Metzger’s Do It Best General Manager David Jolly (retired) holds a CorningWare blue cornflower serving platter and Nambe leaf-patterned bread tray recently donated to Metzger’s. The items were purchased 61 years ago in Los Alamos and have been given to the Los Alamos Historical Society. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
Jim and M.J. Bradley with a Nambe bread tray and CorningWare blue cornflower serving platter they purchased 61 years ago while living in Los Alamos. The couple recently donated the items to Metzgers, which passed them on to the Los Alamos Historical Society. Courtesy photo
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Los Alamos can make a lasting impression on those who come to see it. It certainly made one on Jim and M.J. Bradley, who first came to Los Alamos in the summer of 1962. Sixty-one years later, the Bradleys still have two treasured mementos from their time in Los Alamos and in New Mexico and decided to return those items: a Corning Ware blue cornflower serving platter and a Nambe leaf-patterned bread tray back to Los Alamos.
More specifically, the Bradleys donated the items to Metzger’s Do It Best, where the Corning Ware platter was purchased.
Jim emailed Metzgers General Manager David Jolly, recently retired, who welcomed them. Jolly donated the items to the Los Alamos Historical Society archives collection.
“I just thought it was really neat that this couple would give this back to us and share their story and I wanted to give them to the Historical Society,” Jolly said.
The Bradleys explained the story behind the platter and tray. They were students at Ohio State University in 1962. Jim was pursuing a master’s degree and M.J. was completing a bachelor’s degree. They were looking for summer jobs when they discovered that Los Alamos National Laboratory, then known as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, was hiring. Jim applied for a position and was accepted.
The couple, who were married in 1957, celebrated their fifth anniversary while living and working in Los Alamos. Jim realized that he did not have a gift for M.J. and ran to Metzger’s Do It Best to purchase a Corning Ware blue cornflower serving platter, a gift that has stayed with them for the past 61 years.
This was not the only trip the Bradleys made to Los Alamos or New Mexico. In 1963, Jim accepted a position at General Dynamics in San Diego, Calif., and the couple made a stop in New Mexico before heading out to California. To celebrate the new job, they purchased a Nambe leaf-patterned bread tray.
Despite the platter and the tray surviving several moves around the country, the Bradleys decided it was time to clear out their household items in their current home in Casselberry, Fla.
Returning the platter and the tray back to its hometown was M.J.’s idea.
Speaking about the platter, she said, “Maybe Metzger’s would like to have it as a display in their store, tying it to their past history in Los Alamos.”
As a result, Jim emailed Jolly who was pleased to accept the platter.
Both items are mementos of how much the Bradleys enjoyed exploring New Mexico, Jim said.
“We cannot emphasize enough how our experiences in New Mexico in 1962 broadened our outlook and interest in exploring beyond central Ohio,” he said. “Every Friday, after a week of M.J.’s planning, (we) would travel down ‘The Hill’ and drive as far and see as much of New Mexico as was humanely possible. We just couldn’t see enough or learn enough …”