Every family has their own quirks. Mine is no exception.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband John came into my office and declared that it was time for us to buy new cereal bowls. He’s been using the same ones for probably 10 years now. Apparently, a grown man is perfectly fine with his children’s leftover Fruit Loops Toucan Sam or Shrek bowls.
I sat back and scrunched my brow.
“You know … we do have lots of other bowls in various sizes with our regular dishes in the cupboard,” I replied.
“Yeah, but they don’t have the right depth for cereal,” John said.
I opened my mouth to argue further but then remembered something. This was the same man who used a small, beat-up ceramic saucepan for his cereal for over three decades before it finally – literally – fell apart one day. John has been using our sons’ cereal bowls ever since.
And another memory flashed in my mind. When I was a kid, my mother served our cereal in the same bowls for years. These were the 1970s Tupperware bowls in orange, blue, yellow, and pink. I couldn’t eat cereal in any other bowl. True to what my husband said, they had the perfect depth for those sugary Kellogg concoctions.
Don’t be surprised to find cereal bowls like these in our columnist’s cupboards. (Photos provided by Amy Shankland)
In fact, I continued to use them throughout my teen years and took them with me when I moved out and married my first husband at age 22. After my divorce and remarriage to John years later, the Tupperware bowls followed us to Noblesville.
I continued to use these bowls for my own cereal when my boys were little. At that point, they were probably over 30 years old. I think they slowly died painful deaths thanks to being put in the wrong dishwasher rack one too many times.
What is it about objects like this that make us cling to them as adults? Maybe they’re reminders of simpler times from our youth. I know just seeing the photos of the Tupperware bowls on the internet once again and attaching them for today’s column made me squeal with joy.
Perhaps things like this remind us of our parents and childhood. I think they give us the “warm fuzzies” that we probably need to cling to so we can survive in this nutty world.
Back to my story … after thinking about these memories, I didn’t argue any further with John. For our next date night, I think we’ll mosey on over to our favorite thrift stores to see what vintage bowls speak to us.
Perhaps we’ll find other ones with just the right amount of depth featuring cartoon characters … in orange, blue, yellow, or pink … all guaranteed to bring out the inner child and joy within us.
Amy Shankland is a writer and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John, two sons, two dogs, and a cat. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.