Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Containers

My good friend Ken sent me an email commenting on my post a few nights ago about picking blackberries. He said when I mentioned lard buckets, it sent him strolling down memory lane, thinking about containers from his childhood.
After only a few seconds running through an inventory of the containers from my childhood, I thought -- this is a great idea. So thanks for the tip Ken, the check is in the mail.


Containers
My great grandmother who lived next door to us when I was a child, had a porch and yard full of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and bird feeders.  None of them were planted in store-bought pots or containers. She used old coffee cans, snuff cans, lard buckets, worn out foot-tubs, used car tires, and slop jars. Some people called them thunder mugs .  (Click here for a description of thunder mug).
My dad had an old Army footlocker that he kept his "special things" in. I used to love to open it up when no one was around and look through the things that meant something to him.
My mother has a handkerchief with four pennies tied into the corner. They were given to her by her mother. The handkerchief with the pennies were in her father's pocket when he died.
The old Maytag wringer washing machines were hard on buttons. My mom would save the buttons that came off during the wash, and she kept them in an old metal lunchbox that was shaped like a football. 
We had a 55 gallon oil drum out behind our pig pen that we used to boil the hair off the hogs we killed.
When I was in the Army, I kept my life in a duffelbag. 
Jilda's dad kept screws, bolts, nuts and washers in an old blue-speckled enamelware roasting pan. I inherited it when he passed away and I rarely have to buy any nuts or bolts because I can shake old blue and find just the right one.
I think the Great Depression, which hit the south particularly hard, affected our parents and grandparents on some fundamental level. 
They got by, by making do. It seems they got really creative when it came to containers.
Thanks Ken, for the container idea.

5 comments:

  1. I love the idea of you inheriting the pan of screws, not just because they are useful but because the pan itself is a reminder of someone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great post!
    I loved it!
    Keep it coming! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the intro to "thunder mugs"!!!! LOL!!!

    Take care x

    ReplyDelete
  4. My favorite container as a child was my mother's tin button box. I played with those buttons for years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My favorite container as a child was my mother's tin button box. I played with those buttons for years.

    ReplyDelete

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