Aluminum

Journaling:

Daddy worked for Reynolds Metals for most of his life and retired after 30 years. Because of that, we had lots of aluminum products around the house when I was growing up. We even had an aluminum barbecue grill. Somewhere I still have a little bar of aluminum called a "pig" with the Reynolds name stamped in it.

The coaster was from the 1950s or so and I think there were 10 or 12 coasters in the set. My sister Nana has all but this one. When I was little the coasters lived in the top kitchen cabinet with the good china and crystal. They were the only things in the cabinet I was allowed to touch.

The coaster is stamped with the Reynolds Metals logo used since 1935. It was inspired by Raphael's version of St. George and the Dragon and symbolizes the crusading spirit. Daddy had cuff links, tie tacks, tie clips and a signet ring with a diamond in it with this logo. He was a Company Man.

He starting working for Reynolds at the Jones Mills Reduction Plant. A reduction plant zaps white powdery alumina with a zillion gigawatts of electricity to turn it into molten aluminum. Daddy was the electrical supervisor in the rectifier building.

I'm not sure what rectifier means, but I think that's where they take standard electricity off the grid and gig it up to make it be a zillion gigawatts. There is a second identical ashtray from the Jones Mills plant to denote the five billion pounds of aluminum production mark in November 1974.

Later in life Daddy transferred to another Reynolds plant where they made alumina from raw bauxite ore. I got to work there with him one summer when I was in college.

These aluminum mementos are now going to live with my niece R'bie along with the Reynolds Metals story.

Three more bits of tchochke out of my house. Yay!