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Have you ever been excited about dishes?
I’ve always had a thing for Corelle, a certain kind of lightweight, durable, utilitarian sort of dinnerware. They’re still produced and still quite inexpensive, but it’s not modern Corelle that tickles my fancy. It’s vintage Corelle. I don’t even like all the patterns, but when I stumble across plates, bowls or any other pieces in a thrift shop, they tend to come home with me. I like some patterns better than others, but never spotted the early 70’s navy-and-white pattern from my childhood.
Recently, my dad came to visit me, and he brought with him the Corelle—the navy and white set. Even though Dad retired the dishes 30 years ago…let’s just say he’s a bit of a pack rat…he was still holding on to them. To say I’m utterly delighted to have my childhood dishes is an understatement. And serving bowls. And platters. And these oddly shaped coffee cups that stack so beautifully.
We talked a lot about what we feel attached to and what we could let go of. He has an old bedroom set he worked very hard to buy. The only way he could let it go was if I wanted it, which I really didn’t, because it was too big and chunky for me. I’m attached to a particular TV I won on a game show. Even though it’s smallish and kind of thick by today’s standards, it reminds me of a whirlwind trip to NYC I took with my friends where we all came home with new TVs. (The show was My Kind of Town. It only ran for half a season.)
It’s not the objects themselves we’re bonded to, but the memories that come with them and the emotions they stir up. The Corelle reminds me of my dad teaching me to cook, even if that basically entailed opening a can and dumping the contents into a saucepan. It was the initial fledgling step toward independence, and that’s a quality I cherish most of all.
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