hunting territory, flaunted my cash and bought every My Little Pony item they had in stock. Even though she was seemingly friendly, I assumed that she has secretly hated on me for months (because that
    would have been my reaction    … not proud of that).  I attempted to explain that the owners must have had me mistaken for someone else, although that seems like such a weak argument when the shop owners used my name. It felt a little like pony identity theft.

    As I’m still reeling from this case of mistaken identity, I turn to my friends Mary and Amber only to find out that Mary (who lives in northern Indiana) had gone to the shop with her husband earlier in the year and had been told the same thing. Then, Mary had called Amber because she was upset that I had been all super-sneaky-secret about going and buying ponies and didn’t invite her along.  What?!?

    Everything turned out in the end as we all laughed it off as a really weird pony story, but I still find myself wondering if there is someone with pockets filled with cash in the Midwest pretending to me and if so, why? Or maybe it was just a mad coincidence of a blonde girl coming into the shop and the owners assumed that it was me because of my author photo in one of my guides (They do use my book to identify ponies, after all.)

    Maybe if I ever do make it up to Kokomo Toys I’ll have to ask them. From the looks of their newly posted Facebook photos, they have just added a bunch of new pony items to their store. Road trip anyone?