Chances are you have a jar...or two.

Assorted snacks in a cheese jar.

Flour, Sugar, Splenda...

Rice, Grits, Meal

prim fixins....

I do believe that jars are an essential part of prim decor. In fact, the more jars the merrier is my thought. Jars have long been a staple item in my home; holding all sorts of things to nothing at all, depending on the jar. They appear all over our home...on counters, on shelves, in baskets, on desks, in cubbies. I have quite a varied collection of jars with no particular favorite, save one. That jar is a Lance Jar with a red metal lid. Like many items in my home, this Lance Jar has a personal history of my own. That jar always makes me smile and I see it daily in my kitchen.

Years ago, let's not say how many, that jar sat atop a counter with its twin. The counter was a long work counter in my granddad's car dealership where we kids could pull up a stool and have a seat next to him. He would be busily handling customers there for car repair or ordering parts or preparing a car for purchase. He was never too busy to offer us a coca cola, which he would get from the drink machine. You know the kind; put your money in, open the top of the cooler and slide your drink down the track where sodas hung like bats in a cave. He'd pop the lid off and hold it up to the light to be sure the bottle contained only beverage.....he found an unmentionable "thing" in one previously, so he took no chances! Then he would say the magic words: " Go ahead and get something out of that jar there." Oh the delight that was! Filled to the brim with Lance goodies of all sorts, we could reach into the jar and pull out whatever we wanted! At the bottom of the jar lay coins of all denominations like the bottom of a fountain. You see, if you selected something from the jar, you just dropped your coins in the jar to pay for it. For us grandkids, it was all FREE! Granddaddy would just put his change in later, after all, he had to anty up when the Lance man came to refill the jar anyway. I will always remember sharing a coke and eating a Nekot cracker with my granddad and the magic that Lance jar had back then.

For a while, that Lance jar sat on my kitchen counter filled with snack items for my girls. Of course, I kept change in the bottom just as a sweet reminder of the act of kindness my granddad had for us by allowing us to just reach in and make a selection without having to give up any of our allowance.

The rest of our jars hold all kinds of things and are all sorts of jars from masons, to Planters, to Tom's and the like. Some hold soaps, some contain staples in the kitchen, some even have a few rocks, shark's teeth and shells. None, however, hold a special place in my heart like that Lance jar does.

The Lance Jar....Proudly on Display.

soaps in the master bath....

threads and buttons......

soaps, sponges in Olivia's bath....and a candle!

Nature from special trips.....