Thursday, September 3, 2009

VINTAGE THURSDAY--KITCHEN

These are in the upstairs kitchen---Caro's domain. I'd had visions of putting lots of lovely pastel glassware and dishes into these cabinets. We took off the almost-black doors and painted all the kitchen that wasn't yellow formica, including the shelves which divided all the cabinets into neat sections.

I bought dozens of the little plastic doohickeys which stick into the holes in the sides of the cabinets to hold up the shelves---clear ones. Wrong size. I got so involved in Life And Other Things, I just tossed the bags in a drawer and left it "for later." And the shelves---alas, the shelves. They got slotted on their edges between cabinet and fridge for who-knows-how-long, and when I just couldn't stand it any longer trying to wrestle broom or mop out of the alley, they got put somewhere out in the garage (still for "later") and are there now, probably under fifteen boxes of Southern Living, sandwiched between the cute little cherry-buffet-that-pulls-out-into-a-table and Caro's first piano.

So everything is in a tall thin space, and for some things, like tall vases and pitchers, it's OK, but for small clumps of round things, they just crouch in a puddle of color at the bottom of their niche, like a flock of chicks under the big sky.

And the "later" turned out to be about eight years, as we used the sunny spot in that kitchen as home for the Volkswagen-sized birdcage for our Blue and Gold macaw, and with all the cannisters filled with peanuts and bird food and treats and fortune cookies and expired cereal and nuts---well, it turned into HIS kitchen, with the counters and stove lightly dusted with bird fluff at all times.

Then, he went to live with friends, and Caro went into cleaning mode. With a vengeance. She scrubbed and cleaned and mopped and sanitized that place like a Crime-Scene Cleanup crew. Then she started delving into cabinets, shelves, boxes-never-unpacked, and treated the whole place like one of those TV "use your own stuff, but improve your home" shows, getting something from my china cabinet, something from a wall downstairs, mingling and arranging and making just wonderful displays.

The shelves are mostly grouped by color---there's Yellow:

A corn-shaped tureen (one of those bits of ceramic ware that I pick up on Goodwill shelves, and think of sometimes as Made in Therapy, a tall coffee urn which matches a set of yellow octagonal plates, and a lovely, buttery-sheened tureen with jonquils, made by my talented Sis during her first pregnancy as her young husband spent endless hours and days in Med School:




Then there's blue---several shades, mostly teal and turquoise. The little glass fridge bowls were collected over several years, and I love their little shapes and colors. They take having "things in dishes" in the fridge to a whole new level. The pitcher with its several-colors-of-glasses was the "fancy set" in our house in the Fifties, and I've always been afraid the handle would come off its moorings and pour something over a pretty tablecloth:



And burgundy. I do not know anything about the two pitchers, save that they make me happy to look at them, the way the light glints off the smooth crockery. The ball one is marked "HALL" in a black circle, with the number 633, and the other just has a pressed-into-the-clay-before-glazing "Made in USA" with the burgundy paint puddled into the deep lettering.

The jewelly grapes are from a going-out-of-business sale at Waccamaw (anyone remember those stores?) and I think they probably cost fifty cents---we got LOADS of frosty fruit at that sale, including two boxes of golden apples, marked $19.99 on each box of a dozen. The 75% off sale rang them up at 5.00 per box, and when we opened the boxes that Christmas, we discovered that each apple had a $19.99 dangly price tag!




The center tray is the "one thing left from our wedding presents" which were given my parents so many years ago---Mother treasured it and would barely let me WASH it, let alone put food on it for serving. When we were sharing out the household goods after she died and Daddy had sold the house, I noticed a small sticker of adhesive tape on the back, with her name in that distinctive left-handed slant.
I've always wondered whose funeral or church doings would have been of such import as to warrant her using that precious, forbidden piece of dishware.

17 comments:

  1. What lovely items you have in your
    cabinets. Love the Fire King refrigerator
    containers and the drink ware set! So
    colorful! :)

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  2. I love your post and all your pretty treasures! Thanks for stopping by and for your sweet comment.

