Mendets – The 1930s-40s Way to Repair Pots and Pans

I recently posted something about a 1940s era junkman who visited my neighborhood and how my mother always looked for old pots and pans which she would repair with little pieces of metal.  My daughter found this card of Mendets on eBay and bought it for me.  This is exactly what my mother used, except sometimes she bought them in a small box.

Mendets were patented in the early 1900s and the dress/hairstyle of the lady on the card makes me think this might be from the 1930s.  The back of the card has instructions as well as suggesting some other uses such as repairing a hot water bottle, using on campfire utensils and even shows a lady perched precariously on a ladder repairing a gutter (“Saved the cost of a tinsmith”).

Until World War II was over, I believe every pot, pan and kettle in our kitchen had a Mendet or two helping to give a bit more life.

Click on photos to enlarge.

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Happy Mother’s Day

My First Mother’s Day as a Mom – 1954

Journal entry – May 9, 1954:  Nancy was two weeks old on Mother’s Day.  She celebrated by waking up  at 3:30 AM and staying awake until 6:00 AM.  I accompanied her.  (Note:  I remember that she was lying in bed beside me, eyes wide open and trying so hard to talk.)  Her Daddy bought a box of chocolates for her to give me and a card signed, “Daddy and Nancy”.

I followed that first celebration with three more children and many more happy Mother’s Days.

My four kids – 1970

Happy Mother’s Day.

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An Old Time Picker – The Ragman

The popularity of American Pickers on TV reminded me of the “rag pickers” of the 1930-40s era in Cincinnati.  There was the occasional horse-drawn cart that rumbled through the streets of our small working-class East End neighborhood with a picker shouting in a sing-song style, “Any rags or old iron”.  They were the pickers looking to buy; in our neighborhood we also had a picker who wanted to sell.  On hot summer afternoons, a big grey 1930s Packard would turn from Eastern Avenue and make its way down the slope on Gotham Place toward the river bank.

My sister in front of our house with the beautiful pink tea roses. Gotham Place is shown in the background

A tall older man with a day’s growth of beard would maneuver the car to a clear spot in the large area outside our little red brick house and set up shop.  The car doors would be opened and from every house on the narrow street women and children would hurry out the door.  Mothers would call out, “The Ragman is here” and everybody would gather around the car to see what treasures might be available that day.

The Ragman drove a very raggedy version of this car

I never learned what the man’s real name was, but he made his rounds of the better homes in Hyde Park, Indian Hill, Mt. Lookout, Mt. Washington, etc., to pick up  castoffs which he sold at very low prices on his various stops throughout the East End.  Customers would pick up an item and ask, “How much?”  The Ragman would think a second or two and give a reasonable price which we could take or leave.  There was a constant stream of questions and answers going back and forth between customer and seller.

Daddy, Mother, Lillian and Shirley – pictured in the big area in front of our house where the Ragman used to park

There was something for everybody – pots and pans, dishes, glassware, clothes, toys, and my favorite – movie magazines.  For a nickel I could buy 3 or 4 slightly outdated publications and read all about Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Lon McAllister and all the other “stars of the silver screen”.  There might also be an occasional Seventeen magazine which was interesting for a pre-teenager to read to get news of the latest styles of clothes and tips on dating.

My mother tended to pick up old pots and pans which could be made new again with her addition of little round metal pieces that she always had on hand to patch worn-out utensils.  My little sister might buy a small doll or toy.  One year she bought a doll’s china tea set with a teapot and creamer that had pouring spouts shaped like elephants’ trunks.  I had been irritable with her when I came home from school that day and Mother said, “Oh, be patient with her.  She worked all afternoon cleaning up a special gift for your birthday.”  It truly was a special gift – I wish I still had it.

My sister and I in our Victory Garden. In the background is the Cincinnati Water Works

These were the early to mid-1940s World War II days before television and shopping malls.  It was a wonderful treat to be able to do some shopping almost in our front yard on the banks of the Ohio River on a clear blue summer day.

Is it any wonder that my favorite stores now are antique malls and thrift shops?

Click on photos to enlarge.

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April 16, 1964 – A Journal Memory

Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc.  As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).  

The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers:  The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).

