Hall Pottery at Mom's

Today it's a quick visit to my mom and dad's house. I need to take some better pictures... Mom always sets a beautiful dining table. She has always had red dishes, even when red wasn't trendy. These blue ceramics are part of her Hall pottery collection. She has a set of matching bowls and remembers eating from them as a child. I envy my mom's dining room that is usually available for dining. Ours is a sewing room, office most of the time and when we dine in there, I have to camouflage the piles of stuff I've cleared off the surface of the table.


In one of her dining room drawers is a most terrific collection of vintage thread crochet potholders and trivets. This one is made by someone's grandma out of bottlecaps. My mom uses it regularly and the other thread crochet potholders make great coasters. I've got to bring my camera over to my parents place sometime and take more pictures. She's got like 50 vintage beaded purses in their downstairs bathroom. One lovely cabinet is packed with Torquay Mottoware and Cottageware. She has a trunk full of feedsack fabrics and tablecloths. She collects vintage childrens books, particularly Basal Readers that predate Dick and Jane. Mom gives me hankies all the time, but has a drawer full of her own collection along with vintage embroidered pillowcases and lovely handtowels.

Here's my mom and dad around the time they were in college. They went to high school together, but my dad was a few years older and hadn't noticed my mom until he met her after his post college stint in the Navy. Mom was a waitress at Howard Johnson's earning spending money at the end of her last year of college. A mutual friend introduced them and Dad got Mom's phone number. She went to the drive-in with my dad and very quickly dumped her longtime boyfriend. Not long after, they moved to Chicago and have made a happy life there. They still go back to their hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. Mom just celebrated her 50th High School Reunion.