The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, March 06, 2021, WEEKEND EDITION, Page 11, Image 11

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    B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2021
Midcentury cookware is marvelous again
By TRACEE M.
HERBAUGH
Associated Press
If you want to freshen up
your kitchen, look no further
than grandma’s old casserole
dishes.
Vintage kitchenware is
back in style — pieces from
the mid-20th century painted
with fl owers, bright colors
and specifi c functions, such
as bracketed chip and dip
bowls or four-piece refriger-
ator storage sets.
“I’ve always been an old
soul and loved anything old,”
said Megan Telfer, a collec-
tor of vintage dishes, salt
and pepper shakers, cookie
jars and “a little bit of every-
thing.” The 26-year-old
parole offi cer from the Dallas
area said this hobby started
with family.
Her grandmother gave
her mother a green and white
Pyrex “Spring Blossom”
mixing bowl. “That’s when
my interest was piqued,”
Telfer said.
Three years later, she
has more than 300 pieces
of vintage Pyrex, displayed
on three large bookcases.
Her 5-year-old daughter has
some vintage Pyrex, too.
“We don’t use 90% of it,”
Telfer said. “I display it.”
Some collectors buy vin-
tage dishware to try to resell
it at a profi t, while others are
in it for nostalgia.
“It reminds them of
their mothers, aunts, grand-
mothers,” said Hope Chudy,
owner of Downstairs at
Felton Antiques in Waltham,
Massachusetts.
A year of lockdowns
Tracee Herbaugh
Some of the vintage kitchenware available at a Waltham,
Massachusetts antique shop.
because of the coronavi-
rus pandemic has led to a
surge in home cooking and
time spent hanging out in the
kitchen. Vintage cookware
fi ts right into that homey,
old-fashioned vibe.
There are lustrous chili
bowls with handles and cas-
serole dishes set on top of
brass candle warmers. These
are durable dishes, often
smaller than modern serv-
ing pieces, that can go from
freezer to oven to table. But
collectors usually acquire
them for enjoyment, not
utility.
“It really sets your kitchen
apart from others,” said
Victoria Aude, an interior
designer in Canton, Massa-
chusetts. “It’s not an item you
can just buy off the shelf at
Bloomingdale’s.”
The old dishes are also
nice accents when decorating
a room, said Atlanta-based
interior designer Beth Halp-
ern Brown. “They can add
that quick pop of color,” she
said. “You can decorate a
wall with them, or put one
on display and change the
space.”
Corning fi rst released a
Pyrex dish in 1915. By the
1930s, Anchor Hocking
Glass Corp. released its com-
petitor brand Fire-King. But
it’s the kitchenware made
between 1950 and 1980 that
seem to be most popular right
now.
Unable to use computers
Dear Annie: I am 74 years old. Back in neglecting his Type 1 diabetes for the past 10
my 40s, I tried learning an up-and-coming years. My heart breaks for him. His health
new skill: how to use a computer. Well, my keeps declining. He will have to start dialy-
attempts were fruitless. I could never fi gure it sis soon. He’s lived with me for most of his
out. My wife tried teaching me, but I
adult life.
just couldn’t get the hang of it. Later,
My problem is that he is extremely
DEAR
my boss appointed a staff member (a
verbally abusive. This has been going
ANNIE
computer “geek”) to give me lessons.
on for about fi ve years and seems to
After weeks of trying with daily one-
be getting worse. He throws tantrums,
on-one instruction, he gave up trying
sometimes so intense that he ends up
to teach me. For me, it was nothing
damaging things in the house.
but frustration.
I’m tired of dealing with this, and I
I seem to be an otherwise intelli-
fear it will just keep getting worse. He
gent person. Fifty-three years ago, I
can’t afford to live on his own with
even graduated college with honors. I ANNIE LANE just $800 monthly disability checks. I
Creators
did well with networking and keeping
just can’t deal with this anymore, but
Syndicate Inc.
up with the latest news, until comput-
I can’t afford to pay rent at a whole
ers became ubiquitous.
separate apartment for him.
