ThriftDay - Diner Dishes...and a little trivia!

Following the lead of my good junking friend, Candy at Junk Sophisticate, who has appropriately dubbed Thursday - "ThriftDay", I wanted to share a recent load of dishes I found at my local Volunteers of America. I try to hit our thrift stores once a week (there are four within about 10 minutes of my office) - so lunchtime is just the right amount of time to go "shopping" - and my boss is pretty understanding if I'm a "few" minutes late!

Anyway, I've been shopping for things for us to sell at the Springfield Extravaganza (coming up soon - September 18-20, 2009) - and came across the most wonderful old "diner dishes" - used by some local restaurant(s) I'm sure. I collect (and LOVE) white pottery of many kinds, so the "white" just sucked me in! I couldn't believe how many there were (and the price was RIGHT)...there were piles of plates, saucers, dessert bowls, soup bowls and cups...oh my!!! And of course I had to flip them over to see the names...some of them were familiar and some not: Homer Laughlin, Buffalo China, Shenango, Walker, Wellsville, Bailey-Walker, Syracuse, Victor, and Sterling. I believe they're mostly Ohio and Pennsylvania companies. Ohio used to be a huge manufacturer of pottery, and East Liverpool, Ohio was at one time known as the "Pottery Capital of the World". (a little Ohio trivia...)

Another tidbit of information (a little "Kathy" trivia). One of my first jobs in high school was at a diner in Bryan, Ohio (Lester's Diner - in business since 1965 - I was there in the 70s...) So maybe seeing all these diner dishes was like going back to my roots - so to speak. Anyway, I was the first "bus girl" they had, and I cleared a LOT of those kinds of dishes off tables - so that's my claim to fame in diner history in Bryan... Lots of fun memories there... Here's their website... http://www.lestersonline.com/

They've now had a good old-fashioned homestyle dishwashing, which after years of banging around in a big old commercial restaurant dishwasher - probably seemed like a day at the spa! LOL Anyway, here are some pics - the dishes are all white, aged to perfection and ready for new homes to serve up some meatloaf and mashed potatoes and a piping hot cup of coffee (so diner-ish)...

See - I said piles of dishes... and more...

So, I had to make a little cup pyramid...too much photo-fun!!

Just a "few" more... (did I go a little overboard??? nah.....!)

I love vintage pottery, and these old dishes had all the great "markings"...

OK - one last "photo op" and I'm done!! :)

Thanks for stopping by the "diner" and happy thrifting!!

P.S. I bought over 60 pieces, and they still had more...maybe I'll have to go back!

That thrifting bug never goes away...