Memories Of My Youth
I really don’t know what triggered this, but something got me remembering events relating to old Color Craft anodized aluminum tumblers. Back when I was a child in the 60’s, my parents would take us down to Lynn Haven, Florida to spend a week with my Great-Grandparents on my Momma’s side of the family. They had a little two-bedroom, one bath home there. On most of these summer vacations, my Grandparents (my Grandmother was my Great-Grandparents’ daughter) would come down from Memphis and stay with us. On a couple of occassions, my Uncle and his family (wife and two kids) came to stay as well.
On those few occassions when we were all there, try to imagine a dozen people staying in a cozy home with four single beds, two couches with pull-out double beds, couch cushions on the floor and one bathroom. Coordination was key. Between the adults, we worked it out.
Now there’s one other unique thing about us. Out of the dozen people, several celebrated birthdays in the month of July. Now I’m terrible at remembering everyone’s birthdays but I’m going to try to remember everyone’s from July. Let’s see…my GreatGrandfather, my Grandfather, my Uncle, one of my cousins, my Daddy and of course, myself. I think that’s everybody. Two of them, my Dad and my Great-Grandfather (I think) both were born on July 4th. If I neglected someone or am incorrect about someone then blame my swiss-cheese-hole brain.
Rather than try to have so many birthday parties, it became traditional to just have one big backyard birthday party for everyone. I remember one year when my Great-Grandmother and my Grandmother and my Aunt all working together to bake everyone their birthday cake of choice.
When the designated day came, we’d go out in the back yard for the celebration. A picnic table would be set up under this huge pecan tree (maybe it was an oak?) and all the birthday cakes would be brought out along with chilled watermelon. Dad would be manning the electric ice-cream maker (he used a manual one the first time we did this and it wore him out so badly he bought an electric one) and we, the kids, would be playing. Just before the time came to light the candles (hopefully there wasn’t too much of a breeze) the ladies of the family would come out with a couple of trays with pitchers of ice tea and Coca-Cola and these cool colorful anodized aluminum tumblers with ice in them. Now when it’s 95 degrees out (or hotter sometime), nothing was better than having one of these tumblers full of ice-cold Coca-Cola pressed against the forehead. That was serious relief from the heat.
Now fast forward several years. It’s now the 1980’s and my Great-Grandmother is physically unable to maintain the home and it’s put up for sale. Much of the contents of the home are divided among the relatives. I had sentimental attachment to a few items and requested them. One of the requests was for at least some of those aluminum tumblers. My cousin had a family of her own then and had also requested the tumblers. So I got two while my cousin got the rest. That was cool with me.
Fast forward to 1986. I had graduated from college, gotten married and eventually moved to Monticello, Florida to teach school. After the school year ended in the spring of 1987, my contract wasn’t renewed so I had to find work elsewhere. Eventually I found a job in nearby Tallahassee and the time came to pack everything up and move to an apartment we found. My inlaws drove over from Mississippi to help. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law stayed in the apartment to unpack and get things stored away while my wife, two friends of mine and my father-in-law helped me get everything loaded into trucks for the drive over to the Tallahassee apartment. At some point at the apartment, my sister-in-law, who was only a teenager at the time, wanted to put some flowers she found in a container to brighten up the place. The only container she found that she thought usable was one of the cool, colorful aluminum tumblers I cherished as a family heirloom. By the time my mother-in-law found out about this over a day later, she chastised my sister-in-law for putting dirt in the tumbler and try to clean it. Unfortunately, something in the dirt discolored the inside of the tumbler which in my mother-in-law’s opinion ruined it so she threw it away. I didn’t find out until we had gotten everything to the apartment and unpacked which was several days after the city garbage collection had already taken place. Needless to say I was upset and saddened. My mother-in-law was upset too because she didn’t know the history of the tumblers and how much they meant to me. My sister-in-law took it the hardest and cried. At least I still had one left. I figured I’d find some more one day. At that point it became somewhat of a mission to find more aluminum tumblers just like the one remaining one.
