Chalk-Ware Brain

My mother had a friend who had chalk-ware decorations in her kitchen. She had inherited them From her grandmother, maybe even her great-grandmother. They were from the forties. A chalk-ware peach, a chalk-ware apple, a chalk-ware orange, a chalk-ware banana. Cook, butler, maid, stove, refrigerator, sink, all in chalk-ware. When she reached her nineties she was still in her own home, but making a few little mistakes. She called my mother one time to complain because she had put her chalk-ware decorations into The dishwasher to “freshen them up”, but after the dishwashing cycle, they had disappeared. My mother told me about it, and we laughed. All those little wires in the bottom of the dishwasher, my mother said. We laughed again. Chalk-ware brain, I thought. I wisely kept this to myself.