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From: "Lizzie Love" <>
Subject: Tupperware (was ...Having things for Best)
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2003 08:43:11 +0100
References: <MBBBJLLANCDEBICOFBGAKECFIJAA.grayston@comteck.com>


Jackie Thomas wrote


> Rubbermaid is a famous brand of rubber anything, from mats for your sink,
> dustpans, containers of all sorts. Tupperware is also another famous
brand.

Tupperware ... now there was a name to conjour with ... but not any more it
seems. Tupperware have announced the end of their *party-selling* in the UK
after half a century. I don't know if they are ceasing trade here
altogether. I have a treasured collection of smaller items, mostly
freezer-boxes. I usually had a look through the catalogue and placed and
order in advance of a party. My initial experience with Tupperware was
inauspicious to say the least.

I first encountered it in 1961 as a young married woman. We were visiting my
husband's brother, and his wife took me along to a Tupperware party. Bill
hit the roof when she suggested he give me some money, as I would need to
buy something. He refused, and his brother called him a skinflint. It was a
fairly new concept in UK and I was shocked at the pressure to buy. I also
realised that the hostess was terrified of the demonstrator. I could see the
stuff was good, and wished I could aford some. When it came to ordering,
Gladys was mortified that I wasn't buying anything, so had me order some of
the things she wanted. Bill called it *social blackmail* and I tended to
agree.

The whole thing led Bill and Doug to an almighty row in which Doug mentioned
that Bill's Hi-max duck cartridges cost 28GBP a case and that was a week's
wages. I didn't even know he earned that much! Bill was livid that his
private affairs had been exposed to his wife. Doug and Gladys, however, ran
their own business and knew exactly what came in and out. She was a farmer's
daughter and had done her father's accounts since her teens. I sat silent
horrified fascination, learning more by the minute!! I was 19 and Tupperware
had just taught me that outside Essex there was more to marriage than
dependancy and obedience.

Lizzie

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