Americana, part 1-Spice girls, Hoosier-style
Preface
I live in Europe and I am an American. Most days I don’t feel a huge pull between those two facts. I don’t play up my Americanism, but most people know where I’m from the moment they hear my accent. (Accent? What accent?) While I don’t generally bang on an American-culture drum, I would like to take the next couple of posts to share some cool things from my mid-western upbringing.
A regular feature in most turn-of-the-century mid-western kitchens was the presence of a Hoosier cabinet. (Okay, before I go on, I’m not sure why the mid-west is called ‘mid’ or ‘west’. Technically, it’s in the eastern third of the country. Hmmmm….) Back to cabinets…generally speaking, this was a kitchen dresser, but yet it was much more than that. It was the forerunner of specialized storage! There were not just racks for dishes, but also a carousel for spice jars, a built-in sugar dispenser, flour-mill and a retractable work surface. All in one piece of furniture! They’re still a prized possession in many a country home.
As a lover of antiques, I collected a dozen or so of these Hoosier spice jar gems in my early years of marriage. And, of course, they came with me to Ireland. I love looking at the beautiful range of colours in them! It would be shameful to put a label on these lovely girls, so I’ve learned to distinguish the contents by the look and smell.
As simple, homey companions, I also have the coffee and tea canisters, which I love using every day in our home!
They’re such simple things, but I think it’s the simplest pleasures that are the best!
I am an american, but a south american, one of those who don’t get so much negative comments as north americans would get. I have been here 22 years, I thought the older I got the more I would forget where I come from.Wrong! The older I get the more I appreciate my heritage. I don’t go around saying where I come from, but there are things here and there that are done in different way. Not better not worse, just different, and it’s ok. I will never speak with an irish accent, and I will never be fully argentinian either, I am basically standing between two cultures, I take what is good and discard what I don’t fancy too much in any of them.
24 May 2006 at 3:45 pm
I think it is also to do with being away from your country that makes you appreciate it a lot more. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ireland and wouldn’t live anywhere else (except maybe Scotland) but I didn’t appreciate it as much until I lived away from here, that included living in both England and Australia.
24 May 2006 at 5:55 pm
I guess I’m coming ‘full circle’ in my thinking. When I first moved here, I was so thrilled to be in Europe that all things American seemed so provincial and superficial. But now I hope that I’m learning to sift out the superfluous stuff and keep the positive aspects of what it means to be an American. (But, I haven’t quite figured out where ‘The Simpsons’ fit into all that!)
24 May 2006 at 6:13 pm
I have heard them referred to as “Kitchen Queens” as well. I have a beautiful glass container with a great metal lid that came from a Kitchen Queen…it is really sad that such a great item is no longer available or so I think. Besides, everyone on this side of the pond seems to be so busy rushing from here to there to bother cooking or baking.
The new t.v. ads make a claim to “have a family dinner night”. Whoa, what happened to families eating dinner at the table together every night. We do (except Friday nights, known as pizza night/Mom’s no cook night or my dh is travelling for his work).
Ah…the Hoosier/Kitchen Queen…hmmm, maybe dh could build a tall, skinny verison to fit into our home.
07 Dec 2007 at 7:19 am