Remember The Tape On The Bottom Of The Casserole Dish?

Do you Remember The Tape On The Bottom Of The Casserole Dish? Ok a short explanation needed here. I have been working on decluttering…not just my closets but kitchen ‘extras’ too. Anyway, deep in my dish pantry, I re-discovered a stack of casserole dishes and as I placed them on my counter to determine which I should get rid of and which I should keep, I found tape on the bottom of a couple of the dishes. One was on the bottom of a sheet pan and one on the bottom of a casserole dish. Obviously, I had not used these particular dishes in a long time. I had to smile in remembrance of why the tape was there.

I know many of you remember and perhaps still mark your dish’s bottom when preparing for a potluck. I am also sure you remember why we put our names on the bottoms of our potluck dish. Number one, we wanted our favorite dish back and as the assigned dishwashers washed the empty dish, they would set it on a special table to be picked up at the earliest convenience…. if you were at the church or at a family picnic. If you took your special chocolate sheet cake to the home of a bereaved family or a ‘just home from the hospital friend’, the tape determined which among the many other casserole dishes needed to not only be returned, but who to send a written thank you note to.

I asked myself why I had not been grabbing the tape and magic marker lately, … because I certainly have been taking dishes to potlucks at church and to friends’ homes. It was then I realized I had started using disposable pans. No tape! No Name! Just an aluminum pan to either toss or stick in the fridge for later use by the host or church.

I picked up my cup of tea and sat at my table with the metal sheet pan in my hand. As I turned the metal sheet pan over and gently rubbed my fingers over the weathered tape, I realized, sadly that yet another long time habit has slowly drifted away. And as families branched out and moved farther away, many of the family reunions at the park faded away too. I guess this is what we do as we get older…reminisce about the ‘good ole’ days. I wouldn’t necessarily call it good ole days especially when I hung clothes on an outdoor clothes line. It was quite a chore, but my mother and grandmother said I should hang cloth diapers, sheets and such on the clothesline because the sun gave such a fresh smell to those laundry items. However, with my second child, I had the luxury of pampers….(which my mother and grandmother didn’t really approve of). And now that I think about it, I never owned another clothesline after our first home.

Speaking of clothes lines…the days of wooden clothes pins are long gone too! Growing up I helped Mother do laundry every Monday like clockwork. I remember the 2X4 with the bent over nail on the end that we used to prop up the clothesline where it sagged in the middle… so our bed sheets would not touch the ground. Mother used an old Maytag washing machine with two rinse tubs sitting side by side. Anyone remember these?

Mother bought a newer washing machine much like we use today when I was about 8 years old. She was so happy to have it hooked directly to the home’s waterline, because that meant she didn’t have to fill the washer and rinse tubs using short pieces of garden hoses attached to the hot and cold water taps. However it was several more years before she was able to buy a clothes dryer.

Another ‘gone by the wayside item’ was the wall telephone. Remember those? When I married, my wall phone was yellow and hung in the kitchen. I remember I had to order an extra long cord so I could clean the kitchen with the phone receiver resting between my shoulder and chin while I worked around the kitchen hands free. I considered myself lucky to also have an extension ‘princess’ phone in a baby blue color in the bedroom.

The yellow wall phone reminds me of the yellow dinette set I had when I first married. I guess you can tell I liked the color yellow.

How about this? Do you know there was a time when TV programs ended at midnight and did not come back on until the following morning? When the TV went off the air, the following TV test pattern came on with a loud continuous whine and you knew it was time to turn the television off.

I have to share this Dr. Pepper Clock. ‘Only daughter’ drinks Dr, Pepper….when she gets up in the morning, she fixes herself a Dr. Pepper. One day I sang the little jingle about drinking Dr. Pepper at 10, 2, and 4 each day. She looked at me with ‘that look’ that only a daughter can give to her mother. When I explained that I was singing from an ad about her soda of choice, she just frowned. So I am showing on this post, a Dr. Pepper clock that recently showed up at a garage sale. Please note the 10, 2, and 4 hours are plainly marked.

I also remember when I did not have to pump gas…actually, I still don’t pump gas because the Captain always does it for me. But way before that, my uncle owned a full service Standard Oil filling station, and he always pumped my gas, checked the oil and washed the windshield and he and his employees did it for everyone. You never had to get out of your car, in fact it was discouraged. I miss those days.