Rediscovering Hopscotch

I've been trying to cut down on all the china that is floating around Chez Vel-DuRay (It really is insane that we have seven - SEVEN - separate sets of dinnerware, and I refuse to become the sort of "confirmed bachelor" that has a bunch of china doo-dads floating around the house!)

The trouble is that some of it is so cool.

We have the Colonel's mother's wedding china, which is very nice, in an elegant sort of way (white on white with a subdued texturizing and a silver rim). For obvious reasons, it's not going anywhere.

Then there's the Colonel's bachelor dinnerware, which is colorful, but nothing to write home about - it practically SCREAMS Fred Meyer. We are supposed to be shipping it off to the polish woman one of these days, but we haven't gotten around to it. But I'm thinking this weekend might be the time.

Then there's the Franciscan Starburst, which is sort of the epitome of 50's dinnerware, but that's what's wrong with it. When you see something show up in a Cherrio's commercial, you know it's probably jumped the shark, so that stuff is going over to eBay or cragislist or something like that.

Along the same lines are some miscellaneous pieces of Franciscan "Autumn" and those are on their way out also. Except for the platters. I love the nice big platters that came with those - and the nice big non-divided serving bowls.

But then there's California Contempora, which we use as "everyday", and is really quite a bit of fun. Definitely a keeper.

And the Melmac, which is cute and colorful, but most likely toxic and getting a bit boring. It will be farmed out as well.

Some time ago I made a committment to Navajo by Metlox, and I intend to stand by that commitment. It's an elegant, cool pattern, even if the Colonel doesn't like the coffee cups.

But that leaves us with the special pattern - the pattern I just can't bear to part with: "Hopscotch" by Salem



What I did not know, until I looked it up, was that "Hopscotch" was designed by one Viktor Schreckengost who did all sorts of interesting things, all while living in Cleveland, for goodness sake!

While the plates are fairly ho-hum (except for the groovy pattern) the serving pieces are wild - Old Victor really had a good eye for this sort of thing.

It's still readilly available on eBay, and still pretty affordable, so I've decided that, in exchange for jettisoning three sets of perfectly lovely dinnerware, I'm going to beef up the Hopscotch just a tad, so that there are enough place settings to serve eight (which is about all I'll ever hope to serve anyway - I'm not getting any younger after all.

So keep you hands off the Hopscotch, you eBay whores!