Just Because China

It was just a passing thought, I think it hit me while I was vacuuming. I asked my husband, "Do you think they will have my everyday china on the internet?" He responded a little under his breath that he thought we could easily find out.

A few minutes later on the computer screen was a photograph of my everyday china dinner plate that I had selected for my bridal registry at "Diamond's" over 30 years ago! The pattern is called 'Berries 'n Such' by Noritake. I don't know why I was so surprised it was so beautiful - because I have been looking at it almost everyday for 30 years.

As a young newlywed I had taken a little cake over to my brother's house on one of those plates. It was a silly token for a married couple's get-together, it wasn't even a legitimate cake, it was something new called "Stir 'n Frost". It was so tiny in its own little disposable paper baking pan it could have qualified as the Easy-Bake graduate model. But I was a grown-up married lady and I wanted it to look nice, so I took it out of the little paper pan and placed it carefully on my lovely china plate.

The evening didn't go so well...my sister-in-law can't play a game without cheating and she didn't even offer us a slice of the cake we had provided! Too embarrassed to mention it, we left without a taste and without my plate. Later, when I asked for my plate, she violently denied any knowledge of it. My pretty service for 8 was forever infamously reduced by 1.

When you have things because they were wedding gifts, you remember what happens to them and who gave them to you. The matching serving dishes given to me by Dr. Gibbons and his wife eventually were tragically chipped early. Four cereal bowls exited the scene one by one - utilized by anxious childish hands as water dishes for chickens in the back yard or some other equally china-at-risk endeavor. I lost 7 of my little cups all in one dramatic night - it's a dark memory. The 2 missing salad plates are mysteriously unaccounted for.

Today 2 large boxes arrived. Styrofoam static-charged 'peanuts' were never so appreciated! I slowly unpacked each of my replacement china pieces. They were beautiful. It was very emotional, this china. After 30 years you never know what will represent a marriage, a home, dreams and disappointments, a family gathered around the table.

For people who don't drink coffee, the little sugar and creamer were entirely impractical ~ but totally adorable. They, above all the other items, shouted "just because". I had actually purchased something I didn't really need just because I liked it. I should have had them all along.