on the way...

... to donate at the thrift store. Amazed at the things she kept and found too valuable to discard, or possibly that sentimental attachment made her unable to part with the oddments that had belonged to her mother. Lots of small containers, like the pitcher you see in one of the cartons I clearly recall seeing in my  grandma's house. Made of cast aluminum, battered, dented but still quite serviceable.

Things that have so little value to anyone who does not know the history they could easily toss in the trash. The chipped enamel dish pans, of which there were at least three, in different diameters. Still water-worthy, but who uses an actual metal dishpan any more? One even had a little hole, probably from being dropped one too many times - but it had been patched with a small bolt and nut that fit so tightly the container would still hold water for doing the supper dishes before houses were built with kitchens that had sinks. Or any other household purpose someone would need a vessel for a hundred years ago: Washing up on the back porch after a hot day of plowing behind a mule, or sitting in the shade shelling bushels of peas for canning.


Canning jars galore: some with glass lids, metal bails and rubber seals. Some with zinc lids, and some still filled with who-knows-what, dangerous to consume, but the mason jars appear to be still in good condition for another hundred years. Baskets: plastic from the discount store, wicker that likely held gifts, made from oak splints that were fashioned by my grandfather nearly a hundred years ago. With bits of his DNA still attached: how to put that stuff in the donation box for the thrift store?