pink and green, glass

block optic sherbet bowls with raspberry jello

block optic goblets 

depression era pressed glass "Normandie"pattern plates

I was home recently to celebrate with my mother her 79th birthday. She cleaned up some of my high school antiques collection after I pulled two boxes out of the basement on my last visit. In these two boxes was my green depression glass I bought with money I earned  doing some of my earliest jobs like washing dishes and making pizzas or cleaning up county water department valves and pipes that survived the flooding from Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Remembering as a young teenager I was set free by my drivers permit, freed to drive to work, ballet classes and take my mother, who did not drive, out to the country antique shops. We antiqued regularly on weekends for a few years.  I decided to start collecting depression glass when I bought 5 pink plates that were chipped on the edges in a pattern called "Normandie" or "bouquet & lattice" made by Federal Glass Co.   from 1933-1940 some of which is delicate and very thin like the "American sweetheart" pattern mom's family used in during the actual depression of the 1930's. I would have liked to get some of that monox (white with hits of blue) American sweetheart pattern but it was thin and mostly broken and was seen rarely in the 1970's so I thought it would be fun to hunt for this pink pattern. Sadly, I quickly found that it wasn't much more common than the monox color of American sweetheart. After much consternation, I switched my collecting focus over to the more commonly seen and a little thicker glass pattern called "block optic" in green.  I remember eating jello and ice cream out of the sherbert cups of block optic at Grand mother's in Narrows VA as a youngster. My block optic plates, cups bowls, goblets, and glasses have been stored in the Manassas house for all these years with brief uses in NYC when I was just out of college.
I have been on a amazing diet for the last couple months and my interest in food has become very keen and I am cooking a lot more than I used to do before this diet. I rediscovered that presentation of my food made it all taste better and makes even fat free, sugarless foods seem more delicious. I dug out various plates in my cabinet here in DC then went picking around for some of my old stuff at home in Manassas. I have been using some Good Will plates bought in 2008, four green sandwich glass pattern plates that I use a lot and I pulled out my own modern opalescent dinner plates. Then I was craving some pink to mix it up. I found that the old pinks lattice & bouquet plates were still at home in a cabinet in the dinning room. We pulled them out while I was there for mom's birthday visit and I brought them home. I vaguely recalled the sales lady telling me the sharp chips on the edges of these pink plates could be filed down but I never tried to fix them until I got them back to DC. I recently bought some emery paper for the metal stool restoration and I though it was worth a try to see if that would smooth out the sharp glass edges caused by old chips. Bingo! After 45 years I have usable pink depression glass plates! I like that the edges of the plates are sculpted and contoured and now the chips are all smooth and softened. No longer do I risk  cutting anyone when we use them. I also enjoy using my fine antique plates and bowls for so many reasons they make me smile and feel fine.

pink lattice & bouquet pattern and opalescent dinner plate 

green glass plate has great texture 

green plate design may be reproductions of depression era dinnerware. 

I like the way the light bounces on this pressed glass design and the way it feels to the touch

bought at Good Will shop, depression glass bowls perfect for puddings 

breakfast on the modern opalescent plate