Why, oh why are they doing this to me

I suppose they call it progress, I call it retreating to the Middle Ages. Why did the good old fashioned Dixie Cup dispenser disappear? You know, the plastic 3 ounce cup dispenser that either had the peel/stick stuff to mount on the wall, or the plastic dispenser that screwed into the wall near the bathroom sink.

Dixie Cup representatives gave no explanation as to why the simple device, that expelled cups in a downward gravity motion, was discontinued. It was replaced with either the long metal sterile tube seen in many commercial environments, or the sit-on-the-counter device that requires two hands to retrieve a paper cup.

I insisted upon going to the ends of the earth to find one of the old-type Dixie Cup dispensers when we moved into the new digs last May. Wife Patti was quite happy with the counter top cup thingy that matched the table top toothbrush holder, a topic I will expose later in this column.

Where does one find the old style Dixie Cup dispenser? The internet, of course. After an extensive search of various companies and promising leads, I ended up on ebay. After several weeks I noticed I was not alone in my search for the elusive cup dispenser of yesteryear. Wife Patti kept an eye open for ebay sellers posting the piece of plastic I coveted. When two different styles, in original packaging appeared online for sale, she proceeded to bid on both. Yes, we won both with highly inflated prices. What used to cost 19¢ with a few cups included, cost us 19 bucks with extra for shipping.

Of the two that arrived on our doorsteps a few weeks ago, I chose the pink one with the self adhesive backing. I went out and spent another $6 to buy white spray paint specially formulated for plastic and we now have a white Dixie Cup dispenser for our 3 ounce cups.
The other one we bid on and won will be stored away for a rainy day. I figure it can only go up in value and is perhaps more precious that gold.

Now, on to that stupid toothbrush holder that collects yuk at the bottom and is hard to clean. My next project was to find a wall mounted toothbrush holder. Not the stupid kind that also holds a bathroom glass — that is just so primitive. My trips to both Walmart and Lowes proved fruitless. The only toothbrush holders they had were the counter top bottom-collecting germy ones.

Once again I relied on the internet. Once again I was rewarded for my efforts. A straight, sticky mount, white toothbrush holder only cost me $3.49 (plus $3 in shipping).
Oh, sure, one might say I am a bit fanatic, insane about what I want, but at least I can grab a 3 ounce bathroom cup with one hand.

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