Threads 8: Basket Tale from my Mother

By Christopher Anstead

Mom grew up in Wallaceburg not far from Windsor, Ontario. She remembered that her father would stop occasionally at a Chinese store. There he would play a game of chance. There was a board with a grid of small holes. Into each hole was rolled a piece of paper just big enough for a couple of words. Pay your nickel and poke out your choice of papers. Many would read "Try Again" and a few would win a prize on display.

One day grandfather won a handsome round basket with a lid. The lid was decorated with Chinese coins, glass and stone beads. In the lid centre was a tassel with a coin attached. The coins had a square holes which made attaching easy.

The family moved to Windsor, the children finished schools and started work and families. Sixty years passed before my mother knocked on the door of the Wallaceburg house. Her reception from the owner was friendly and a tour of the house ensued. Nothing was skipped - not even the attic where mom and her sisters used to visit.

The attic was not being used, but it was not quite empty. On her visit mom found a bottle of whiskey and the Chinese basket. Both were covered with soot - testimony to the coal fired heating furnaces.

The owner kept the whiskey bottle; it really told a story of the house. Mom left with the Chinese basket. 

When she got back home the sooty Chinese basket was put through a cycle in the dishwasher. After a decade of use by mom, it was my turn to use the Chinese basket. The treasures in the basket are protected by the lid with the old Chinese coins and the tassel.