Every Mug Tells a Story
Jun 25th, 2010 by Marilyn
Because sometimes, inspiration is in the upper left cabinet above the sink.
1. In 1993 we registered for twelve blue-and-white coffee cups from William-Sonoma. We received a gift box with eleven blue-striped cups and, like an ugly duckling, one with a stripe of green. Green Stripe always sat in the back, used only for a crowd, if we really needed twelve cups – until Josie came along and decided it was special, it was the lucky cup. The renamed Lucky Green isn’t pictured – he’s busy holding her ice cream, or tea, or hot chocolate. Now he’s a swan.
2. That is one big Kansas Jayhawks mug. It originally belonged to a friend, a friend who asked me to edit and proofread his dissertation, his 300-page, ten-years-in-the-making, bone-dry military history dissertation. I drank gallons of late-night coffee from that mug, pencil in hand, and when all was said and done he got a PhD – and I got the mug.
3. Five-Layer Butterscotch. Lemon Angel. Raspberry, Blueberry, Bumbleberry. How do I love thee, Betty’s Pies of Two Harbors, Minnesota? Let me count the slices.
4. Polly’s Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire resides in my pantheon of breakfasts: buckwheat waffles, cob-smoked bacon, bracing coffee and maple sugar, maple butter, maple syrup, maple heaven – all from right down the road.
5. I’ve had this butterflied mini-mug as long as I can remember, which is – ahem – at least the early 70′s. It held everything from root beer to Lipton tea to coffee nabbed from dad’s bigger mug. Today I don’t think of it as child-sized; it’s espresso-sized.
6. Oh Maine Diner of Wells, Maine. We were in such a crustacean daze after your meaty lobster rolls and melted butter, we sprung for a mug.
7. Once upon a time, long ago when Josie was not a supercool 14-year-old, she marched into a glaze-your-own ceramics shop and boldly painted the word DAD. It’s been Greg’s number one mug ever since, enjoying permanent favored status in the front row. The bottom reads Love, Josie – which is code for “break this, and feel bad for life.”
8. Greg’s brother Stephen and his wife, Swedish-born Moa, live in Stockholm. When Josie was 8 or 9 she fell hard for the charming Moomintroll books by Swedish-Finn author Tove Jansson, and the Scandinavian connection proved especially useful in obtaining cute mugs and other Moomin-shwag.
9. Are you true to Anne of Green Gables, like me and Josie? If you get misty saying “Marilla’s cordial” and “Gilbert Blythe,” this souvenir is for you. My mom visited Canada’s Prince Edward Island last year and dropped by the real Green Gables, part of author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Cavendish National Historic Site. I want to go. For now I’ve got a mug.
10. I spent a good chunk of my childhood collecting penguins, and here’s what it taught me: people might forget your name, but never your collection. And you will spend the rest of your life thanking said well-meaning people for penguin keychains and figurines and mugs. You can pack it all away and wait for people to forget – but keep out the mugs. They’re darn useful penguins.
11. I may or may not have stolen this cup from a restaurant in Falun, Sweden. I’m sure you’ve never nabbed anything from a restaurant. Have you?
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That concludes our mug shot. Have a lovely weekend, and tell me – what’s in your cabinet?
Marilyn – I too, once had a collection like you do. the thing about mugs is they are hard to stack. I wanted my cupboard to look better since I had gotten glass doors, so I got rid of them. Did I toss them, recycle them, give them away – nope! I packed them in a box and they are sitting upstairs. Couldn’t bear to toss them. What is it about mugs like that?
You know how at the top of your home page on the right is recent comments? Well, I’m listed there as making a comment about Cleo (whom I love!:) ). Just down a few comments is one by Erin Gergen Halls. I about fell off my chair since she’s my daughter!! What a surprise to see both our names there. Have a great day. It’s absolutely gorgeous in Minnesota!
I think the Moomintrolls are celebrating beating the penguins to the front of the cabinet…
As far as I’m concerned everyone should have at least one Moomin mug at home and the complete collection of Tove Jansson books. Been a fan for years. Happy to see one in your cabinet. Mine is pink.
Spectacular post! I love that you have a Maine Diner mug and a Polly’s Pancake Parlor
When I moved recently I ditched almost all of my funky mugs except the one I’ve had since I was a kid that portrays a Christmas scene. For some reason that’s the one that I simply will not part with. It’s perfect for hot cocoa on cold winter mornings.
PS: Also completely jealous of your Green Gables mug. I must get my hands on one of those.
This is all kinds of awesome. And Laura Looks Lovingly at Polly’s Pancake Parlor mug. It sounds like the kind of place you’d have to pry me out of with a crowbar.
No, I’ve never stolen a salt shaker from a pub in Plano, Texas. Wait- what was the question again?
