Tupperware
By Brenda S. Brown
He was born well over a hundred years ago and as a young
entrepreneur invented several items that never made it to market, but when Earl
Tupper, who grew up in poverty, invented a storage system that kept things
fresher because it was a vacuum-sealed container, history was made for the 1950s
American housewives.
Our momma did not participate in many community events during our
early childhood because she and daddy were usually engaged building and growing
the Stewart Webster Gas Company, which by the way relocated from downtown
Richland to the present location on Lumpkin Highway when I was a young teenager,
but she did reserve time to serve daily family meals and be a grade mother at
Richland Elementary School, and on occasion attended at home get-togethers that
were for ladies only, one of those being a Tupperware party.
The volunteer hostess could earn prizes by selling the product,
which was accomplished by catalog orders and games with innovative prizes at the
event which she sponsored in her home. Although our momma rarely attended the
party, it was a well know fact that if you brought a catalog by our family
business you were guaranteed that she was going to place a substantial order.
We used the multi-colored pastel colored glasses for everyday
use and you had better not take one outside and not bring it back to the kitchen
that was considered an unpardonable transgression. We reserved the taller ones
for sweet iced tea and the smaller ones for water and other drinks.
Momma had a decorator set that were used as canisters and proudly
displayed on the kitchen counter and she preferred the Tupperware containers for
storage in the refrigerator; in the crisper she had the cereal stored in those
special vessels and she trusted that when you heard the "burp" that it was and
would remained sealed.
The Tupperware hostess was given a prize as an incentive to sell
the products; the more sales were made at her home party, the bigger the prize.
Naturally, all hostesses were encouraged to become Tupperware consultants to
take advantage of all the benefits.
I still have an orange container, called Tangerine, that I
purchased as a newlywed that has a locking three part top system that we still
use today; Scott and Arlin remember it as the Kool-Aid pitcher for their
favorite, Rainbow Punch flavor, but it was also used for juice and lemonade out
by the pool. It is a miracle that it survived over the years but it is still
just as usable as it was brand new.
One of my favorite kitchen gadgets is a Jadite green colander
that will soon have to be retired because it is literally coming apart from
years of use.
"When Tupperware was introduced on the market in 1945, Earl Tupper started out
selling his Poly-T products in shops and department stores. Displayed on large
stands, his colourful plastic kitchen utensils were sure to catch the eye of
consumers." www.tupperwarecollection.com
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