Vintage

I was using this pestle and mortar last night to crush some juniper berries and peppercorns and got to thinking. That’s when I realised it was 50 years old. I know that because I remember exactly how I came to have it.

I was in my first teaching job after leaving college, at a little junior school. What did headmasters do at that time - not a lot I suspect. It was a totally different job to what it was years later and now. They had no control over money for one thing, except when it came to capitation. This was an an amount allocated to schools for equipment etc. As class teachers it was an exciting time as we got our own allocation with which to buy things for our classrooms. So the huge catalogues were sought after and perused and lists were made. Obviously there was no Internet at the time so the head teachers had to complete by hand huge forms with all the correct numbers for each item. Well, it gave them something to do.

One day our headmaster arrived in the staff room with a box of pestle and mortars - something had gone wrong with the order and these, obviously intended for secondary school science departments, had arrived at our school. So he said - does anyone want one? Well, one doesn’t turn down an offer like that. Despite not knowing what on earth we would do with them, several of us accepted one.

And it has been in our various kitchens ever since. I wonder whether the others are still going and whether anyone else remembers that day 50 years ago.