140 West Copper Street

I have been a fan of Tupperware for about a million years or so.

I had my first Tupperware party back in ’81, not long after I moved into the Phoenix, the ancient apartment building at 2726 Girard Avenue in Minneapolis’s fashionable Wedge district.

I will never forget the look of terror in the poor Tupperware lady’s eyes as she looked at the roomful of party-goers. (I found her in the phone book.) Me, three girlfriends, and sixteen guy friends. She had never been to a party with men attending. All her little games were cutesy, baby shower type of stuff.

She actually started to panic, but I told her, let’s just cut to the chase and sell some Tupperware. I mean, I had gone to school with these guys, and knew they were wrapping leftovers in newspaper, I know one that put an aluminum pan of leftover tomato sauce in the fridge and left it long enough to grow a ¼ inch hole in the bottom of the pan.

She sold $2800 of Tupperware that night.

I got a camera and about $200 in free Tupperware, most of which I still use, like my measuring cups (in that brilliant, early 80’s orange. Not the new, fashionable new millennium tangerine). She started marketing to male college grads, and ended up with a new minivan.

Ten years later, I even made out in some lawsuit Polaroid had against Kodak for making an instant image camera, and got a Polaroid One Step as a replacement for the “banned” Kodak camera I got as my hostess prize for the party.

I have had a few Tupperware parties over the years. I have had In-person parties, and on-line parties. They have all done well.

Today was a walk down memory lane. Since we are just getting the kitchen in and ready to fill, we have been bringing in boxes of kitchen stuff (I am not sure if kitchen or books have the most boxes in the trailer.) One of our friends in town once looked at the cabinets we are putting in the kitchen (a steal at $600 from Stardustbuilding.org, but that will be another post, how we did a $10K kitchen for $1000) and commented, “don’t you have too many cabinets?”

If you build it, they will come. Kitchen stuff multiplies to fit the space allocated.

Anyhow, from that first Tupperware party in 1981, I bought two Tupperware cake takers, a round and a rectangular.

The round turns out to be a bowl big enough to brine an 18 pound turkey in the fridge. I use it as a HUGE bowl. I don’t think I have ever taken a cake in it, but it gets used once or twice a year because it is big and deep.

BUT I used the rectangular cake taker a lot. Maybe 5 or six times a year. I used to make a lot of cakes, but lately, it was the useful small Tupperware holder I would slide out full of all the small square and little rectangular containers.

I pulled the round and rectangular out of the box it had been moved in, and unwrapping the rectangular, it had cracked all around the deep, classic sheer lid edge. I tried to fit it onto its base, and it cracked even more. It was just disintegrating under my fingers.

I was mortified. I loved that piece, and had a feeling it would be obsolete. The new cake takers had arched lids, not flat, and I used to pack cupcakes into the lid.

I had to replace a Season Serve several years ago, it was a small size, and it cracked just like the cake taker did. Since Tupperware no longer made the small size, the Tupperware lady got me a full size Season Serve. Brand new. Works the same, just takes up more space in the fridge.

Well, I called in per the instructions on the email. The most difficult thing about the warranty process, is that they will want the mold batch number from the piece you want warranty replacement on. Finding this number for the rep on the phone, required 200x glasses, 150x glasses and a magnifying glass to finally find the teeny tiny digits they hide on the unit. But, apparently jumping through this hoop qualifies you for warranty assistance.

The very professional young lady, Karen, I spoke to (who didn’t seem to be from here….) upon having me read all the teeny tiny numbers to her, regretfully said she could not send me a replacement top as they are obsolete, but could send me a whole new updated unit.

I would have to pay $4.00 for shipping and handling. Well, this was more than fair to me. Rounded lid, so can’t store much stuff upside down, but this is a $39.50 set, so I thought, heck go for it. And thinking about it, my most common 13×9 thing is cornbread, so I will just use it for that.

The old unit, with my confirmation info on it.

God bless Tupperware.

There is no Tupperware lady in town. May be a bit too pricey for Superior, but I wonder if I should sign up, and when the town starts to boom, I could be the gal that gets the minivan?