My mother is one of eight children. That could make mealtime a scramble when she was growing up. She tells a story of not always having enough spoons to go around and how one of her brothers would grab a spoon out of the drawer then lick it dramatically, thus contaminating it and claiming it for himself.
I thought of that story when I read an email from Alexandria’s Mary Battey, who after reading my column Monday on Nescafe’s promotional globe mugs, shared her own memories.
Mary’s family was a bit smaller than my mother’s — Mary is the oldest of five — but breakfast in her house saw its own power dynamics at play. The kids weren’t wrestling for a Nescafe globe coffee mug but for another promotional tchotchke: a matching Chiquita banana bowl and spoon.
This was a yellow, banana-shaped bowl and a spoon with a tiny plastic banana for the handle, each emblazoned with the blue Chiquita logo.
Advertisement
“We actually used to fight about who got to use the bowl for cereal (with or without bananas) or ice cream (with or without bananas),” Mary wrote.
Without bananas?! Mary, you’re lucky the goons from Chiquita didn’t kick down your door and repossess your Chiquitiana.
When Mary grew up, she extracted the bowl and spoon from her childhood home before any of her siblings noticed — “a classic big sister move,” she wrote. “My children loved the bowl and spoon too, and now I keep it handy for any little folks who visit and want to use it.”
Back to those Nescafe globe mugs: Several readers sent me photos of theirs. Some even have the matching creamer and sugar bowl.
“But there is more to the story than product premiums,” wrote one reader, who wishes to remain anonymous.
When she was in college in the ’70s, she read in Mademoiselle magazine about a contest sponsored by Nescafe. She can’t remember exactly what the contest was called — something like “A Trip Around the World” or “A Trip Out of This World” — but she remembers the grand prize: a spot aboard the first lunar flight for civilian travelers, whenever that would be. The consolation prize was a trip around the world.
Advertisement
I know which one I’d take. There’s a lot of this planet I still haven’t seen. And I don’t think the moon has a very good continental breakfast.
Does anyone remember that contest?
Spray it, don’t say it
Last month I was able to solve the mystery of a graffito on an I-66 overpass that drivers have seen for decades. DEN + NAN 4EVER has been on the Route 622 bridge since 1991, painted by a Virginia man as an anniversary present to his wife.
That spray-painted message reminded reader Mary Fraker of another bit of lovelorn vandalism.
“When we moved to Capitol Hill in the mid-80s, we were delighted/intrigued by graffiti painted on the overpass where one can take the ramp from southbound Fourth Street SE onto I-395 toward Virginia,” Mary wrote. “We saw it, and smiled, several times a week, but unfortunately never took a photo.”
Advertisement
Mary doesn’t remember the exact spacing, but the message was something like this:
Robert + Claudia
Party animals
Some period of time passed — a few months at least, though it may have been years, Mary said — and then one day, the message had been transformed to:
Robert + Claudia
Party animals
Wrote Mary: “Such happy news!”
When the overpass was renovated, Robert + Claudia's romantic declaration was obliterated. But was their love made of stronger stuff? Mary and her family have wondered about the couple ever since.
“I hope you and your readers can provide details for what I hope will be another heartwarming story of graffiti and love,” she wrote.
Well, can you? Shoot me an email — john.kelly@washpost.com — if you know anything about this couple.
I swear I don’t condone vandalism! But speaking of graffiti, I stumbled across a small item in The Washington Post of April 4, 1887: “Frederick Douglass has been to Egypt. While there he performed the difficult and dangerous feat of climbing to the summit of the lofty Cheops pyramid, and the traveler who now climbs to the top of it will find his name cut there in the stone.”
Reunited and it feels so good
Here are a pair of local high schools reuniting this fall:
Winston Churchill High Class of 1972 — Oct. 7-9. For information, email
Gary Balsamo at 1972.wchs.reunion@gmail.com.
Groveton High Class of 1968 — Long-delayed 50th reunion on Oct. 8. Email Jessica Schorr Saxe at jessica.schorr.saxe@gmail.com.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLGkecydZK%2BZX2d9c36OaW9oamJksKm10K6grZldl66vrc2aZJunp6F8