Rorschach Test
While I sometimes find valuable treasures thrifting, other times I pick up something simply because it makes me smile. This object is a bit of a Rorschach Test – I know what the thing actually IS but I can’t get passed the funny pink face staring back at me. Not exactly clear what Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922) would make of this, but most of the folks at the thrift store gave me quizzical looks. Why in the world, they seemed to say, would I want to buy such a beat up, old, heavy item when things cost $1.62 per pound? I had it weighed – 5 pounds – and felt $8 was not a bad sum for such an amusing yard decoration.
The piece was made by the Perky Pet Company as a “squirrel-be-gone feeder” likely in the 1950s. The company, still in business in Denver, started in 1958 making humming bird feeders. This model was a bird feeder designed to stop those pesky squirrels from raiding the feed, as their weight would “shut the door” of the feeder. However, mine seems to have been transformed a tad. Someone sealed up the clear windows and door and added metal washers to resemble eyes. And then painted the whole thing pink. Not sure why, but I suspect the thing had stopped working and a creative soul decided to transform it into funny yard art.
God knows I do not need to feed the myriad of squirrels and chipmunks running rampant on my property. They help themselves to all sorts of things, including anything stored in the barn. Oddly, they enjoy eating through electrical cords so the lighting in the barn loft has to be arranged such that they can’t get to the plugs. The charming holiday lights strung in the rafters by my son in high school are long since non functioning as the squirrels ate most of the wiring.
Early in our ownership of the property, I stored furniture and items awaiting a renovated kitchen in the barn attic. Bad idea. The furniture was destroyed, either through nesting or nibbling, including my mother-in-law’s charming old maple sewing cabinet. A vintage wood high chair used by my baby daughter apparently had food remnants on the tray – boy did the squirrels enjoy gnawing that to splinters. I also stored a treasured vintage cookie jar, picked up years ago at an antique store in Evanston for $30 – a Helene Hutula “tattle tale” jar from the 1930s. When I went to look for it after our kitchen was remodeled, I couldn’t find the box anywhere. Puzzled, I dug deeper into the creepy attic, only to discover PIECES of the cookie jar scattered over the floor – the damn squirrels had shredded the entire cardboard box to use for nesting and the poor jar smashed to the floor.
Husband has often threatened to purchase a pellet gun and do in the squirrels that insist on sneaking into the barn, nesting and raising babies in comfort. And destroying things. Moth balls, dogs and patching holes doesn’t seem to stop them. As yet we’ve left them in peace and simply worked around them, out-smarting them when possible. And not storing anything shreddable. For now my pink “squirrel-be-gone” feeder sits at the backdoor, making me smile every time I see him. And I let my dog do all the squirrel chasing she likes.
