Flower from the Attic

If you are up on your disturbing, child-abuse and incest-filled novels from the late 1970s, you'll know that Flowers In the Attic is a book by V.C. Andrews about a fictional family in Pennsylvania which may have been loosely based on a real-life scenario by Andrews. I haven't read the book -- my mom had the entire series of three books (Petals on the Wind and If There Be Thorns are the other two books) -- but the name always stuck with me.

The "Flowers" in my story, though, are actually true gems.  You see, for the past twenty-five years, my mom has been holding on to the magazines I subscribed to as a kid and some books that I had for many years and a bunch of other random Brewers items that I remember getting at one point or another.  To be honest, I don't remember all of these magazines, so it's possible that I subscribed to this and just forgot about them.  

But I'm getting ahead of the story.

I want to start, though, with an item that must have been kept by my aunts and uncles originally and then just stayed in the house for the past 63 years.  

Yes.  Sixty-three years.  

I only wish it were a Braves item.  It's not.

Sorry for the scan being a bit out of focus -- the scanner focused on the edges on the glass instead of sticking with the photo.  Most of the information I know about this tray is from this page: KeyMan Collectibles.  That site does not appear to have been updated for about 10 years now, but at least this tin is mentioned.  To borrow what is said there:

The 1952 Wheaties Tin Trays measure 4-7/8" x 5-1/8".  Four trays were issued, each featuring a photo of a future HOFer and a facsimile autograph.  These tin trays were glued to the back of cereal boxes, and most [that that author has] seen still have the glue marks on the back as show in the picture [on that page]. The four players include: Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, Phil Rizzuto, and Jackie Robinson.  A George Kell Tray was long believed to exist but has never been verified. 

When I found out that this tray is that old, I was shocked that the one I have is still in pretty good condition.

It just doesn't fit any collection of mine, unless I start that type collection I have mentioned in the past.  And, even then, this does not fit into a normal "type" collection. It's still pretty cool to have it.

I was quite surprised when three smaller FedEx boxes showed up from my mom.  There are a lot more cool items that came down to Georgia from Wisconsin, and I'll share some of those in the next few weeks.  

But first, I have to finish going through the cards I bought at my local card show today.  So, stay tuned.