Nmissi (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nmissi) wrote,@ 2008-04-12 01:00:00 |
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On Dishes and Birthdays
The floor wax is drying, the cake is done, and I'm reflecting.
A few weeks ago Mom and I saw a bunch of my "everyday" dishes at the peddler's mall. I didn't need them, but I really wanted them- 25.00 for eight plates, cups, saucers, and four each of the soup bowls, dessert bowls, luncheon plates, and dessert plates. I talked myself out of them (Having already so many, I didn't really need more) but she bought them, and brought them by last night. I told her she shouldn't have (she'd already fixed my stove and repaired my drain by way of a bday present) but I was soo glad she did.
This is boring, I know. But let me ramble a little about my dishes. When I was little, Mom didn't buy dishes. So in our kitchen was a mishmash of things given us by relatives, or that came free (or with trading stamps) from various businesses. Among them were a few pieces in the pattern "Forget Me Not," made by a company called "Japan China" or alternately, "Fine China of Japan."
Have a visual aid: http://www.tias.com/6246/PictPage/19224
Anyway, my great Aunt Lil had given these to my mom, and I loved to use them. Mom did have a set of really GOOD China- Hutschenreuther, actually. But it lived in the china cabinet and I only got to use it when I was very, very ill. (Then Mom would put my tea and my soup in it.) But for regular meals, I could choose from our vast array of mishmash, and I inevitably chose either the Forget Me Not, with its silver trim and dainty blue flowers, or the Carriage Horses pattern (a giveaway from the A&P.) But I was very hard on dishes, both in usage (I dropped them) and care (I tended to smack them on the edge of the sink a lot, when trying to put them in dishwater. If I dried them with a towel, inevitably I would break delicate handles or see plates literally fly out of my fingertips.)
By the time I was grown, we had only 2 Forget me not plates remaining. (And a stack of Carriage Horses saucers, oddly, that I failed to break.) And Mom had new Corelle that was more forgiving of my clumsiness. I took the two plates with me to my first apartment, and from there to my first house. In the years since, I have slowly amassed a truly dazzling array of Forget-Me-Not. At every yard sale, thrift shop, flea market... I have almost no willpower against the lure of more dishes.
Incidentally, when I picked my wedding china, I chose this: http://i6.ebayimg.com/04/s/06/c7/24/76_
See any similarities?
So, in my good china, my Noritake, I have service for eight and all the serving pieces. And now, in my everyday, I-eat-toast-and-peanut-butter-off-this-d
Service for 32. In plates and cups and saucers, that is. Service for 40 in dessert plates, and merely service for eight in bowls and luncheon plates.
There are five people in my family, six if I count my Uncle's girlfriend. In all likelihood I will never ever need that many dishes. (and let us not discuss the white lacy china I couldn't pass up at a yardsale, the Christmas china I use 2 weeks out of the year, or the fact that I have held on to eight "Carriage Horses" saucers for 35 years in the hopes of one day acquiring cups to match them again.)
I am a little embarrassed, a little ashamed. But when I opened that box, I suddenly couldn't wait to rearrange my dish cabinet. That's what new dishes means to me. I added minestrone soup to tomorrow's menu just so I have an excuse to put eight soup bowls on my kitchen table. I find myself wanting to host a family reunion this summer. Yes, it'd be great to reconnect with relatives, and I've always wanted to do one....
But there's a little part of me that is jumping up and down and going, "Omygod, I might actually get to use all of my dishes!"
Do they have support groups for this sort of thing? "Hello, my name is Missi, and I'm a Dishaholic." If I needed to, I could probably feed a hundred or so persons easily off of what's hiding in my kitchen cabinetry.
Glasses, though, might be a problem. Unless Mom gets in on it. Mom never met a glass-glass at a yardsale that she didn't like.
The floor wax is drying, the cake is done, and I'm reflecting.
A few weeks ago Mom and I saw a bunch of my "everyday" dishes at the peddler's mall. I didn't need them, but I really wanted them- 25.00 for eight plates, cups, saucers, and four each of the soup bowls, dessert bowls, luncheon plates, and dessert plates. I talked myself out of them (Having already so many, I didn't really need more) but she bought them, and brought them by last night. I told her she shouldn't have (she'd already fixed my stove and repaired my drain by way of a bday present) but I was soo glad she did.
This is boring, I know. But let me ramble a little about my dishes. When I was little, Mom didn't buy dishes. So in our kitchen was a mishmash of things given us by relatives, or that came free (or with trading stamps) from various businesses. Among them were a few pieces in the pattern "Forget Me Not," made by a company called "Japan China" or alternately, "Fine China of Japan."
Have a visual aid: http://www.tias.com/6246/PictPage/19224
Anyway, my great Aunt Lil had given these to my mom, and I loved to use them. Mom did have a set of really GOOD China- Hutschenreuther, actually. But it lived in the china cabinet and I only got to use it when I was very, very ill. (Then Mom would put my tea and my soup in it.) But for regular meals, I could choose from our vast array of mishmash, and I inevitably chose either the Forget Me Not, with its silver trim and dainty blue flowers, or the Carriage Horses pattern (a giveaway from the A&P.) But I was very hard on dishes, both in usage (I dropped them) and care (I tended to smack them on the edge of the sink a lot, when trying to put them in dishwater. If I dried them with a towel, inevitably I would break delicate handles or see plates literally fly out of my fingertips.)
By the time I was grown, we had only 2 Forget me not plates remaining. (And a stack of Carriage Horses saucers, oddly, that I failed to break.) And Mom had new Corelle that was more forgiving of my clumsiness. I took the two plates with me to my first apartment, and from there to my first house. In the years since, I have slowly amassed a truly dazzling array of Forget-Me-Not. At every yard sale, thrift shop, flea market... I have almost no willpower against the lure of more dishes.
Incidentally, when I picked my wedding china, I chose this: http://i6.ebayimg.com/04/s/06/c7/24/76_
See any similarities?
So, in my good china, my Noritake, I have service for eight and all the serving pieces. And now, in my everyday, I-eat-toast-and-peanut-butter-off-this-d
Service for 32. In plates and cups and saucers, that is. Service for 40 in dessert plates, and merely service for eight in bowls and luncheon plates.
There are five people in my family, six if I count my Uncle's girlfriend. In all likelihood I will never ever need that many dishes. (and let us not discuss the white lacy china I couldn't pass up at a yardsale, the Christmas china I use 2 weeks out of the year, or the fact that I have held on to eight "Carriage Horses" saucers for 35 years in the hopes of one day acquiring cups to match them again.)
I am a little embarrassed, a little ashamed. But when I opened that box, I suddenly couldn't wait to rearrange my dish cabinet. That's what new dishes means to me. I added minestrone soup to tomorrow's menu just so I have an excuse to put eight soup bowls on my kitchen table. I find myself wanting to host a family reunion this summer. Yes, it'd be great to reconnect with relatives, and I've always wanted to do one....
But there's a little part of me that is jumping up and down and going, "Omygod, I might actually get to use all of my dishes!"
Do they have support groups for this sort of thing? "Hello, my name is Missi, and I'm a Dishaholic." If I needed to, I could probably feed a hundred or so persons easily off of what's hiding in my kitchen cabinetry.
Glasses, though, might be a problem. Unless Mom gets in on it. Mom never met a glass-glass at a yardsale that she didn't like.
