It is a different tin, different buttons but the sound of buttons pouring out onto a wooden table is just the same.
Immediately I’m back at my Granny’s side, eagerly dumping out her tins of buttons. Running my fingers through the pile as I sort. Finding my favorites, dividing by color, talking with Granny, endlessly fascinated by the collection. Always, I am reluctant to undo my “work” and sweep them back into their circular home when the time comes, only slightly mollified by promises that they’ll be there next time.
But sometimes next time doesn’t come soon enough and I am mystified by the reluctance I see in Granny’s eyes when I mention the buttons.
Today I dumped the buttons on the table, and though the tin has spent the last year inside a moving box, the girls were drawn to the sound as if by magic. Buttons! Can we play with them? Can we pile them? These are mine! Oops- I dropped some. No- THESE are mine! Can we put them on string? Oops!
The girls and I crawled about on the floor finding buttons and the look I remember in Grannys eyes is no longer a mystery. But I’ll leave the buttons out, just for tomorrow.
It’s a small magic, that of button tins and memories, but there it is, running through the generations, connecting us in my mind like buttons on a string.
Behind the Willows 
That’s such a sweet memory 🙂
Are the buttons stored in a tin that once held a Christmas fruit cake? The buttons are a much better ‘Christmas gift’: they make any day a little bit Christmasy.
For sure, initially more confusing for the receiver, but better all around! 🙂
Nice, I will swap you Mishmash the cat for the tin of buttons
hmmmm… While Mishmash has one of the best cat names ever I might be full up on cats. What you really need is a tin of buttons *for* Mishmash. I’m sure he’d love it! 🙂 (Just in case you couldn’t tell that was an evil grin as I thought of the results of playful kitten meets piles of round shiny rollable objects.)
What I need is just the tin, then I can send you a kitty in a tin
Perfect.
Kate and I had a tin of my grandma’s buttons and we would spend hours playing buttons. It wasn’t really a game, we just each took a turn taking one button at a time until all our favorites were gone. Then we’d trade them back and forth. I’m not sure why this was so fun, but it was!