From Party Snacks to Buttons

Did your mom or grandma have a button jar?

Mine did, and at some point I acquired one of my own, not by saving buttons myself, but by buying some other mom or grandma's collection at an auction. 

It came in a giant jar, and this is the lid:

I think I wanted it partly because of that metal lid and its printing. Party snacks — pickled herring, of course!

Here's a close-up of the two gnomish, red-coated fellows who are carrying a giant herring, ringed with the name VITA:

It turns out Vita Party Snacks in Wine Sauce are still around! You can buy them here (not to mention from that other giant Bozo-created retailer), but their jar has changed. And now you will pay $5.13 for 12 ounces, rather than $2.39 for 2 pounds, 8 ounces. 

I'm not sure what year my jar lid is from, so with inflation, that price increase and package size decrease may not be a bad deal for a bunch of herring, which we're now told contains 297 mg of omega-3 fatty acids per 2-ounce serving. Imagine needing to buy 40 ounces of pickled herring at a once, at a time when people were using iceboxes instead of refrigerators.

Here's what the packaging looks like these days:

That's definitely a decrease in quality. And it would only hold a small button collection.