Looking at Jars

When Sparky and I married, we bought our first home built in 1922. It had been owned by a HS shop teacher. When we took possession, the son had removed everything he wanted and left a boatload of other items. To our delight (well mostly Sparky’s), he left behind his father’s extensive collection of nuts, bolts, screws, nails, tacks, washers, brads, and assorted other items. All of them neatly sorted and stored in old glass jars. These treasures were located in the garage (lining all the walls and on every ledge) and in the basement where he had had his workshop. When we moved from that house to our current abode, Sparky dutifully packed up every one of those jars to bring to our new home. Over time we have consolidated jars to make room for more nails and screws. We have a ton of jars but instead of scattered around the garage or basement, they reside neatly in two large cabinets with drawers just the right size to accommodate the height of most of them. Those that are too tall are stored in a set of 4 school lockers positioned horizontally.

We had to tidy the garage. Sparky decided to organize his collection of jars. As he was sorting I noticed quite a few vintage jars. Jars that just might be worth a little money. He was not willing to part with them because there were no replacement containers. Still it was a little like a stroll down memory lane. I remember the French’s Mustard in the funny shaped glass pot. Mostly I remember the time my mother took the jar out of the refrigerator and it slipped out of her hand. The lid hadn’t been screwed on tightly and when it hit the floor mustard shot up and splatted on the relatively new kitchen carpet (a big deal in 1968). She was so worried that it would stain. It didn’t but the kitchen retained the stink of mustard for weeks! There were the Gerber Baby Food jars. I remember those as my great-grandmother lived on baby food in her later years – mostly the strained apricots and Blueberry Buckle. To this day I still remember those flavors but you can’t find them in the jars anymore – it is all very eco-unfriendly plastic squeeze pouches!

Among the other jars were lots of Welch’s jelly jars (no doubt grape), Maxwell House Instant Coffee (not my parents’ favorite but a quick alternative when they were in a hurry), and Vaseline jars that are so old that they have an actual screw on lid instead of the snap on kind. Some of the jars are foreign to me, like the Dromedary Fire Roasted Pimentos. And some are very familiar like the variety of pickle jars that after nearly 100 years still smell like pickles! Are there any jars that bring back memories for you?

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