I found the lost post! Not Blogger's fault but mine. I'd carelessly posted it to last Friday. So here it is.
Cleaning out a drawer of seldom used kitchen implements, I found a little trove of nostalgia--my maternal grandmother's biscuit cutters, hard-boiled egg slicer, green bean Frencher (I've actually used all of these now and then. Does anyone 'French" green beans anymore?)
Also, a serving spoon that I suspect may have belonged to my great-grandmother--which is why I've not been able to throw it out.
And two spatulas--both of which I remember her using.
It made me think of a meme that was going around--Ways to tell you're old: You have a favorite spatula.
And I do. We have several but there's one, with a wooden handle partly burned off that just fits my hand and slides under pancakes et al effortlessly.
It's the spatula to which Josie was referring, a few years back, when I whined to her that she wouldn't let me play with any of her stuff.
"You can play with your spatula, Meema," she retorted.
I suspect my grandmother felt that way about this old beauty.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the pantry hangs a hemmed piece of feed sack material, just like it used to hang in my grandmother's pantry. It's material that her sister Mabel sent her from Alabama back in the Forties and it's right handy for wiping your hands. Next to it hangs a dainty little rick-rack trimmed apron that belonged to one of my neighbors.
Below are a pair of poultry shears and a god-knows-what that belonged to John's paternal grandfather. (There is also a rather naughty nutcracker that was his, but I don't want to get scolded bu Facebook for posting it.
So many memories would be overwhelming if not for the slow pace of this project. I'm constantly aware that these objects that are so imbued with memory for me won't have the same hold on others. So they can toss them--but not me.
8 comments:
Maybe the Smithsonian Museum of American History would be interested in these. 😄
You are right to call them talismans. I love this term. Never seen before this "green bean Frencher" I would have loved to try it... I'll see if I find one at a flee market just for having fun.
Therese, do the French French green beans? Making more mature green beans more tender by slicing them lengthwise. I seem to remember seeing them available in cans and frozen.
These are treasures not to be discarded. Perhaps group them in a rustic framed display? I'm still - and will be for some time - sorting Mom's thangs. It's a process I call the personification of thangs. Her purse, for example. What would happen to that usually? Gets put in a closet. I've displayed hers on my chest-of-drawers in my office next to her photo. What remained in the purse were a few thangs, but also $29. I've left the money in the purse. She may need it. It's a process. Just tonight, just now, I wanted to call her. Every time I have that urge, it's a gut punch. No matter how old we become, I suspect that visceral emotion will always be present when it comes to our moms. We're all just children in those moments. There's no way else to describe it, and there's no letting go. Even spatulas.
So true, Rick. I've framed memorabilia in the past--thought about doing it with these. Or perhaps painting a still life of them. I love what you're doing with your mom's purse.
I think I did comment about spatulas on the original. 😎
BTW, I have done that posting the wrong date thing.
To answer your question, we were cutting them lengthwise only at the end of the season when the last big ones were picked up from the garden. At least at our house. But these had a lot of strings and as children we did not like to much to help preparing them. We did not like helping with the edamame beans either. Too long of a process.
Aha! Thank you, Therese!
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