Nostalgia.
Jul. 16th, 2014 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckWe are still in the stages of emptying out a big semi-detached house in SmallTown - the in-laws were not quite hoarders, but certainly packrats. You hold onto stuff in case of "bad times". More often than not, this kind of thinking has come down from their parents and grandparents who certainly knew 'bad times' in the shape of the first half of the 20th century.
We threw away several boxes full of cheaply-made glasses - small ones, tall ones and ones that look like beer steins. They were kept because you never know when you might need them. One day they might stop manufacturing drinking glasses and then you'd have to drink from your bare hands.
So, how did these boxes full of glasses amass? They weren't bought - the in-laws were too rational to buy that many glasses that they didn't need. No, these glasses came free with the mustard they bought.
I'm not sure which countries do this, so I'm not sure whether I'm telling you anything new: In Germany (and in other European countries like France, my googling has found) mustard is often sold in glasses that you can re-use as drinking glasses once you've eaten all the yummy mustard. Especially families with children quite like this service, because these are sturdy glasses and it is not a big loss if one gets dropped and breaks. I always liked the recognition when I was at someone's place and my orange juice or water came in a glass that once had contained mustard. This was a family that didn't care about fancy. Added bonus - there are also ones with the kids' favourite cartoon heroes. Currently, our cupboard has glasses with Sendung mit der Maus, Shaun das Schaf and various Disney franchises (Mickey Mouse and -ugh!- Planes).
We also found some vintage ones from K's childhood - they had survived because his grandma had kept them and when she died two years ago, his mother took them with her.
Those we didn't recycle:
Here is glass 6 from a Alice im Wunderland set from 1984:
This is a well-known classic:
The German writing is a dead-giveaway but the back also shows this was clearly made for the European market:
The drawing is pretty bad, too.
These two are my favourites:
So, mustard glasses - staple from your childhood, too? When I see them, I can taste the sparkling German lemonade that we drank from them.
Excuse the picture quality, they're quick shots with my mobile
We threw away several boxes full of cheaply-made glasses - small ones, tall ones and ones that look like beer steins. They were kept because you never know when you might need them. One day they might stop manufacturing drinking glasses and then you'd have to drink from your bare hands.
So, how did these boxes full of glasses amass? They weren't bought - the in-laws were too rational to buy that many glasses that they didn't need. No, these glasses came free with the mustard they bought.
I'm not sure which countries do this, so I'm not sure whether I'm telling you anything new: In Germany (and in other European countries like France, my googling has found) mustard is often sold in glasses that you can re-use as drinking glasses once you've eaten all the yummy mustard. Especially families with children quite like this service, because these are sturdy glasses and it is not a big loss if one gets dropped and breaks. I always liked the recognition when I was at someone's place and my orange juice or water came in a glass that once had contained mustard. This was a family that didn't care about fancy. Added bonus - there are also ones with the kids' favourite cartoon heroes. Currently, our cupboard has glasses with Sendung mit der Maus, Shaun das Schaf and various Disney franchises (Mickey Mouse and -ugh!- Planes).
We also found some vintage ones from K's childhood - they had survived because his grandma had kept them and when she died two years ago, his mother took them with her.
Those we didn't recycle:
Here is glass 6 from a Alice im Wunderland set from 1984:
This is a well-known classic:
The German writing is a dead-giveaway but the back also shows this was clearly made for the European market:
The drawing is pretty bad, too.
These two are my favourites:
So, mustard glasses - staple from your childhood, too? When I see them, I can taste the sparkling German lemonade that we drank from them.
Excuse the picture quality, they're quick shots with my mobile
no subject
Date: 2014-07-17 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-17 05:33 pm (UTC)From my six months as an exchange student in NZ in 1991 I don't even remember Nutella, but that's probably because I got addicted to chunky peanut butter. I seem to recall promotional offers where you had to collect tokens and then got glasses at the garage.
I like the Simpsons glasses.
(And it is quite possible that some of the glasses might have contained Nutella instead of mustard.)