Hodel’s Eggs and Chicken Candy Dishes

I was thrifting with my mother in law the other day and had an awesome discovery. I found a chicken candy dish, just like the ones that once that littered the coffee tables and dressers of both sides of my family. I’m not sure why my dad’s side ever embraced chickens because his dad was a bee keeper and decorated with all things honey and bees; it’s my mom’s side that has a fair explanation. My aunt, uncle, and cousins lived across the field from my parents and ran “Hodel’s Egg Farm” with some 10,000 chickens; my Aunt Janet was/is pretty hard core about her chicken accessories. I’ve been told that my memory isn’t as perfect as I think it is, but I’m pretty sure she even had chicken wall paper in her kitchen.

“Hodel’s Eggs” was a huge part of my childhood. My brothers and I used to ride our mustard yellow three wheeler through the pasture/field to my cousins to gather eggs a few days a week. It was my first job, as there’s no age minimum for collecting eggs at the bottom of the wire coops, pushing a cart full of egg trays, and sledging through a couple inches of chicken poop when the pits ran over. (The slope at the end of row three was always the worst.) At any rate, it was a smelly job and regardless of how I scrubbed when I got home, it was almost impossible to get that stench out of my skin and hair. (And I thought I didn’t have boyfriends because of my homemade clothes…)

The smelly chicken house has since been renovated into “The Coop,” a snazzy gathering place for our families that smells quite fresh and clean in spite of its former inhabitants. I’m thankful that gathering eggs is now a distant memory and smell, but appreciate that for a mere six dollars I have a chicken candy dish for my coffee table as another reminder of the farm(s) that shaped me. (Insert Miranda Lambert song here).