As we get further and further entrenched in the world of being grown-ups, I find that it becomes increasingly difficult to remember and experience the feelings we had in childhood. It’s definitely the little things we take for granted. Like going into a fancy store, for instance. I can walk into most anywhere, browsing and picking up items that I might want to purchase. How many times as a kid were you told “not to handle anything” in a nice store? Or maybe with you in tow, your parents skipped the store altogether.
What about your grandmother’s china cabinet? How tempting it was to see such wonderful, magical things inside and be told “look, but don’t touch.” Thankfully, my granny had a few little doo-dads that I was allowed to take out of her china cabinet and play with…or else looking and not touching would have gotten old really fast. None of these items was anything expensive, but being given this opportunity made me feel like I was entrusted with something very important. My special privileges included a menagerie of small ceramic animals, most probably dime store finds. There was a pair of pigs, a momma duck pushing her baby in a carriage while holding a parasol, and the spaghetti poodles.
Spaghetti ware is a type of ceramic popular in the 1950s and 60s that got its name from the way that the texture looked like spaghetti. Poodles became a popular incarnation of spaghetti ware and there are now many collectors of these cheeky little pooches. I saw some recently in a shop and was instantly transported back to being small, acting out little dramas with my granny’s china cabinet pets.
Did you have a granny like mine who gave you special clearance to the china cabinet? What delightful things did your child-self pine for and long to make your own?
