The Button Jar, by Mandi Batalo

I open the door to the china cabinet and remove the jar of buttons nestled behind my other treasures safely stored behind the glass. This movement reminds me of my childhood, removing the button jar from a hallway closet. A closet filled with household items of practicality. My mother stored leftover buttons in a peanut butter jar. She was a child of the depression, and few things went to waste in our household. The buttons were taken from discarded clothes that had been outworn, outgrown, or outdated. I remember in my own childhood I played with the buttons on the carpet of our living room. I would sort them by size, shape, color, texture, and fabric. The green buttons in one pile, the shiny metal buttons in one pile, and the special, crystal buttons in another. I would then line the buttons up in rows or make a design, a face, a house, a flower. I didn’t know in those early days of playing with the buttons from the button jar I would have a life-long interest in art and design. Maybe someday I’ll give each of my students a jar of buttons as a design project, and hope years later that they remember playing with buttons as warmly as I remember my childhood days playing with my mother’s button jar.