When I was growing up my grandmother (my dad’s mom) had a set of brightly colored aluminum drinking glasses. They were in her china cabinet in her dining room and I would ogle them from the dining room table as we had our family dinners. Anytime my ma-ma used the glasses I would make sure I got the purple one. (The purple one isn’t pictured above, but trust me, it’s fabulous!)
Ma-ma had a house full of fun, antique-y things, but those glasses were what I coveted.
When both of my grandparents were gone and their house was being cleaned out, a lot of things were sold or given away. Those glasses included. I would have loved to have had them, but moved on with a “they’re just things, you still have the memories” kind of inner monologue.
And then last weekend Ricky and I went to the Randolph Street Market Festival here in Chicago. It’s a fantastic event with table after table of antique vendors.
And there, at one of the tables, was a full set of those glasses (twelve) and a lemonade pitcher in amazing condition. I immediately started stroking them and telling Ricky about ma-ma’s house (sadly she was gone before I met him) and he said we should buy them.
I waffled a little (shockingly, I sometimes have a hard time buying stuff for myself. Who’d have thought it?), but he persisted and I gave in. Just as he handed his credit card to the vendor another couple walked up and started touching my glasses and pitcher. (Notice how quickly I become possessive!) Thank God I decided to get them when I did, because this other couple wanted them too. Whew.
So I now have my own set of glasses in every color as well as a beautiful green lemonade pitcher. They may not have belonged to ma-ma, but the memories certainly do.
Part 1 | Part 2