. You must make a visit to Green Gables (and stop for a lobster church supper while you’re on the island).
I love this story of your mugs! Complete with numbered mugshots. Genius!
I couldn’t bear to part with the most ridiculous mug in the world after my mum died. Not sure how it got into her mug collection as it was so unrelated to anything else in her house. It’s a short mug with a decal of an antique car, and underneath, in an Old English blackletter font is the name, “Cliff”. Do we know a Cliff? Did we ever know a Cliff? No. It was simply the name of the mug. It is a hideous mug. But, it was her favourite mug for tea because of its shape and size. Cleaning out her belongings, I couldn’t put it on the thrift store pile. I still have it over 20 yrs later. And tea does taste really good out of it.
This is fabulous. I have a rogue group of mugs myself and can’t pare them down because they all have a story and a memory. I just bought some nice, uniform mugs to start feeling pretty adult but I keep reaching for the mismatched dudes. Thanks for the smile this morning.
I love this post. I’m going to turn it into a blog meme (though I don’t know how to do the fancy numbering).
I loved this post. We have a dedicated mug cabinet where, like you guys, every mug tells a story of a trip, a time in life, a special birthday, or something else significant. I always reach for one of those mugs rather than for a coffee cup that matches my dishware. Sometimes I choose my mug deliberately because I want to visit a memory, sometimes I choose haphazardly in a semi-awake state of mind and am surprised, as the caffeine awakens my sleepy brain, by a thought or memory associated with that particular mug. It is like our mugs are our story boards. Love it.
Glad to know I’m not the only one w/memory mugs I can’t let go of. the handspun one I bought for a dollar on campus & reserve for tea. The vintage Cowboy photo mug I got when I used to ride outside of Reno. There was a live cowboy that went with it. & my favorite purple/midnight blue hand thrown mug that came from the desert–it holds more road trip memories: men, trails, big sky days, long cold sleeping bag nights, a dog, sage & life, than any other.
Thank you for reminding me of that.
d.
I certainly have a mug-devoted shelf…actually it’s a whole cabinet that holds anything that I can put tea into (the tea has a whole shelf in my pantry). There are definitely grad school giant mugs that held lots of hot black tea, a Wonder Woman mug, a Prima Tazza mug, a mug from a theatre in Vermont that reads “Get Lost at Lost Nation Theatre, and two Harlequin-patterned mugs from a friend in England.
The shelf above has four teapots and a 6-cup set of Chinese tea cups that I bargained to half the asking price in Beijing. But my favorite of all is a hand painted teapot that my best friend painted. It’s covered in little cherries (which remind me of polka dots and therefore just make me smile) and is signed “Love Ellie.”
Moomin-shwag! I love it. I shall have to work that term into conversation.
My favorite mug is one that I painted at one of those pottery painting places — it’s got chips all over it now, but its got cute hearts and vines all over it. Makes me happy to look at it!
I have the same WS cups, also wedding registry gifts, sans Lucky Green. I love them anyway.
If you like stationery, http://www.felixdoolittle.com has multiple illustrations with our cups.
Fun idea! My favorite mug is one I painted a few years ago. I love it because: 1. The quote on it reminds me, “Life is God’s gift to you; What you do with it is your gift to him.” 2. It’s big enough to (almost) fit all the coffee I need to function!
As for your collection, the Jayhawk mug is my favorite… but I’m a little partial.
yes…each one does tell a story Marilyn…I have a collection of stories myself~~great post!
I’m so glad I’m not the only one! I have a sizable mug collection, which is all the more amusing to my family, since I don’t drink coffee. I find that mugs are among my favorite souvenirs to bring back from trips. They’re also among my favorite book companions, when filled with various yummy goodnesses.
I took my largest ones with me to college, and they got me through many all-nighters, filled with instant hot chocolate or apple cider, or the occasional chai. (My dorm room windows redefined the word “drafty.” I could get a papers-strewing breeze through them while they were closed.)
Great post. When I travel, I snag bumper stickers. I have a file cabinet in my classroom that is plastered with my bumper stickers. About once a week, I take a moment to read my stickers and relive my life on the road.
I hope all is well.
Love your cup stories. I have mine as well and some are getting quite old so are accompanied by a cautionary comment if I see my relatively soon to using them for his tea habit husband who assures me he will not drop one. I think your #11 is my fave and of course things have left restaurants with me.
Hello! Loved this post… ambled over from ZebraSounds, where I caught Judy’s tweet. I’m a new-again Minnesota resident (used to live here 10 years ago and now am back), and I’ve been dying to go Up North. Now I’m going to make it happen!
Your descriptions of mugs, all things delicious, and your family’s traveling tradition have made me a new fan!