Day 4 of 6 Day Visit to Dad - The Old Pot

Searching the lower cupboards for a pot in which to make split pea soup, I came up with this relic; this was THE pot for the family ever since I was a baby. It is an older vintage aluminum Revere Ware, likely from 1945 when my parents married. Mom let my brother and me use it when we engaged in our first business venture, selling lemonade to neighbors when we lived in Phoenix. I am sure it bathed babies, as well as made soup. The thriftiness of my parent?s generation, particularly that of my mother is astounding, especially in contrast to the stacks of stuff my Dad now has.

My mother?s dad started an apple orchard near Wenatchee, WA, around the time the Grand Coulee dam was created, about 1908. We have a photo of grandfather planting these twigs in what looks like desert; it is hard to imagine such optimism for fruit trees to grow and make a living for a family of five,. His Boston transplanted wife was not happy in this vacant land; the small town of Tonasket that must have seemed no more than a boring outpost to her.

Story goes she left with the kids for Boston and did not return until he built them a proper house. I have seen the house, it has been a bed and breakfast and last a nursing home. It was the largest in the small town of Tonasket. The depression and price of apples had grandfather lose the orchard to a business partner; my mother learned the lessons of the depression in a very deep way. This old pot was a mainstay of her mother/wife role and her deeply bred thriftiness.