We even took cuttings of the grape stock with us when we moved to a bigger house with a much larger yard. *** We also took the compost heap to the new house!***
One of the other things my parents did was to use linen tea towels and napkins, instead of paper products. Since they traveled a lot, my mother would pick up linen towels at places they visited and we'd get mini-geography lessons about shires in the UK, cheeses in France and olives in Greece. I still keep that tradition today, although pure linen towels are more difficult to find. Linen is great to dry dishes and glassware with because it doesn't leave lint behind. As you may know from wearing linen during the hot summer months, it's also very absorbent. Even dry, it retains about 6% to 8% moisture. The shine, or luminosity of linen is caused by the flax from which it is made. Many tea towels were made of Irish linen, and a lot of the ones you find today are made by Ulster Linens in New York. They have a lot of good information about caring for linens. (Wash them, they're tough!)
As I look through the tea towels I have right now, I find them from Windsor Castle, Sandringham in Norfolk where my auntie lives, and Manchester. I have two brand new vintage ones that I just found at a local thrift store for 50¢ each, one of which is pictures of silver teapots from the 1700's and 1800's and the other is the rooster above. 
They're in perfect condition. I can't wait to wash them and begin using them.
I love love love using old stuff like this. Next to my stove, I have an old silver tray with a lot of my kitchen implements on it... a small sugar pot for kosher salt, a large sterling sugar pot for sugar, an old Paris open sugar for tea bags, a pitcher for wooden spoons ... Everything is repurposed from stuff I inherited. Some of it's nice, some common. I have lots of these tea towels, too. Everyone comments when they enter my kitchen. Little things like that give a room so much character.
ReplyDeleteMostly, I love that you recognize that the most "green" thing you can do is repurpose and use something old instead of buying a new organic thing imported from half-way around the world. My mother was a subversive recycler also and passed it along to me.
When I moved back to the States, and had to kit out a house from scratch, I couldn't afford to get all new things, so vintage, antique and repurposed was the way I went.
ReplyDeleteOh, so that's what tea towels are for!
ReplyDeleteWait a minute - is that your house? and you moved to larger one?????? gawd. I'm jealous!
ReplyDeleteJoni... we lived in that house from when I was 10 until a few years ago. That's the big house. I have pix of the inside somewhere, so i will have to find and post them sometime.
ReplyDeleteadorable towels. how amazing to find them unused- and for 50 cents- gotta love that!
ReplyDeletegood find! (and nice story too).
and yes, post pictures of the childhood home!
P-D, a more pleasant post is hard to imagine. I love those tea towels. My folks had the same bent for bringing them home from places seen. I always brought back pocketknives as souvenirs. Ah, pre-adolescents with weaponry and airsickness. Those were the days.... (Mom still brings me tea towels at holidays....)
ReplyDeleteAnd memories of grapevines? Mom had me making Christmas wreathes one weekend... ouch!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
E&E... Grepevine wreathes! We did that, too! They were Concord grapes, and I remember my parents going to dinner parties, and my father packing bunches of grapes in little wooden baskets lined with grape leaves.
ReplyDeleteMy parents have hundreds of these teatowels - both that they've received as gifts and inherited but my mother NEVER uses them! She thinks they're too 'nice' and doesn't want to spoil them; so they sit in a drawer! I want her to give them to me! lol
ReplyDeleteYou always find the best deals -I wish dc had more thrift stores!
I love your childhood home -it looks like a great place to grow up :-)
Fairfax
ReplyDeleteIs that house in downtown Towson, and if so was it on the market recently?
Another great find! Those are both great designs.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big tea towel user although mine are all cotton. They're endlessly useful in the kitchen but they don't hold up particularly well to the constant washing. Your post has me thinking that linen might be more long-lasting. I need to lay my hands on some linen towels to find out.
What a great souvenir idea. They're certainly easy to pack.
ReplyDeleteN.B. to Julie: use old-fashioned cloth baby diapers. They last forever, and you can bleach them if they get too stained.
Anon... it's in Roland Park. This is the back of the house.
ReplyDeleteMeg - completely charming, thanks for a peek at your past. Both towels were a steal, but the teapots are particularly terrific.
ReplyDeleteThose teapots are calling out to be framed and hung as art. I just love them!
ReplyDeleteNice story, and what a great house!
ReplyDelete-Lana
Loved this post! I have this tea towel obsession and my (grown) children tease me for it...I find them all the time at estate sales and thrift stores in DC for a quarter or 50 cents. I think people buy them on trips b/c they're so packable and will remind them of Balmoral or wherever but they end up in a drawer. Is it because they're too stiff at first? They are great when they've been washed a lot.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your posts as I live just south of you, altho I am a DC-oriented person. So you are revealing a fun side of Bawlmer. Thanks!
Anon... you and Be The Change's mother should share the wealth! Wash them - linen is so tough. Other than stains, it's hard to hurt linen. I even use my linen napkins for daily use. If you've got them, why not?
ReplyDeleteI totally do use them, all the time!
ReplyDeleteI read Be The Change's comment - there are a number of faboo thrifts in the DC area; you just have to be willing to go to some odd areas to find them!
J'adore! Excellent finds Miss Meg! We have to compare collections some day...
ReplyDeleteThose tea towels are just adorable. What a find!
ReplyDeleteI love my tea towels -- I have some vintage ones and some newer ones I bought for cheap at Wegmans...oddly enough.
ReplyDeleteBTW, by all means wash them in the machine, but don't use fabric softener. It makes them far less absorbent.
Great point, Carol! It's the case with all towels.
ReplyDeleteYour linen tea towels are such a great find! Especially like the silver teapots. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteoh goodness these memories make me smile.
ReplyDeleteWait - you moved to a bigger house than this?????? was it this pretty? this style? Share!!!
ReplyDelete