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  3. What beautiful things, I love your refrigerator containers..those are so pretty. I have a thing for dishes and kitchen items, so your post had me really sitting up paying attention!! Loved it. Have a great weekend and a great VTT!

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  4. Enjoyed reading your post and hearing some of the history behind the dishes. I especially loved the story about your mother's treasured tray. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

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  5. I do remember Waccamaw Pottery in NC...a long time ago!
    It is nice that you have such a good area to display your treasures!

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  6. Lots of vintage loveliness on those shelves! Love those fridge dishes, that big yellow coffee urn, and that tray that was your Mother's. What a great keepsake, especially since you know how much it meant to your Mom.
    Happy VTT!

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  7. How fun that you have your wonderful treasures displayed so all can see!
    Cheers!

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  8. I really like all of those refrigerator containers.

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  9. Last weekend when I had the family over to eat, we needed something very big to mix up the hamburgers in. Cause Don likes to mix them up with Worsterchire Sauce. Actually,he got the idea from our sweet DIL who taught him. W.sauce, and garlic salt, and pepper. Delicious! Well, anyway, the biggest thing I could find was the top to an old Tupperware Cake Saver. It was my MIL's and when I opened it up, I found the melamine plate that she always turned her pound cakes out on. On the bottom was a very old piece of tape and her name written in ink. It seems you remind me of some wonderful memory every time you post.

    And, I thank you so much for the kind words you wrote after my last post.. What you said went straight to my heart, and really made a difference in my outlook. You lifted my spirits, and made me think. Thank you, my sweet friend.

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  10. Oh my goodness - so much fun getting to "see" your kitchen. I especially love that tray and the story behind it.

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  11. this is not really "my" kitchen---more like shelves full of fun stuff that will be rotated around for other stuff as the spirit moves.

    This is where Caro does her own cooking, mostly WW recipes; she makes up a big Tupperware of something yummy on her days off, and supplements them with some of whatever we're having for supper from our own kitchen.

    I cannot say how much I've enjoyed all the lovely comments and compliments. This is only my second week to participate in any of the show and tell type special days, and I've really had some nice feedback.

    This blog does not elicit many comments in general, for it's just ramblings about life in the South, at least the South as I knew it, and we've been here almost nineteen years.

    My favorite parts are in kindling a similar memory for someone who mentions a recipe, a relative, a certain family heirloom or book or activity that they are reminded of in a post. I find that to be very rewarding, as I just dash down what I'm thinking at any moment, and it could range from here and now, to then and there, so there's not much telling what you'll find when you drop in.

    Speaking of which---I'm honored that all of you DID---I'm enjoying your own sites, as well, as I've peeked in through COLORADOLADY'S links. I so appreciate those as well.

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  12. Such color fun and finds!
    Thanks for sharing!
    Living it up at Lakewood,
    Cindy

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  13. I have that very same corn dish, Rachel--it is on the top shelf of my pot rack, right out for the world to see.

    I don't believe in hiding treasures--what is the point of having something if you can't see it?

    Love, love, love this blog, and really hope for more pictures!

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  14. Thank you all for dropping in---I love to hear from everyone. Some days I write down things just for ME, I suppose, to get thoughts into a pattern and draw some words around them until the whole is a clear picture.

    Other days, I think of the lovely people who look in and read and get to know my family and my forebears and my foibles and STILL come back another day, and I try to send out good thoughts and happenings and memories which are meaningful and precious to me.

    Thank you all so much for coming by and being a part of these moments.

    Chris will be getting a LOT of pictures into "MY" albums next week---we'll be looking a lot at the pictures of the trip to the coast, and lots of garden and house and little happenings right here on our little piece of ground.

    Re: the corn dish---there used to be a big ole brown potato, as well, with a tiny spud for a lid-handle, and a cup-sized one for sour cream.

    How precious is this wedding gonna GET, I ask you? (name that Mother Of The Bride)

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  15. OHHH! Refrigerator dishes are so fun. Love yours.

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