Michael Morgan Photography

I bet a lot of you have had something like the photo image below sitting on your kitchen cabinet counter…sometime “after the party.” Not so in our case in years, but in the past such was a frequent experience on many weekend mornings. In Germany, for example, we used to gather for wine tasting parties (well, maybe more than just tasting) and it was hardly acceptable to serve such excellent beverages in anything but glass. The problem afterwards was cleaning up the evidence of the festivities. The wine glasses we had in Germany were much fancier than these show here, and they were much more expensive, given the motivation of many of our wives to purchase as many European-made crystal glasses as possible…various sizes, shapes, purpose…quantity was all that counted. I remember one family we served with in Karlsruhe Germany who (probably) set a record for the number of shipping container dish-packs when they moved back state-side. We had our share of dish-packs too, but nowhere near the record. These crystal glasses of ours sit largely unused in a cabinet today, their insides filled mostly with dust instead of recent memories of holding some sort of tasty beverage. I have to say that if we were to have a party today, there would be much less” after the party” clean-up involved, because plastic or paper would have ruled over crystal.

As an aside, I made this photo through the front window of a nearby community activity center. I assume no one was that much concerned with clearing up “after the party.” The scene made for an interesting photo, however, so I am glad they were not so motivated.