Before we fast forward in time again, let me describe these tumblers a bit. They were made by a company called Color Craft in Indianapolis, Indiana. Anodized aluminum tumbers, pitchers, serving trays and other kitchenware and diningware were popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They were often sold at various five-and-dime stores and were also given away as premiums are grocery stores, gas stations, etc. Many other companies made anodized aluminum tumblers including West Bend, Bascal, Dodge (not the auto manufacturer), Mardi Gras, Heller Hostess Ware and many others. Most of them were in various colors and held about 8 ounces. Many times, tumblers were mass produced with no identifying mark.
After I decided to find more Color Craft anodized aluminum tumblers, I called as many antique stores in the Tallahassee area to garner as much information about them as I could. I also checked the libraries to see if I could find any info in collector’s books. Keep in mind, this was before the internet so researching this was not as easy as it is now. However I did find out from various antique dealers that it should be fairly easy to find some (although none of them had any in stock at the moment) and they were very inexpensive. That encouraged me. However, as I soon found out, what was suggested as being “easy to find” was anything but. For several years, every antique shop I encountered would tell me that either they didn’t have any, just had some but sold them recently or they probably would get some the next time they were at some antique show outside the area. Each time I’d leave my name and phone number hoping to hear back from them but none of them ever got back with me. This went on for several years. It was discouraging, but I didn’t give up. In the back of my mind, I was determined to find some Color Craft anodized aluminum tumblers like my Great-Grandmother had. I wasn’t obsessed with the quest, but it was something to pursue when I was able.
Okay, time to fast forward a couple of years again. This time my wife and I are visiting my inlaws back in Mississippi. One day my wife and I decide to drive around and ramble with no specific agenda. We were tight on money at the time and weren’t able to shop. In downtown Biloxi, we came across an interesting looking antique shop and decided to check it out. To my surprise, along the back wall, were rows and rows of annodized aluminum tumblers stacked up. Many of which were by Color Craft. They only wanted a dollar or two per tumbler. Cheap! I was elated to find them, but disappointed that I didn’t have any spending money. However I knew we were coming back for a visit in only a few months and I planned on having enough to purchase several.
When we came back a few months later, I made sure I put away enough money to buy enough of those tumblers to make a complete set and have a few extras to boot. The day after we arrived in Gulfport to visit my inlaws, my wife and I set out to the antique shop in Biloxi. As we pulled up to park in the front, I was shocked to see that it was completely and totally empty. At some point during those few months we were back in Tallahassee, they had gone out of business. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I had come so close, only to lose the opportunity.
Okay, I know you’re getting tired of this, but time to fast forward again…this time to 1998. My wife and I finally have a computer that can run Windows and I find out about something called “ebay.” I decide to check it out and end up creating an account to bid on items of interest. At some point, I do a search for “Color Craft” thinking pessimistically that there won’t anything available. After all, it’s been over 10 years of searching with absolutely no luck whatsoever.
Back then, my computer had a 14.4 baud modem so loading pages on the internet was time consuming. So while the pages with the results were loading, I went and got some water to give it ample time to completely load. When I got back, thinking nothing would be there, I was absolutely floored to find that my search for “Color Craft” had gotten over a dozen hits, most of which were for the very same tumblers for which I had been searching for over ten fruitless years. Needless to say I bidded on two auctions offering complete sets both of which I won unopposed. And only a few days after the auctions ended, I received two sets of Color Craft anodized aluminum tumblers just like the ones my Great-Grandmother had. Just like the ones I fondly remembered being filled with ice-cold Coca-Cola and pressing it to my forehead to cool off in 95 degree Florida heat. My quest had finally ended.
It’s been almost ten years since then and I ended up purchasing other Color Craft anodized aluminum items via ebay (pitchers, serving trays, coasters, iced tea spoons, etc.). It’s the collector in me. In the process, I managed to learn more about annodized aluminum kitchenware and diningware in a few short months than I had in the previous several years. We’re still using the ones we have and memories of birthdays in Lynn Haven, Florida are fondly remembered often when I drink from the tumblers. It’s a good thing.
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