Odd treasures & remarkable gadgetry

I'll start this post with the "remarkable gadgetry" section of the title.  

We moved into this house and found these toilet paper holders.  

 

These qualify as remarkable because you simply slide the toilet paper roll onto the rod.  No need to dislodge a spring loaded, annoying toilet paper holder rod, reload a new roll, and then struggle to push that spring loaded bar back over before the new roll flies off.  Quick, easy, and eliminates the need for ugly loud verbiage leaving your lips.  Possibly in the middle of the night when you're trying to just sleep through a trip to the bathroom.  

One could also say this gadget could be remarkable in eliminating the need for undue stress in relationships.   Even preventing marriage counseling, divorce court, possibly justifiable homicide.  See the pictures below:

 Everyone has their opinion on how the 
toilet paper should be placed on the rod, but here's mine.  And it's the right opinion.  😀  I'm not going to describe why I'm right because to me it seems obvious.  

How does this gadget save marriages?  Because before you have time to mumble "who put the toilet paper on wrong" under your breath you can just whip that roll off the rod and quickly turn it around.  You can even sleep through the whole process.  I can testify.  Bottom line:  It no longer matters how the toilet paper is placed on its holder!! Remarkable!!!

And now for the odd treasures section of this post:

At first glance this just seems like a random collection of insignificance.  Not so in B's simple world.  These are treasures handed down from my mother's kitchen to me after her death in 1993.  The plates are her last purchase from one of the dinnerware sales that Boogaarts had back in the day.  You know, you spent X amount of dollars on groceries and got a plate real cheap?  I love this plate pattern but she only was able to buy a couple plates before her health failed and she passed away.   I've found selections of this particular pattern of dinnerware (see the picture of the back of the plate for details)  on EBAY and someday I may choose to part with the coins required to purchase the rest of the set.  In the meantime, on special meals for me and my beloved I pull these two plates out.         The knives and fork were part of the free gifts you would get at the Citizen's National Bank when you deposited money in savings.  Clearly Mom didn't have a lot of money to deposit as these are the only gifts she received.  But these are awesome knives!  She probably got them back in the 1970's and they are still sharp and quite useful.  You can't underestimate the value of a good knife.  My favorite  one of my favorite sons-in-law and I were just discussing this fact when we were preparing the Christmas meal last week.  Yes, WE!!  He's an awesome cook!!

Next I give you this quirky treasure:

 The coolest, most useful pie spatula ever.  Note the subtle serrated edge for slicing the pie, and the sharp pokey-deals that are good for, well, mainly stabbing your fingers when you try to remove it from the dishwasher rack.  

But my favorite part of this treasure is the words engraved on the spatula:  FARMERS ELEVATOR CO.  Niles, Kansas.  Is there still an elevator in Niles, Kansas?  If there is, it's probably the last remaining business in that small stop in the road.  Back in the first decade or so of my parents' married life they resided just a couple miles down the road from Niles and bought groceries there.  Niles probably never qualified as a booming town of any sort, but it's sure enough just a stop in the road now.  Many folks belonging to my family heritage are buried in the cemetery there.  

Yesterday we spent the day with our youngest daughter and my favorite son in law one of my favorite sons-in-law.  Playing games.  And to  my sheer delight we used this, the most precious of my collection of quirky treasures:

My dad's old set of dominoes.  Circa 1960 or so.  Check out the red duct tape that holds the original packaging together and has held up for decades.  And we use a rubber band to close it as the original snap is history.   I can't even begin to tell you all the wonderful memories this set of dominoes generates.  So many hands have touched these dominoes.  If these dominoes could talk, they'd tell you about a lot of laughs and fun times.  And I might add, a lot of "you played that wrong" from my Dad. 

Before the days of more than 3 fuzzy-pictured TV stations to watch, we spent a lot, let me emphasize A LOT OF TIME playing dominoes.  It's a 4-person game and often I was the 5th person so the other 4 were subjected to listening to me play piano while they played.  

Or while they'd play dominoes, I'd lose myself in something like this:

This was my Mom's favorite way to pass time. ONLY Dell brand crosswords, no substitutes.   And let me tell you, that woman was flat out a word wizard.  Sure there were pages of solutions to the puzzle in the back of the book.  Believe me when I tell  you:  SHE DIDN'T NEED THEM!!!  The last time I walked into my Mom's house to visit her before she passed away, she was sitting as usual in her recliner doing a crossword puzzle.  She looked up from her puzzle book and her smiling face lit up at the sight of me coming through her door.   "Well Hi there Bunny it's so good to see  you".  That is a picture in my mind that I don't want to ever lose.  Wow, I miss her.  Little teary even right now as I write these words.  

Life's simple pleasures, handed down from my mom and dad.  Odd treasures. From quirky folks.  And I might add the remarkable gadgetry of the above toilet paper holder could have possibly eliminated an argument or two in my childhood home.   For the life of me I can't recall which way they wanted the toilet paper hung.  But the fact remains....my opinion on the subject is correct.  Period.  👍