Useful Junk

When EJ's mother was a young lady, plastics did not exist. Whatever food and things that were exported and imported were not transported by aeroplane then but by ship. To safeguard its contents, foodstuffs and things were packed in wooden boxes.

It was not known how EJ's mother got hold of these two boxes - the box with lid that contained the Lactogen milk powder for infants from Denmark and the box without lid that contained fruits from California, USA. The guess was her grocery friend probably gave her these two boxes.

To make good use of these two boxes, it became EJ's and siblings' 'wardrobe'. Those days, clothes were usually folded and not hung on clothes hangers.

It was also not known or remembered how EJ inherited these two 'wardrobe' boxes which by now would be termed and viewed as 'junk'. Since it held such happy childhood memories, EJ decided to convert it to something useful - a coffee table!

The box with the lid would be on top.

The box without lid would at the bottom. Castors were screwed at each corner at the bottom of the box so that it could be easily move about.

Two fastener clips were purchased and one on each side was screwed on. The clips can be unfastened to gain access to things stored in the bottom box. When the clips are fastened, the top box will not slide off or move from the bottom box.

A thorough wood polish completed it.

Well, the two boxes did not exactly fit but the difference in size created a useful gap for easy retrieval for magazines and other reading materials.

At times, it is also a laptop table.

To EJ, this useful 'junk' is a beautiful conversation piece.