HAAS HARDWARE

In a Letter to Son and Daughter-in-law, Old Trunks wrote:

I hinted I would visit with you about the great piñata caper last month. It came to me that piñatas would be a great gift for the children in the neighborhood and a great friend with young children. The only place they were available was at that time was a place called Haas Hardware, in Lawrence, KS, which had no hardware, only the most bizarre assortment of gifts and a very, very large woman who sat in the middle of the store in a swivel chair. From her perch, she could see every nook and cranny. The store was near the Varsity Theater, in the ten hundred block of Massachusetts.

We had first gone to the store to look for something unique for my parents, who were wintering in Arizona. That's where we found the Three Wise Men! And that is when I spotted the piñatas! We had seen them in Mexico when we were there in March of 1972 and they, like the ones at the hardware store, were crushed from shipment.

I figured if I made them and hung them up, I could preserve the delicate tissue loops. According to directions in a library book, one used strips of newspaper saturated with starch, carefully wrapped around a balloon; six layers of newspaper was the minimum number of layers. I would make 6-- for the families of Bonham, Lingle, Bishop, the school party where I was a room mother, Farrell, and one for the house.

Every day for most of a week, balloons were wrapped with soggy newsprint. The circle shapes were hung to dry. While they were drying, packages of red tissue were cut into 4” strips, folded in half and on the folds, cuts were made every each. After the cuts, the paper fold was reversed, making a poofy-like row of paper as wide as the tissue. Hopefully enough had been cut to made all of the piñatas.

Once the shell was dry, two holes were drilled on either side near the top of the balloon to string a cord to hang the piñatas. Half way down a 3 sided door was cut to put in the candy. I would need a bowl to set the shell in and lots of Elmer’s glue© and a good eye to dress the shell.

Once finished, I hung them on my side of the closet in the bedroom. As budget permitted, I added candy to each one. In the mid-seventies, one could buy a lot of candy for $5.00.

It was about a week before Christmas when I noticed that my son looked ill. He had blue circles under his eyes and was pale. He rubbed his nose continuously. What was he breathing? What was he eating? It was a mystery until I cleaned his room. Under his bed was a pile of candy wrappers. The kind of candy that was in the piñatas. The piñatas were nearly empty! Wellness returned a few days later when the culprit was out of his system. He rebuttles saying he and his friend put the wrappers back in the shells.

The families were encouraged to add a little more candy. For the Farrell’s, it became a tradition and even now, a piñatas is broken on Christmas eve. The fourth generation will break a purchased one this year.


What ever happened to the Wise Men? We shipped them to Sun City for Christmas that year. Mother named each of them accordingly: Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior.

Who would have ever thought the statues from the poorly lit hardware store in Lawrence, KS would have a treasured spot on the mantle in Thief River Falls, then follow a star to Fargo. It is a personal miracle and there is a fourth Wise Man, his name is Tom, but he doesn’t have his name written on his bottom.

Cherish each other.

Loving thoughts,

e