A Generous Day

The generous person in the above mentioned day, is my friend Jill, the mistress of the Cathedral Kitchen.  A few years ago, she gave me several wonderful artifacts from her ancient auntie’s archives.  You can read about them here.  Last week, she gave me another amazing treasure, again handed down from her auntie.  It’s a delightful little appliance clock, which probably came as part of a stove.  It looks like a miniature icebox, and actually is quite heavy, given its size.  We speculate that it came off of a stove, as on its underneath side, there is a slot to plug it into something else. 

Long ago, Jill also gave me this fabulous Borden’s Malted Milk jar.  Does anyone drink malted mild anymore?  Not that I know of. I drink Ovaltine, which is similar, but not quite the same, and its jar is way less pretty.  Also among the Jill gifts was this little doll, which I keep on a cupboard shelf in my kitchen by the Quaker Oats tins.  It makes me happy every time I get some tea out of my tea cupboard, or prepare myself some oatmeal. Just now, I am reading The Mighty Miss Malone by the hyper-wonderful Christopher Paul Curtis.    The heroine is Deza - an African American school girl living in the 1930's, and whose family is struggling to survive during the Depression.  At one point, she is looking at the man on the Quaker Oats box, and speculating as to what he is smiling about.  This doll is of a sort that Deza might have had herself.

Note the bite marks on the oatmeal can.  Those are from my little dog Leslie, as he tried to open the container with his teeth.  He succeeded, I might add, and made a terrible mess.