There's something about boxes. Any small container, really. I remember asking my mother for the rectangular can the cocoa powder came in so I could wash it out and put my treasures inside. I was constantly rescuing shoe boxes for future dioramas and a long term home for pine cones. I spent weeks one winter playing in several large boxes with windows cut out, taped together to make a house, a town, a spaceship, an alternate reality.
I envied my mother's jewelry box, surely it was a magical thing. A safe place for the earrings and necklaces I didn't have yet. A keeper of diamond rings and gem-encrusted brooches. Tiny lapel pins from various companies. And, in the bottom, an array of strange coins from other countries.
I kept the tin the baking powder came in to horde my nickels for the candy store. A salvaged cardboard box slid under the bed could hold the aging stuffed animals of a girl not ready to let go. Christmas boxes with their shiny paper and fantastic bows hiding excitement within. Just the possibilities of an unopened box, any box, were enough to fire my imagination. Anything could be in there. Anything.
I still loathe to throw out containers and boxes to this day. Amazon makes it easier – I know there will be a steady supply of boxes coming my way. I baked a chocolate cake today, and finished off the cocoa powder. It was hard to let go. I nestled the container in the trash, careful to secure the plastic lid, so the cocoa box remained with its friend. It's the least I could do, for something so innocuous, yet precious at the same time.
What about you? Any containers that make your life complete? Plastic storage tubs just aren't the same. Any Amazon box hoarders out there? You know who you are.
What a great post! The idea that anything can be in the box - yes, that is one way of hanging onto wonder. I have a container on the bookshelf in my office that was my mom's - it is round, glass, with a metal lid that has a fern-and-flower design. I think it once held face powder. My mom kept that container on her dresser the whole time I was growing up because she thought it was pretty and, when she died, I couldn't bear to let it go.
I am partial to Cortese pizza boxes.
Kath - You get my point. :) Boxes are surprises or memories or both.
Anon. I'm partial to FULL Cortese pizza boxes. Just sayin'.