The Ice Cream Bucket

I had a flashback the other day in the freezer section at Wal-Mart of all places. We were walking down the ice cream aisle and I glanced over and saw a square ice cream bucket. I instantly thought of what a perfect berry picking bucket that would be. My Granny and I would use ice cream buckets when we picked blackberries. She used to dress in my Paw-Paw's overalls and long-sleeved shirts to avoid the chiggers. I, on the other hand, would climb in the middle of the briars in shorts and a tank top and be covered in itchy, red, welps by evening.

It's funny how many uses we had for those buckets. They hauled cat feed, persimmons, critters that I caught and would keep as a pet for the day, you name it. In the afternoons we would go out beneath the maple trees in the front yard and play frisbee with the lids. You had to throw with precision because the front yard wasn't real big. On one side was the house with it's peeling, white paint and huge front window. On the other was the road, which at he time was like fine pea gravel over crude blacktop. If you hit the maple branches at just the right time, dozens of "helicopters" would come fluttering down. The lids were so light-weight that they rarely made it to the other person. Eventually we would both take our own lid out and see who could throw it the highest and have it come back down and catch it ourselves. It was our special game.

I still find myself clinging to every ice cream bucket I come across. Who knew they could be such wonderful things?!