The Pot

I knew my old pot was old, but 86 years old!! WOW.

Club aluminum pots can be found on e-Bay, but they are all newer and hammered aluminum, not plain. The knobs are different and the logo/mark is different. There are plenty of the old 1926 recipe books that go with the entire set on e-bay, but only one of the exact pots is in my home. 

Now that I see what the entire set looks like, I can see several other items that are familiar as I was growing up. My mom must have just brought the one here when the cabin was new. And, worst of all, I'm pretty sure I sent all of the others to Goodwill when I was preparing her house for sale when she was in the skilled nursing care facility. Darn! I never even gave it a thought that they would still be useful. I think they were my grandmother's first and she gave them to Mom. Now one is mine!

My pot is used to make cooked candy,  pecan pie fillings, Bar-B-Q sauce, and some soups. It is very special because things just do not burn and can simmer for hours. It's not a large pot but an extremely important one to me. 

Today I made the barbeque sauce... UM...  YUMMY... it has to age for a week or so, but then will go on baked chicken tenders, pulled beef and pork, and used as a dip for chunks of other meat treats. I "might" even share one or two of the little jars I have filled, with my daughter and a couple of friends. 

See my pot. Oh! and yes, I have the original lid with knob. 

These are my pot bottom marks

These Arms...

Once they were strong. They commanded the handlebar of many bicycles, the old fashioned kind without gears, to explore the countryside. They assisted in accomplishing chin-ups and pull-ups in school playgrounds and gymnasiums. They did hot pepper jump roping. They enabled access to a treehouse located very high in a beech tree. They carried two five gallon buckets of water many yards twice a day to horses for numerous years. They steered a tractor pulling a wagonload of hay bales through rough fields and then help upload them to the barn elevator. They pulled this body high up into trees with a pouch on its back to pick apples, and helped it down with the burdensome packload for weeks on end. They lifted and maneuvered long bulky planks of wood, often heavy oak or cherry, to a chopsaw station to be cut into specific lengths for seven years straight. They once held a sizable dog down for several hours while porcupine quills were extracted from its tongue and cheeks by a helper. They hoed, dug and raked an ample vegetable garden every year. They have carried tons of laundry to and from washers, driers, clotheslines, vehicles. They've moved furniture and emptied heavy kettles from stoves to sinks. They once embraced, pushed, opened and closed. 

Now they are soft, cushy, flaccid, floppy, shapeless and slack. Their tonelessness is a sight to behold. They do nothing but hang and flap. They have become unpowerful, unenthusiastic and lethargic. They are exhausted and OLD. Like me.