Bar and Newsie

Jackson

 “Jackson saw a plump robin on the front lawn today and with the confidence of childhood announced:  ‘There’s a robin.  It’s spring!’  And I’ll have to agree with him that the miracle of spring has come to Maple Drive.  The sky is a pale clear blue, serving well as the background for tender green buds and leaflets appearing on so many of the trees.  Each lawn is the fresh green of spring and the gorgeous color compensates for the bare patches of earth.  Daffodils, dandelions and violets are blooming, and the tulips are budding.  The leaves of the iris are straight and sure and reassuring.  The temperature is 80 degrees this afternoon and the kids are wearing shorts and crop-tops, and Bar and his friend Danny are tossing a baseball.  Our dog Penny ran with great glee over newly-seeded lawns and through flower beds, and dug a foot-deep hole in the dusty patch beside the back porch.  Newsie and her friend Rosanne came in with nosegays of violets, dandelions and large leaves, picked in the hollow and carefully placed in a yellow plastic cup on the refrigerator.”

Precious memories of a spring almost 50 years ago.

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Introducing Addie

When I lost my 14-year-old hound, Rusty, a few weeks ago, I thought I would have to wait awhile before I could even consider another dog.  But my daughter and I were lonesome, it was much too quiet in the house and we agreed it might be well to think about getting another pet.  We support a rescue group in Cincinnati, Recycled Doggies, which takes dogs from rural shelters with a high kill rate, places them in foster homes and makes sure they are healthy and ready to go into a new home before they are offered for adoption.  Through Facebook, I watch the dogs come and go and when I saw a beagle/dachsund mix, female, 1-2 years old, arrive in town, I kept an eye on her and saw that she would be up for adoption at a big Furry Valentine event in our area this past weekend.  We were there when they opened the doors and I knew immediately, she was the dog for me.

She’s very shy and doesn’t seem to know any commands or even how to walk on a leash, but she’s eager to please and I know my daughter and I are going to enjoy having her share our home and our life.

We named her Addie (thinking of the little girl in House Without a Christmas Tree and also in the movie, Paper Moon).   She enjoyed meeting the grandchildren on Sunday.

Although she doesn’t bark, it’s not nearly as quiet in the house now.

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Our First House – 1961 – A Journal Memory

Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc.  As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).  

In 1952, when my husband and I returned home from his brief stint in the Navy, my parents offered to let us rent the upstairs portion of their two-family house at the rate of $12/month (cheap, even in 1952).  By 1961, I had 3 children who were 6, 4 and 10 months – we had outgrown the apartment and were looking for an affordable house that was big enough to accommodate our growing family.  While the oldest girl was in school, I had been on numerous outings with the real estate agent, grasping the four-year-old by one hand and carrying a very heavy baby in a snowsuit on one hip.  Nothing we had seen was right for us.  Then, one February Saturday morning, an ad in the paper caught my eye – and we were on our way to our home on Maple Drive in the Oakley suburb of Cincinnati.

The picture and the following description are from the 1961 real estate flyer.  (Click on picture to enlarge.)

“If all goes well with the building and loan, I think we have finally started to buy our own home.  On a rainy Saturday morning, I looked through the ‘House for Sale’ ads quickly and suddenly ‘Oakley – $11,250′ leaped at me from the page.  I could hardly wait to call the real estate office, and was even more excited when I heard it described.  It was in a driving rainstorm that Frank, the three kids and I turned onto Maple Drive.  At once, I felt it was too good to be true – such a pretty, quiet, dead-end street, with well-kept homes.  Then we saw the number 4108.  ‘Oh, it’s a shingle!’ Frank said disgustedly, but then we noticed the shingle was only a small amount of trim on the gable and the rest was gleaming white frame.  There was a nice lawn in front and some short pine-like bushes close to the house.  Cement steps led up to a large front porch and on the small second-floor windows were green and white aluminum awnings.  A driveway at the side led to a two-car garage and in back was a small fenced yard, with more property going over the hill.

L. – February 26, 1961″

My parents had been so good to us and I hated to leave, but we needed more room and to have a house with a nice yard for the kids was just a dream come true.  We added another baby girl in 1970 and lived there for 21 years.

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Goodbye, Rusty

I’m very sad this morning.  Last night, my hound dog, Rusty, passed away.  He was 14 years old and my best pal.

I’m heartbroken.

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January 2, 1964 – A Journal Memory

Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc.  As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).  

The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers:  The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).

In January, 1964, we were a family of five: mother, father, 9-year-old daughter Newsie, 7-year-old son Bar, and 3-year-old son Jackson.  We lived in a 1922 two-story home in the Oakley suburb of Cincinnati with a nice backyard for the kids to play in.  Jackson was prone to the croup and didn’t get to go out and play in the big snow that greeted us on the first day of January, 1964.

