We had a glass fronted cabinet that held the special dishes. I can’t remember if they had a pattern. I do think that there was a faux “gold” ring around the edge of each dish. My mother would caution us to wash them gently, lest we rub the gold ring off. They certainly weren’t Limoges or Wedgwood or Spode. Most likely they were from Sears or Monkey Wards (that is what my brother called Montgomery Wards). One thing that set them apart was the variety of plates and serving pieces. There were luncheon plates, dessert plates, dinner plates, big platters and medium sized bowls and cups and saucers. All were neatly arranged along with what appeared to be silver salt and pepper shakers in the appropriately named China cabinet, a display of “special”. The cabinet and its contents proved to be a telling contrast to the chairs in the living room that my dad made out of the wood from packing crates.
We only used the good dishes on Thanksgiving and that was when we lived in Brooklyn and were surrounded by family. Even though our row house was narrow, it was still able to accommodate the Smithwicks and Toms families on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving and the dishes on which it was served were an integral part of the rituals of our family. When we moved north, out of the city, we still celebrated Thanksgiving but without the good dishes. The China Cabinet and the dishes were stored somewhere because there wasn’t enough room in that little house on Ogden Road for them.
Then our extended family was represented by my Aunt Lucy who lived in Athens, New York, a bit closer to Carmel than Brooklyn. But again, this new house was small. You could get 8 people around the table if four of them, once seated, couldn’t move and didn’t mind the intimacy of your neighbor’s elbows. There we used the faux Blue Willow dishes, our everyday dishes that were given away at the local Grand Union. I don’t think we ever had enough glasses that matched unless you counted the juice glasses that once held pimento cheese spread. The “flatware, your basic knives, dinner forks and spoons were premiums that my mother and grandmother earned by collecting coupons from General Mills products.
I don’t remember ever having a centerpiece on our tables. The center of the table was for the food and the condiments. Centerpieces came later after I had gone to college and met people who actually worried about how to correctly set a table correctly and decorate it artistically. In addition to all of my college courses in history and anthropology, I was also studying which dishes and silverware went where on a correctly set dinner table.
So, today I pondered the excess of dishes and flatware that we have in our house. Let’s start with our China cabinet. I have a set of depression glass luncheon plates right next to a set of clear glass luncheon plates. They sit on the shelf above the full service for 8 of Syracuse China, a gift to my husband from a colleague who had inherited the dishes from his mother-in-law. Across the dining room, the Hoosier holds 8 Syracuse white China restaurant plates and 8 Syracuse China restaurant cups and saucers purchased eons ago from the Syracuse China seconds store that used to be on Court Street in Syracuse.
And I am not counting the 20 fine China cups and saucers or the two demitasse sets that also reside in the Hoosier. When was the last time that I served anything in demitasse cups?
Finally we come to the dishes that we actually use, service for 8 including dinner and luncheon plates, soup bowls and mugs, bought from Grants … remember Grants? They are white with a blue border and more important, they are dishwasher safe unlike the Syracuse China, the depression glass and the 12 exquisite Limoges dessert dishes that reside next to the cups and saucers in the Hoosier.
Yesterday I had to resort to paper plates for lunch because our regular luncheon sized dishes were in the dishwasher. Were there other similarly sized plates available? Sure, but using them would seem oddly strange. I do believe that they had acquired the status of the “good” dishes.
What would an anthropologist say about the burden of crockery, glassware and flatware that my family culture has created? I suspect there would be a lot to say about things like displaying wealth, conspicuous if not consumption, at least conspicuous display.
The tragic end of our Brooklyn “good dishes” can shed some light on this. When my mom and sister moved to St. Pete, the good dishes were released from wherever they were stored and displayed in another China cabinet in their home. After both passed on , we hired someone to sort through and sell what was left of their belongings. Items were identified with colored stickers. Yellow meant “junk”. The China cabinet and its contents displayed three yellow stickers.
As ever, value has its context.
