Salon owner Larry Davidson has put his collection to work.

Says the longtime Lakewood resident: “As clients are waiting as their colors are processing, I’d simply announce there are lizards hiding around the salon, see if you can find them.

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“And people would kind of drop their magazines and peek around and then the next thing you know somebody would say ‘there’s one’ and soon the whole room would be up, five or six clients, acting together.”

The game has inspired clients to add to the collection – but Davidson has to earn it.

“Once the lizards got going, clients started bringing them in and hiding them and then I’d have to find them. It’s kind of fun.”

Davidson usually finds new lizards while on vacation. In a Paris flea market, he found one that was out of his price range, so he settled for the “next best thing” – a turn-of-the-century wrought iron and bronze grasshopper.

“And suddenly people think I’m collecting grasshoppers,” he says. (He’s still a lizard man.)

“It’s amazing what people will do once you start a collection.”

Writer Donna Smithson is a neighborhood Realtor. If you have an unusual collection (or know someone in our neighborhood who does), tell her about it by calling 972-733-5653.