Perhaps you could call it art. For certain it was a fad. For a couple of decades - the nineteen sixties and seventies - it was not uncommon to find in a home a bowl of plastic fruit. Often the bowl was of good quality - perhaps of polished wood and filled with realistic plastic bananas and apples. Grapes dangled over the rim of the bowl in an appealing way. Occasionally, you might find an orange or a plum. As a kid, I was fascinated. The plastic reproductions were usually quite authentic looking - not cartoonish - and pleasing to hold. 

Perhaps their popularity was practical - unlike with a decorative bowl of fresh fruit, there was no worry about spoilage. Though not edible, they still brought to mind the comfort of food, sunny fields, productive vines and trees. 

Plastic was still relatively new in the home - intrigue with something different and rather impressive could have led to an impulse purchase. Or perhaps it was just the in thing to do - we're in with the in crowd - we have a bowl of plastic fruit.

I feel a little bad about making fun. There was something reassuring to visit friends and discover the bowl of fruit on a counter, or in the center of a dining room table, an icon, gleaming and unchanging.

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Glad to be back after a two-week hiatus from this blog - whale's breath. Buried within greater Austin, Texas - I finally found a place to live. The process of moving took time and the blog was set aside for a spell.

linda