A salt shaker was the last thing on my mind but it lasted the longest.
“You need kitchen things,” my mother told me. “You can’t move into an apartment without those.”
I was a sophomore in college and outfitting a kitchen wasn’t high on my list. But we spent time that summer shopping thrift stores.
I found four melamine plates, some scarred table ware, and two dented pans. Good enough for me.
I checked off that project.
I managed to squeeze in a week’s visit to my grandmother’s house with Mom.
The topic of my apartment came up.
“You need kitchen things,” my grandmother said.
That sounded really familiar.
But she didn’t say any more until dinner time. As we sat around her table with the savory scent of roast beef drifting from the serving plate, she handed me a little bundle.
These are the actual shakers from my grandmother.“You can have these for your new kitchen,” she said.
I opened the bundle. Two salt shakers. One with a red screw-on lid, one with a clear lid pressed on. But both had a kind of crystal look to them.
“They almost match,” she said.
And, with my kitchen outfit, they really did.
