Friday, June 18, 2010

wanted : nostalgia in a can


there were no cookies in our tin

While perusing a decor magazine today, I came across an old amaretti cookie tin being used in a cute office for storage. My grandparents had that same tin in their house for as long as I can remember. They used it for loose change, and it was always full and verrrry heavy (especially when you're 8). Sometimes they let us help lighten this load. Everyone gathered around the kitchen table (wood, covered with a round table-topping "coaster" that can best be described as a giant doily, and then covered with glass) and someone would lug it out from its shrine under the sink. We got to plunge our hand into the jar, digging deep down, up to the wrist, through coins packed tight like wet sand and then keep whatever we got in that greedy handful. Oh, and it was greedy. Sometimes I'd get lucky and there would be some "big ones," as we liked to call them, in my haul. How do grandparents always seem to have unusual denominations? Thick silver dollars, hefty fifty cent pieces, crinkled two dollar bills, tarnished wheat pennies. I don't remember if this game had a name, but it probably did. Something obvious and functional, like the name of their street, Tall Oaks Drive.

Recently they sold that house and I never got to go and say goodbye. I remember every square inch of it. Faux brick linoleum in the entry and the kitchen. The muffled sound the floor on the sun room made. Oversized pillows on the floor of the den, shiny cotton decorated with old timey cars. Pink tiled master bath. Tiny brag book photo albums resting in the night stand next to "my bed." And boxes. Just little department store boxes stashed in dresser drawers. Belk, Bells, Chappel's, Lord & Taylor, Sibley's. The sound a clock made on the hour, the half our, the quarter hour, even at night. So many sounds and smells and collections.

So, I am on a mission to find some of those tins. Especially a tall one like the one they had. Ebay has not been helpful so would you keep your eyes peeled for me when you find yourself antiquing? I'll even pay you back in big ones!

6 comments:

L said...

I think I know where to get them. They would be full of cookies though...

eyeheartorange said...

Thanks, L, but I think I want to keep looking vintage for a bit!

Courtney said...

I have some flea market plans in the weekends I might eventually have free...I will keep my eyes open for some! xo.

JuneBug said...

Oh my god I loved this post. I love nostalgia. My parents just brought me a box of my old treasures (mostly junk) that I had tried to sell at a garage sale when I was 10. Lili dove right in to the stuff and I was transported to my own childhood.

I will also keep an eye out at garage sales and such. There are a-plenty old folks in this neighborhood, so I might get lucky.

I know especially the red tin pictured, but will any vintage-y type can work?

And regarding coins - I love them. I just found a Bermuda pig penny in lili's collection and paid her a quarter to trade with me, and also found a 1942 winged liberty dime. I'm planning on making a necklace with them.

eyeheartorange said...

thanks, June and CJCL!! I really do just want this tin... It's the one in my head. I could probably go to a gourmet shop and buy one or order one from Dean and Deluca, but my heart is set on vintage :)

eyeheartorange said...

June, that necklace is a great idea! Love.