Mitchell Walton does not do recess. Sorry, no time. His true love gets in the way.

He’d rather sit next to his computer teacher, Ms. Cordes, and talk about fans.

Yes, fans … you know, like oscillating fans that keep you cool?

Mitchell adores them, as his T-shirt tells all: “I (Heart) My Fans.”

The Kahoa Elementary School first-grader collects them, has about 130. He bids on them at auctions, often against old men.

He asks and receives fans for birthdays and Christmases. He cuts pictures of fans out of ads and puts them in binders. His parents take him to fan fairs. Sometimes the guys there tell him to keep his fingers out of the fans. Um, yeah, he knows. Do they think he’s an amateur or something?

He once dressed as a fan for Halloween. A chord was his tail. Blades were his hat.  Age 7, he’s the youngest member of the Antique Fan Collectors Association.

“It’s mostly made up of elderly gentlemen,” says Wade, Mitchell’s father.

Mitchell doesn’t care. Fans have caught his fancy since he was 1. He’d point and his eyes would follow the spinning blades.

He’s been looking for fans since.

Whenever the family is shopping at SouthPointe Pavilions, he makes sure they go into Hollister, and not because of the store’s trendy clothes. Hollister has fans. A teenage girl once asked Mitchell and his dad if she could offer any help. Mitchell pointed at the fans and said, “I could fix them.”

Old and new, he has all kinds: Westinghouse, Emerson, Vornado, Kenmore, Robbins & Myers, Jack Frost, General Electric.

He went to a garage sale with his mom and saw a fan on a top shelf.

“I want that fan,” he said. It wasn’t for sale.

“I want that fan.”

The owners recognized Mitchell would love the fan more than they ever could. Sold, for $30.

Better months are ahead. It will be summer soon, and there will be garage sales and newspaper ads showing pictures of fans. The Fan Boy will see every one of them and there will be delight beyond what recess could ever bring.

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.