other items

"Is that a......... chamber pot?" Her voice rose and quavered ever so slightly.
I laughed and admitted that it was.
A chamber pot may seem like a strange thing to place in the middle of the coffee table but it does what things in the middle of coffee tables are supposed to do; jump start conversation.
When I bought this piece of enamel ware, the elderly woman waiting on me startled me by suggesting that perhaps it had once served soup.
Soup!!??
She added that when the Mennonites arrived in South America, they were given the barest of bare necessities. a handful of odds and ends to set up home.
Each family got different items.
Some had no serving bowls at all and were forced to press other items into service.
It would have been hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
I hope laughter won.