The other night, as part of an ongoing cultural exchange with my Norwegian friend Ã…, I photographed bits and pieces of my painfully vast and extremely dear-to-me collections of dish- and glassware. I almost forgot about my everyday dishes, pictured above. This is part of a complete set of “Young Love” by Royal China on Royal Ironstone. I live in a world where I can eat and drink from these dishes daily, and for that I am grateful.

Something went ping in my head and I remembered seeing a snippet of a saved email about how these beauties came to be in my possession.

And here it is. Written by me on July 2, 2001, to my friend (and #1 lurker) T:

Saturday I was shown the secret thrift store that I never, ever knew about the 37 years I’ve been familiar with Oxnard. I walked in, there were tables and tables filled with art glass, all eras; hundreds of pots, utensils, glassware sets, etc etc that were all in their original packaging: ORIGINAL packaging! Hammered copper pots from the 40s; full dish sets from 50s to 70s; lamps you wouldn’t believe, etc etc. Oh my dear god. I was completely overcome. The prices weren’t dirt cheap, and so I breathed a sigh of relief: perhaps I could resist. Oh, but no: it was half-off day. A 50s ironstone 45-piece dish set: cream color dishes with stylized pink roses, pink tea cups with white interior, bowls/salad plates/full plates/platter service for 8… I was in love and I bought the set, 20 bucks. I packed it in a early-60s tupperware clothes hamper with matching trashbasket (pearlescent while). Copper measuring spoons in their display packaging, a pair of tiki bbq tongs and a 1957 sifter rounded out the purchase. It was like entering a time warp: It was Ventura thrift shopping from 15 years ago. Alone, worth a trip to California for you.

I remember that day so, so well. Not only the major thriftscores, but the company I kept: my darlings Andrew and my mom Maggie. Andrew was the one with the knowledge of this place; he was and is the most amazing finder of the most fantastical delights.

I’m sure mom came along because she could not ever pass up a deal, and just adored Andrew. I remember sitting in the car in the parking lot after shopping; Andrew bought ice cream bars for the three of us, and we sat in happy, companionable silence while we ate.

That was a golden moment during a wonderful, summery summer. A lot of things have changed since then, but that store is still there (though never as good as it was that day), Andrew is still darling, and I still have these dishes.

This is the magical power of things.

roseplates, originally uploaded by hambox