Not Your Norm

 I have a friend that is a "picker". She finds THE BEST stuff. The good news is, she often lets me know about the great stuff she buys before she takes it to any shows. The bad news is that I want to buy so much of what she finds! But I can't...and don't!

 My friend The Picker, kind of works with me. She use to officially teach with me. She got to retire. Kind of. She still works at the school part-time, just not teaching. (Yes, I am envious!!)

 This spring I was lucky enough to be named Teacher of the Year in our district. My friend gave me this giant "spring" for being the TOTY. She even let me pick between two different ones she had. I loved them both, but picked this one. 

 When we got in the car to leave, the Hubs told me that the gas station where he had worked many, many years ago (in high school) had a giant pile of  "those things, those springs" behind the station.  I could have had as many as I wanted, because no body wanted them. 

 I told him, clearly people missed out back then. Just think of four or five of these lined up down the middle of a table. How cute would that be? If you look ever so closely, you will see that I put a clear glass in the spring before I put the flowers. Even close up, you can barely see the glass. 

 He still shakes his head at the "spring thing", but he knows I love it, so he accepts the fact it is not going anywhere.........unless I move it to a different room. I have had roses in it too, and they looked just as pretty as the sunflowers, by the way. The spring is an equal-opportunity spring, and loves hosting all flowers. 

 Then last week my friend The Picker called to tell me that while pricing some things for an upcoming sale she realized one of the minnow buckets she had was a big "Hiawatha" minnow bucket. She thought I might like it, since Hiawatha, Kansas, is the town we lived in for almost 20 years and raised all our children there. 

 Of course I wanted it!!  She sent me a picture and it was even better than I thought. The mascot in Hiawatha for my oldest three children was the "Redskins". (They went on to change it later to the "Red Hawks", which is what my two youngest were.) 

 Not only that, but our school color was red, which made it pretty much perfect. We told my non-fishing Hubs that it was his Father's Day present. He actually liked it!!  But I knew since he rarely fishes, that the bucket would really be mine to use. 

 (By the way, he did get other presents he can actually use.) I told my friend I would just pick up the bucket at the junk (antique) show where she was showing. When I got there she had a SOLD ticket on it, and it was sitting right beside another minnow bucket. I picked up the other one and it was identical, only the ink was orange and it said FALLS CITY (and no Indian head.) 

For  those non-Kansans reading this, I will tell you that Hiawatha was the most north-eastern town in Kansas. Right across the border in Nebraska was Falls City, Nebraska...and their school color was orange. Isn't that coincidental? I did not buy the Falls City bucket, although I kind of which I had, just for that reason. I went home and googled up to see what I could find out, but I was not successful. 

 In the meantime, I put the Hiawatha minnow bucket right to work with a vase full of flowers from my yard. And they look just as cute as I thought they would! 

 Do any of you know about Hiawatha and/or Falls City minnow buckets? I don't really think they had to do with the two neighboring towns in Kansas and Nebraska, but I do find it an odd coincidence! 

 In the meantime, all my summer flowers will enjoy their not-so-normal-vases. Thank goodness for a good friend that knows how to pick! 

Linking to:

Stone Gable TTT

Open House Thursday

Metamorphosis Monday
Wow Us Wednesday