Maple Drive greeted 1964 wearing a thick blanket of white as seven inches of snow covered Cincinnati early on New Year’s Day.  The street is rutted deeply with tread marks and the cars are all wearing top-pieces of snow which occasionally tilt rakishly on the side as the sun grows warmer.  Most of the walks are neatly shoveled and salted so the kids troop gleefully across lawns and up the middle of the roads.  Our kids got an extra two days of vacation due to the snow and showed their appreciation by wallowing in it all day.  As a surprise for Jackson and me, Newsie and Bar fashioned a plump snowman with all the trimmings—limb arms, rock eyes and buttons, plaid scarf and Bar’s green leather cap.  Jackson can look through the dining room window and see friend snowman staring back at him from the yard, which is pocked with footmarks of various sizes.”

L – January 2, 1964

Jackson had six more years to be the baby before another daughter came along and I love to read in my notes where the two older children went out of their way to surprise and please their little brother.  Happy memories of almost 50 years ago.

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Christmas Shopping at the Five and Ten

At Christmas time, my little sister and I loved to go to Neisner’s 5 and 10 (“the dime store”, we called it), a treasure trove of gifts for children, or adults for that matter, with small coins in their pockets.  We circled around and around the counters, picking up cards with beautiful jeweled earrings or flowered boxes of dusting powder or the ever popular Midnight in Paris perfume in small cobalt blue bottles.  These would be wonderful surprises for Mother, the Grandmas, the aunts – if we pooled our money.  There were small bottles of shaving lotion, glistening emerald green on the counters, which were standard fare for the men in the family.  For small cousins there were jack sets, paddle balls, tiny dolls – such an array!

Now, that 5 and 10 stores are a thing of the past, I remember all those dear people opening our dime store gifts, clumsily wrapped and labeled, and exclaiming with wonder – the same as my sister and I did as we entered the marvelous world of Neisner’s.

HAPPY MEMORIES OF THE WONDERS OF CHRISTMAS

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An Aunt Nancy Day Celebration

My oldest daughter never married but has been a doting aunt to four girls, two boys and countless dogs and cats.  All but two of the kids are in their twenties now but she’s still in the center of the lives of my youngest daughter’s children.  A few years ago she commented that there is a Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparents’ Day – but no Aunt’s Day.  That’s when my youngest daughter started Aunt Nancy Day.  Each year in November, we have a little celebration that may or may not include  youngest daughter’s two children (13 and 9), depending on the event.  (This niece and nephew call Nancy “Uncle Chester” just to be perverse.

Aunt Nancy/Uncle Chester and the kids

This year’s celebration was something we didn’t think the children would enjoy:

You are cordially invited to an Aunt Nancy/Uncle Chester Day celebration on Wednesday, November 14. Lunch will be provided en route to Columbus, Ohio where you will be granted an exclusive tour of the Thurber House. (OK, it’s just the normal self-guided tour that anybody can do, but PRETEND it’s exclusive.) Get out your copy of MY LIFE AND HARD TIMES and bone up.

Since my two daughters and I are great admirers of humorist/cartoonist James Thurber, it was ideal for us.  We had lunch at a Cracker Barrel and then drove for an hour and half to Columbus, Ohio, listening to recordings of some of Thurber’s funniest stories.

The Thurber house was built in 1873 and is an example of Victorian architecture.

The Thurbers lived there from 1913-1917 and the house and furnishings were restored aided by the recollections of Thurber’s younger brother.  This sideboard had been in the Thurber dining room.

My favorite room was the one that James Thurber used at the time and the old typewriter he used when he wrote for The New Yorker.

Had to stop and admire the quilt on the old iron bed.

I took a picture of my girls on the staircase from which he heard the ghost circling the dining room table in “The Night the Ghost Got In”…

And one of the front door which the police broke down after a call about the ghost.

There are many beautiful fireplaces in the house with gorgeous tile.

Thurber fans will love seeing the house, the furnishings and all of the memorabilia.  There is no charge for the self-guided tour.  Here is their website:

www.thurberhouse.org

On the way back, we stopped in downtown Columbus for some exotic ice cream at Jeni’s.  I chose a dip each of Bangkok Peanut and Queen City Cayenne Chocolate.  Liked the Cayenne Chocolate the best – unique flavors.

My daughter gave Nancy a gift card to Hobby Lobby from her kids, two dogs and two cats,  and I gave her one to JoAnn’s from my dog, Rusty.  Another Aunt Nancy Day is over.

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