When I was a child we had “the drawer”.  This was to be found in every home that I ever went into.  It was always located in the kitchen and was usually the top drawer of a cabinet, in it everything ever needed for running a home was found.

Our drawer had one screwdriver.  This was a slot screwdriver that turned every screw in the home.  It was much later that all mysterious kinds of screws were installed, all of which needed a different screwdriver.  The drawer also had one hammer, usually a claw which was used for all jobs involving a bit of force.  It could also be used for opening paint cans, if the screwdriver was otherwise occupied.

The pen, usually  a “Biro” brand as ballpoints were just coming into use, before that we had the pencil, complete with a sharpener, also kept in the drawer.  Most families I knew owned one pen and it was always to be returned to the drawer so it could be found when needed.  On Saturdays, it was used to check the “pools”, hoping for the big win.  The football, pool was the list of which soccer team had won on Saturdays games.  Many people, who would never think of it as gambling, filled out their list of teams they hoped would win the weekly game. Saturday’s five pm news broadcast was listened to as most families sat silently round the tv or radio, waiting for the results.

Win, lose or draw were the options for choosing the result of the games and as betting began at one penny per try, it was an affordable dream for everyone.  Many people belonged to a syndicate at work and shared any winnings.  Many was the time that the person in charge of collecting the bets, ran off with the winnings.  This was viewed as a more heinous crime than running off with someone’s wife, another frequent event.

The drawer was also used as a first aid box and housed bandages that had been used many times and sometimes were dotted with blood.  Not a big concern in those days.  Band aids or Elastoplast as the English version were called, were a bit of an extravagance as could only be used once, so most kids attended school with a piece of clean cotton, usually from an old pair of underwear, and a big bandage.  I was a terrible clumsy child and most of my photographs show an outsize bandage peeping underneath the hem of my dress.

In this drawer would be the only pair of scissors in the home, these were used for anything from home hair cuts to trimming hedges.  Scissors, like carving knives, were sharpened by rubbing the open blade over the stone doorstep.  This seemed to work very well.  My grandma did lots of sewing so had a dedicated pair of scissors, which were kept in the drawer of her sewing machine.  Anyone thinking of touching these precious shears was threatened with the invitation of having their fingers removed by said scissors.

Reading glasses, thumb tacks, paper clips and various small balls of string were all kept in this drawer.  Everyone knew where to look for needed items and always returned items to their true resting place.

At the present time Dave, who also grew up with The Drawer, has over fifty screwdrivers of various types, colours and sizes, however when one of these is required, a half hour of searching in the garage, for the right one, is needed.  Ditto hammers, we have loads of them in various shapes and varieties, but where are they when needed?  If they were in the drawer, we would know!