No luck. I sent a photo to a friend who loves antique stores and forgotten relics. She was stumped too.
I was starting to feel a little ridiculous. How could I own an object and not know what it was?
Finally, I called my aunt. She is a retired elementary school teacher with a gift for knowing the most unexpected things. I described the object to her, and she listened without interrupting.
Oh, she said. That is a tape dispenser. The old-fashioned kind, before plastic ones were everywhere.
I laughed.
