The recent email talking about Walter Sands making the bread got me inspired to pull down the old Universal Bread Bucket from its display spot high above the kitchen. Among the things my wife and I acquired as necessities 54 years ago when we got married were a bread bucket and a treadle sewing machine. What was good enough for my mother and her mother were all we needed—right? The sewing machine hasn't been used in years but has a prominent spot in the parlor (along with two others) of our 1860s Italianate. It has been at least 10 or 12 years since I used the bread bucket. Made one loaf with the swirl and one normal. Other than needing a good scrubbing after the years on the shelf, it performed just as well as when it was made a century ago by Landers, Frary & Clark.

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