An imaginary label

It’s sometimes as if ordinary everyday items have a label attached to them – I can almost see it, one of the cardboard labels with a whole punched in one side, reinforcing ring stuck round it, and an ordinary piece of string, doubled and looped through to be tied onto whatever. It’s as if there’s a handwritten note on the label, in neat printing, not in my cacographic handwriting (that means poor handwriting, I’m not sure how I came across it but it’s a useful word for someone like me!)

This morning I was getting a teaspoon out of the cutlery drawer and the one I picked out had a red, semi-precious or not precious at all stone attached to the end. It was no doubt made by some crafts-person and it was given to me many years ago by my cousin whose friend had a craft stall and then a shop selling interesting items. I always think of my cousin when I use it, we always have such fun together, I remember once persuading her to buy a beautifully pair of boots which really suited her and she loved. She is so generous with things for others, and I told her she deserved to treat herself.  It ought to have a label attached, explaining that.

Another spoon which needs a label is a very old teaspoon, a cheap metal kitchenware, with shoulders, a tapered stem, and a rectangular handle. It is small and discoloured and not even worth donating to a charity shop if I wanted to get rid of it (which I don’t) It must have belonged to a set we had at home when I was a child, it may even have belonged to my grandparents, but its the only one left. The noticeable thing about it is that the handle has a small s-shaped kink in it, so that the bowl is at a different angle from what you would expect. It’s not an accidental bend, it was made deliberately by my dad so he could better eat his boiled eggs. Is that eccentric? No, obviously not, typical of my dad to adapt something for perfect use.

In the second drawer down there are tools and things such as bottle openers, tin openers, garlic crushers, random useful items and a cutlery tray with old knives, forks and spoons. The knives have bone handles, the spoons have a proper bowl, not the shallow modern style, and the fork tines are bowed not almost flat as now seems the fashion. There is a set of knives and forks with brown wooden handle, they are the steak knives with serrated edges and matching forks. They weren’t bought by my parents, there was an offer on whatever cereal packets they had, cornflakes or rice crispies I guess; they collected tokens and could send off for a steak knife and fork. They must have eaten sufficient cereal to collect enough of the cutlery to make a set. They were used throughout my childhood for things like pork or lamb chops, and the very occasional steak. They are still in excellent condition, none of the wooden handles have split or broken away, the blades are still sharp, and we still use them. I no longer have them but there was another freebie from breakfast cereals, red plastic guardsmen who played different instruments, trombones, trumpets, and drums.

Here is more about them: https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/tag/1960s-plastic-soldiers/

There are more things which have an imaginary label attached to them in the kitchen drawers. I’ve written about some of them before, the upright grater, the rotary food grater, my mother-in-law’s potato ricer, all part of the family history.