This mini Timothy Eaton statue is surely worth big dollars to collectors.
I am not a hoarder. I just have a few old things around is all.
OK maybe more than a few. But my house does not look like those extreme hoarding disasters you see on TV.
Not even close. But I do have a few treasures tucked here and there. I’ll show you a couple of them today.
This first pairing are for kitchen use I believe. No doubt they could be used for other applications as well, but when I Googled antique kitchen tools, I discovered they are called “food mills.” A friend of mine visiting lately told me they are used for making apple sauce.
She said you boil the apples, then put them in the mill, grind them with the wooden hand held device, which mashes them and forces the sauce through the holes to a container below. Says they work excellent for that.
My Google snoop informed me they’re excellent for making anything you want to turn to mush, including potatoes, various sauces, and I imagine they’d even be effective as a juicer.
I don’t remember my Mom ever using one of these, probably because by the time I came along apple sauce and other such mashed goodies were available in cans.
I have no idea what to do with them now, except to let them sit on a shelf and tell people, “they used to make apple sauce with those.”
Response: “Oh.” Then move along.
If any of you have any creative suggestions what these could be used for now, please contact me via my e-mail below. I’d be thrilled to find some practical present day use for them. Til’ then, I’ll just keep hoarding them.
The second curio I want to show you today is this mini statue of Timothy Eaton I have. It’s really an excellent replica of the original from the dear old Eaton’s Department Store, was preserved during the store demo’ and currently sits on display in the Canada Life Centre.
Mine sits atop one of the many pianos I have here. It’s the only mini-statue of Timothy I’ve seen, and I’m wondering if anyone out there can tell me who made them and when, also wondering who else out there has one? Would appreciate hearing from you if you do. How many were made? Are they rare? Would love to know.
The apple sauce maker above reminded of many kitchen ”utensils” we no longer use today, one of them being a wood burning cook stove. Yes, that’s what we had in our kitchen when I was a kid growing up in Killarney. My mischievous brother Bob, who was 10 years older than me, once took all the shot out of a shotgun shell and when Grandma Lyle, who lived with us, was cooking dinner and turned her back for a minute, Bob snuck it into the wood stove then stepped back to watch the action.
Shortly thereafter, Grandma was at the stove when there was a big bang and the lids flew up in the air a bit. No one was hurt, and I imagine Bob had “absolutely no idea how that happened.” In our house in those days everyone would get a chuckle out of it and carry on. Probably not so these days. Yes, I have a cookstove (working) out in my caboose.
A rather infamous household appliance from back then I don’t have is a wringer washer. Remember those? My sister Bonnie sure does. One day when still a little girl she somehow got her fingers wedged in the ringer which then ate her whole arm. Flattened it a bit for a time, but luckily there was no serious or lasting damage done and soon it was back to normal.
You have to work much harder to injure yourself around the house these days. What fun is that? Happy weekend!
Comments and column ideas welcome at lmustard1948@gmail.com
