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Jul 2, 2011

My Tupperware Obsession - part 1

 I’ll be the first to admit that I was a rather weird child. Maybe it’s because I had a bunch of brothers and sisters, or maybe because I worked many long hours as a babysitter (again, another story for another time), whatever the reason, I was rather obsessed with getting married, having my own home, and becoming a mom. When I was eight or nine, I learned to embroider and that’s when I started making/collecting things for my future home. Grandma taught me to quilt and crochet so that helped me add even more handmade items to my “hope chest.”

Not my set, but the exact same one!
When I was around 14, I attended my first Tupperware party. I was absolutely astounded that I could just pester people until they purchased something and then I could get whatever I wanted from Tupperware for free. I signed up to host my first Tupperware party and I earned the “Hostess Gift Special” which happened to be a picnic basket filled with you guessed it…Tupperware! I was hooked. I hosted about a dozen parties through my high school years and the super-overachiever part of me helped me earn tons of free stuff. One of my first real interactions with my sweetie was convincing him to buy a Shape-O ball for his niece. I know it was way more than he wanted to spend, but I could be pretty persuasive…

So after we were married, we were dirt poor. Besides workstudy and being a full-time student at Snow College, my first job as a married person was to be a Tupperware lady. I was pregnant with Bossy and my sweetie and I were living once again in my hometown. That made it pretty easy to find people to host parties and buy products. If you remember, the day Bossy was born I had two Tupperware parties scheduled. You can read a little about that here. Those Tupperware days lasted for about 2 years and then we moved and my contacts fizzled until I eventually quit altogether.

Until I was pregnant with the Drama Queen…I attended a party and it wasn’t long before I was signing the paperwork to be a consultant again (we called them “dealers” then, but I guess they didn’t like the negative connotations). It was 1989 and yes, I still had big hair. Our business took off rapidly and it wasn’t long before we had a couple of recruits and formed our own unit. We won all kinds of awards (once my super-overachiever genes kicked in) Top New Unit in Sales, Top New Unit in Recruits, and occasionally we even won Top Sales. We were rapidly moving up the ladder and consistently placed in the top five units in our distributorship. We were given a van to drive and it wasn’t long before we had upwards of 50 consultants working as part of our team. Tupperware was fun and I was good at it!

The Drama Queen turned one during a trip we took to Long Island for our first Tupperware Convention. Teach actually found some pics for you. I am not the one with the cute legs (she is wearing a swimming suit, btw), but if you look for the one with the big hair… That’s the Gym Rat sitting on my lap. Once again, we received top recruiting and sales honors in our region. It was a crazy time, but I was working a full time job as a technical writer, a full time job as a Tupperware manager, and a part-time job teaching two nights a week. That didn’t count the fact that I had three little ones still at home…something had to break.

5 comments:

  1. ...go on.....I'm captured. LOL!

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  2. Yes, go on. I love tupperware, oh boy do I.

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  3. I also had a decent supply of Tupperware when I got married, however, I became a Pampered Chef consultant instead of Tupperware.
    Unfortunately, I wasn't good at booking parties and recruiting so I didn't last long.
    I did get a lot of cool stuff!

    Can't wait to hear the rest of your story....

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  4. I love Tupperware! For a long time I had a friend who sold it and since she was a single mom, I called it my pity Tupperware, but really, it was an excuse to get new things. It's so expensive, I rarely buy it.

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  5. Wow! You were busy!!! I love that you were determined to make it work. I've noticed your determination in several of your posts and admire it--I mean that.

    And the big hair was very cool back then. :)

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