About Our Maid of Honor Canner/Pressure Cooker

Dear TEAMS,

I just wanted to preserve in photographs the canner that is in my last blog post.  I am tickled to no end about the place in history the box holds.

Because of the mailing label, I naturally first assumed that this had been my mother (your Grandmother K)’s canner.  The stamps on the label state it was sent in August 1956.  The orange stamp has a 6 in one corner and the 2 pink ones are 50 cents each.  It was sent from Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago 7, Ill to your grandpa at 1009 Cypress Av, FINDLAY OHIO 3.  (No zip codes yet in the ‘50s, let alone zip+4!)  The blue writing on the side reads “One No. 04600-16 Qt. Cooker Canner.  Maid of Honor Housewares are sold only by Sears, Roebuck and Company”  My parents would have been married for just over a year at this point, so I figured this was a late wedding present or something bought with Green Stamps or something.

 But then came the neatly typed label on the side, and it was a dead giveaway.  This was my Grandmother Rayle’s for sure, or at least she ended up using it!  You see, your great-grandfather on your mom’s side labeled everything…everything!  I still have the reused coffee tin I found on his homemade table saw that had a piece of masking tape on it labeled, “Sawdust.”  That, and I have all sorts of boxes he made to hold things.  I imagine they were all in the basement of their home on Hudson Street, because if I remember correctly he had a workshop down there.  And every box always had a little slip of neatly cut paper with his handwriting or typewritten note saying what was in the box.  So when I saw the label, I knew this was used at my grandmother’s.  

I’d like to think it was a gift from my parents to my grandparents, knowing how my grandmother canned.  Or perhaps it was used by my mother when she was still setting up her house but later she gave it to grandma when she realized she would never use it again.  No matter…because I’m using it now!

Love,