On Mon, 02 Sep 2024 08:58:10 -0700, Paul S Person
Post by Paul S PersonPost by The Horny GoatYou still have a long way to go to beat my late aunt - my cousin
showed me her collection and it was 2 whole barns worth (yep!) mostly
stored in those 18" x 24" apple boxes. (Each row was stacked some 7'
or so high)
Are those the heavy cardboard boxes with holes in the sides? I grew up
with those boxes -- whenever we needed boxes, my Mom would go talk the
grocery store manager and bring a few of those home.
If by 'holes' ;you mean roughly 1" x 3" with rounded ends -
essentially handles where you put your fingers in then yes.
These were in two parts, a top and a bottom. You put the entire top
over the entire bottom. So, in a sense, the top could be called a
"lid".
IIRC, they had three holes in each long side. This was for
ventilation, presumably. I don't recall any on the ends, but they may
well have had what you describe above. The problem here is that a
/lot/ of cardboard boxes for electronic gear have the same sort of
handles, so I am familiar with them but not necessarily from the apple
boxes.
These were (IIRC) used to move apples from Eastern Washington (where,
thanks to the Grand Coulee Dam and resulting irrigation system, they
could be grown in large numbers) to Western Washington (where the bulk
of the people were and still are).
Keep in mind that this was back in the 50s and 60s, when many things
were different, possibly including how fruit is packed and shipped to
stores. And when it is picked: the ventilation could have been as much
to ripen it a bit before purchase as anything else.
When we had a small house fire in 1983 and had to purchase boxes to
pack stuff up for storage while repairs were done, Mom found the idea
of /buying/ boxes to be absurd. After all, she had always gotten them
for free.
(I've been looking on Google Images and not finding them but finding
wooden boxes with similar hand holes)
Bing showed lots of cardboard boxes, but none like those I am
describing here.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"
