What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Memories. I have none.

Today we cleaned out the garage. I'm always out there rearranging and organizing and donating things I no longer want or need along the way. But the day starts to draw to a close and I have to quit my work. There is one corner that never gets touched. It's in the very, very back. I thought I knew what was there - my old toy box full of Bobbsey Twin books, my Garfield collection form the 1980's, my albums (yes, I know, I need to get rid of them. But, I have so many good ones!) and DH's high school football and track crap awards. But, under that I found a couple mystery boxes. Hmmmmm..what could be in there, I thought? OH, my heavens! It was Halloween decorations from my childhood, my apartment years and our early married years in our first little house. A good lot of it went straight to the donate pile. Cheap things, Dollar store things, stuffed animals, junk in general. But! I found some treasures! A Beistle honeycomb turkey and pumpkin, Halloween die cuts from the late 1960's, and a few more goodies. I was happy to get rid of 95% of it, just to find the good 5% that I had forgotten about!
I found this guy in a box too. How could I forget him? Don't tell anyone...I have absolutely no recollection of this guy ever. Where did it come from? Did he just appear?

And, it gets worse! There's two! I forgot two!

I did remember her after I saw her, but I had forgotten about her. I don't remember where I got her, though. I love her Mother of Pearl buttons and her jaunty spider.

Trick or Treat? C'mon, spin the wheel! You spin the wheel and it decides if you get a trick or a treat. The box under it holds the goodies. I have no idea where this came from either. Never seen it. Nope. Nada. Not me. I can only imagine it came from an after holiday sale and I packed it away and promptly forgot about it. Either that, or I have Old Timers.
Whenever I am out thrifting or saling, I am on the lookout for cupcake picks. I adore cupcake picks. I just love to look at them. I don't think I would ever use my vintage cupcake picks on actual cupcakes for fear they would be thrown away. (That would be another plastic fork fight.***) I've been searching everywhere hoping to find some Halloween Cupcake Picks. I've looked at the thrift stores, yard sales, anywhere I look for vintage goodies. One place I never dreamt to took was in my own garage.

Two orange cats and two orange witches.

Two skull and crossbones picks, a funny pumpkin ring and a trio of skeletons.
Eight black cats. (I know these are such awful photos. I didn't think to take them while the sun was still out).

One funny black cat head. I love this one most of all.

I remember buying thesepumpkin ring cupcake toppers when I was a child, packing them away and thinking, "I bet when I find these when I am in my 40's that I won't even remember them!" Okay, none of that is true. Except the whole "not remembering them" thing. I have no memories of these either. But, Mama likes!


***A few years ago, I hosted a Wedding Shower for The Bean's 4th grade teacher. I bought really nice heavy weight plastic forks at the Party Store for her shower. They were the loveliest Pepto-Bismol-ish Pink.

After the shower, I had a handful of the forks left, so I put them in the silverware drawer. One night we ate a piece of cake and used the pink plastic forks. The next day I was washing dishes and there were only two forks instead of three.

I asked The Bean what he did with his fork. He had put it in the sink with mine, he said.

I asked The Breadman what he did with his fork.

His response? He...he....he...he threw it away! "YOU THREW IT AWAY, YOU THREW IT AWAY????" The Bean and I shouted.

"It's disposable," he said.

"It's not disposable," I said.

"It's PINK!"

4 comments:

  1. Ha, I have a few boxes like that in the attic. Someday I will get to them...

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  2. OMG, I am laughing so hard at the fork story...what a hoot! I have boxes like that too...totally forgot I even saved things!

    Have a great week!

    Hugz,
    Michele

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would be so excited to find goodies like that in my garage, however that will not happen since we have moved so many times:) I love the last line!!

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  4. What great treasures! I love cupcake picks too. I have a bag of random ones I have saved off of various cupcakes.

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