I know dyslexia is a recognized learning
Is it wrong for me to professionally con-
disability that affects otherwise intelligent vert my two-car garage to an apartment for
people who can’t learn to read. Do I have him and make him live there? — Worn-Down
something like that — something that is a rec- Mom
ognized learning disability? Am I the only
Dear Worn-Down: If you’re asking
one in the world with this problem? — In a whether it’s selfi sh of you to convert your
Quagmire
garage into an apartment for your son —
Dear Quagmire: I have a feeling there are no, absolutely not. But it might be “wrong”
other people out there who have dealt with for different reasons, in that it doesn’t go far
this problem, and I hope to hear from some enough in creating space between you two.
of them. In the meantime, if this is causing
You need to set healthy boundaries with
you distress, ask your doctor to refer you to your son, for both of your sakes. It’s com-
a specialist who can screen for cognitive pletely unacceptable for him to treat you so
disabilities.
poorly. Also, it’s not healthy for him to be in
For what it’s worth, far too many of us an environment where he can avoid the con-
are overly dependent on our computers and sequences of his actions. As psychologist
smartphones. I don’t mean to trivialize what Noelle Nelson put it: “Enabling is helping a
you’ve gone through; I understand that it’s person in a way that feeds the dysfunction.
been enormously frustrating. But you’ve Helping is being there for someone in a way
likely been more present for life than many that does not support the dysfunction.” I rec-
of us.
ommend reading Melody Beattie’s “Codepen-
Dear Annie: I am a 57-year-old divorced dent No More” and attending some meetings
woman. I have a 31-year-old son who is deal- of a support group such as Families Anony-
ing with serious health consequences from mous before deciding on your next move.
Jo Adinolfi , a 62-year-old
nurse from Shelton, Con-
necticut, collects Pyrex mix-
ing bowls and stackable
refrigerator sets, what collec-
tors affectionately call “frid-
gies.” She started collecting
and selling about 10 years
ago and owns more than
2,000 pieces.
The
mid-20th-cen-
tury glass bowls and casse-
role dishes from brands like
Fire-King and Pyrex hav-
en’t changed, but their prices
have.
“The more people that col-
lect, the higher the demand
is, the more people are trying
to source the right goods to
be able to feed that request,”
said Stan Savellis, 42, of
Sydney, Australia, who has
collected vintage kitchen-
ware since his teenage years
and runs the online store That
Retro Piece.
Television and social
media have also generated
interest. Series like “Wan-
daVision,” “Firefl y Lane,”
“The Marvelous Mrs. Mai-
sel” and “Mad Men” all high-
light midcentury kitchens
and kitchenware.
And then there’s social
media too, said Vicki
Matranga, the design pro-
grams coordinator for the
International
Housewares
Association and author of
the book “America at Home:
A Celebration of Twenti-
eth-Century Housewares.”
“With everyone at home
now, you can look at collec-
tions on Facebook or Insta-
gram,” she said.
In pre-pandemic days,
vintage collectors would
meet up at swaps. Now, peo-
ple are buying and selling on
eBay, Etsy, Facebook and
other websites.
The rarest pieces have
sold for thousands of dollars,
such as the 1959 “Lucky in
Love” covered casserole dish
that Goodwill sold for $5,994
in 2017.
Still, some enthusiasts
simply like the vintage look
and sentimentality.
“It goes with my house,”
said Ashley Linder, 37, of
Lake Jackson, Texas.
Linder’s vintage collec-
tion includes can openers
from the 1950s, and they still
work.
“Fortunately, I have the
space to display most of it,
though some are season-
al-use,” she said.
One of her most treasured
fi nds was a Pyrex “Pink
Daisy 045” casserole dish on
eBay. It was in great condi-
tion, still in the box.
“You don’t come across a
lot of pink pieces in the box,”
she said.
She paid $300 for it and
messaged the seller in hopes
of fi nding out how it was so
well preserved.
“The lady had bought an
old farmhouse in Nebraska,
and it was left there,” she
said. “It’s an investment.”
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