I told this story at the evening session of the Frankoma meeting in Sapulpa, OK last week. It went over well so I post it here for those who were unable to attend. I was pleased when Joniece Frank told me that she really like my story, but remember, I just made this up--that is all except the part about the 7S salt shaker! And perhaps finally just one interesting theory I have that probably will never be proven. Here is how the story goes in my mind: about 1949 when Joniece was eleven she and Donna one day came tearing thru the plant, Joniece trying to escape Donna’s grasp. She was losing ground and finally stumbled crashing to the floor along with a considerable supply of green ware. She had brought a shelf of tall Aztec shakers to the concrete floor. The result was predictable, many shakers were chipped especially on the bottom corners which are pointy. Donna ran for her life because she heard John Frank coming in a rage. Joniece just sat there and cried. Now we all know John was really a softie so he tried to comfort his daughter but she would have none of it until he told her he was proud of her new creation. He took her and several of the broken Tall Aztecs to a work table. He thought for a while reviewing the task in front of him. Finally he said to Joniece who had finally settled down to just watching, “Hand me the saw from the nail there”. He took the saw and cut off the bottom 1/3 of one of the damaged shakers. “Get some molding clay and make a new bottom for this” he said. And she did. She created a new shaker design called the “7S”. You can find these right today. They all are on early darkish Ada clay, they all have the big “S” hole pattern, and if you look closely you can see little saw marks and how the new bottom was inserted into the shaker. The new shaker was a success, and would eventually replace the taller predecessor. Soon they had to make a mold for it so it could become a standard production item.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 02:52:29 +0000
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