Tupperware

As American as door-to-door Encyclopedia salesmen and Avon ladies, the Tupperware party has been raging for close to half a century now.

Tupperware claims that every 2.5 seconds an authorized Tupperware dealer gets a party started right. And yet, most people simply accept the existence of Tupperware on their shelves without really understanding what happens behind the scenes at these burpable oil-refinery by-product raves.

Earl Tupper, World War II gas mask manufacturer, never dreamed that his household cups and bowls with the advanced-seal mechanism would become an icon of Americana. Many of our earliest kitchen memories are of the Tupperware wide-lipped cups that came in a rainbow of Laugh-In body paint colors: lemon yellow, sea green, shag-carpet orange.

Analyzing their World Kitchen Domination, my mom says: "The lids were their secret success.....you could turn a bowl upside down and it wouldn't leak!" But where did Mom get these stackable plastic wonders? At no less than a Tupperware party, where, more than just a chance to pick up the latest in Tupperware paraphernalia, the party-goers could (and according to Tupperware propaganda still can) "laugh, learn, and build friendships and memories that will last a lifetime."

In the 1970s and '80s, when Tupperware bashes were all the rage, eager dealers, slyly earning 20% commission, would throw one or two parties a week. Party-goers dressed in their finest afternoon-wear and played rousing games, including that all-time party favorite: "Find The Tupperware Item in the Tupperware Catalog!" My mom admits crashing quite a few Tupperware parties in her day, but that "after a while it got a little tiring, all that Tupperware."

Like being face-to-face with a costumed four-year-old armed with a UNICEF box, Mom says, "It was also pretty compulsory to order something, or you'd look pretty cheap." Tupperware parties do, after all, celebrate the magical wonders of, well, Tupperware. Still, as their website reveals, Tupperware is simply counting the days until they regain their Kitchen Regime when Tupperware discos and hot Tupperware night clubs will spring up all over the world. Until then: Party on, Tupperdudes!

— Sara J. Brenneis (sara at flakmag dot com)