Shiny Brites Tell a Story

Last Saturday when I went to the neighborhood garage sales I spied these on a table in the back of a dark garage under some Christmas pillows.

I couldn't believe my eyes, one box was a dollar and one was $1.50.

Shiny Brites are an American story.

Shiny Brite was established in 1937 in anticipation of disruption of the importation of popular German-made glass bulbs during the war.

Foresight told the entrepreneur, Max Eckhardt, that he could order clear glass bulbs from Corning and have a factory where they would be hand-painted!

They became popular and they are dated by the type of hanger and hook they have.

As artificial trees became more popular, and plastic ornaments flooded the market, Shiny Brite was in less demand, and went out of business in 1962.

During peak production, there were four factories, on the east coast in New Jersey, and New York with corporate offices and a showroom in New York City.

(Christopher Radko has been reissuing the most popular Shiny Brites since 2001.)

I like to imagine the stories they could tell, if they'd had little bitty cameras inside them.

Newlywed Christmases
Newborn Christmases
Toddlers opening sweet toys
Preschoolers with their first bikes
Etch-a-Sketches
Spirographs
Lots of good food eaten at a loaded table
Stockings full and hanging from the mantle
The quiet, snowy Christmas eves
And the loud and boisterous Christmas mornings
Puppies snuck in under the tree, right before dawn on Christmas
Bee bee guns in their long boxes, slid onto the tree skirt with a smile.

And then Christmases where the kids were all grown up
When Mom might have shed a tear or two
Those in between years that were quiet
With a daughter married and gone
The soldier son gone off to faraway lands, yet
Surprising mom and showing up unannounced at the door
Right on Christmas eve just as they were leaving for church
Surprising her and making daddy get teary-eyed
Mom receiving the biggest hug she'd ever had.

IF ONLY they could tell us what their celebrated Christmases were like!

I just can't resist these...it doesn't matter one bit to me what kind of shape they are in.

These have seen their better days, not as SHINY or BRITE as they once were: but they've survived and earned our respect and we know that they're at least as old as 1962 would make them: 48 years are the youngest they can possibly be!

So they deserve a chance to shine again, and take their place on our tree...
A real one.
One with old-fashioned lights and tinsel...
Sitting in the window of an old farmhouse,
A house that has also seen better days
That once was brighter and more shiny.

A house that has seen the life of more than one family,
Through quiet and boisterous days,
Sad days and full and happy ones, too.

They will be on our tree.
To tell new stories.
To shine again.

After all,

Christmas has a way of making
everything seem bright again:

Shiny Brite.

A Different Bridge View...

Mighty Mackinac Bridge
A person feels mighty small standing next to this structure!
Taken by Jamie
Summer, 2007

Washday!

Deep in the throes of winter one day, I made a trip "to town" and stopped in at the local antique mall. I went in looking for a vintage postcard for a friend with a Valentine's Day birthday and I found what I was looking for: cute as a button and cheaper than a new card at Hallmark! I love that! She loved her little card, too--which makes me happy. I had wrapped some vintage linens for her so the card just made it all seem right somehow.

While walking through the maze-like aisles on my way out, what did I see? Oh...it was something I've been on the lookout for...for a long, long, time!

Double washtubs! In white! In great shape! Just the right size and just the right price...in fact, I couldn't even believe they were priced under thirty dollars! Now folks, I go to lots of garage sales and haven't seen one of these in the last five years at all.

It just so happened, I was driving the pickup, and it amazed me how lightweight they were, I didn't even need help getting them out and loaded.

Now they have a happy home, and these geraniums look just perfect, just like I had imagined it in my mind all this time I've wanted a set.


Oh, and that cute-as-pie sign there? It's done by Dee of Farmhouse Country Style...you can find her little mercantile here.


When it gets old as a porch decoration, it's coming inside and I'll have some plywood or a piece of barnwood cut to fit the top and it can be a table (with storage inside those tubs!).

I love the versatility and usefulness of vintage objects....they were made to last and that fact makes it possible to use them well past necessity and into just being plain fun!


The bonus? MADE IN THE USA!