Dixie cup dispenser - Did you have one?
Posted by Heavyspire@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 81 comments
Was listening to a conversation about the Dixie cup dispenser built into some homes back in the 70's and I hadn't thought about them in years. I seem to remember my grandparents having one on the sink top that could be placed wherever. But the conversation was about permanent dispensers built into the wall next to the medicine cabinet. The thought was if you had a permanent fixture you were living the high life.
Informal-Name3181@reddit
My grandparents had one titled into the pink walls. They also had pink toilet paper. Poor grandpa
ChrisWare@reddit
I don't remember one, but we did have a Q-Tip dispenser.
Theflyinghillbilly3@reddit
My parents had one in their bathroom, but not in the main bathroom. Mounted on the wall in matching gold tile!
LayerNo3634@reddit
We never had one...with 3 kids it would have been an unwise investment. My grandparents had one, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I think Grandma had to get new cups after every visit because we used so many.
litterboxhero@reddit
Yes I did, and I think I know the conversation you listened to. Was it mounted on the tile?
OkArmy7059@reddit
People severely overestimating the costs of these things in this thread
Intelligent-Monk-426@reddit
I think it’s more about the mentality of our parents generation (which was more often than not really really thrifty) than the people posting?
OkArmy7059@reddit
Maybe? My parents were very thrifty yet we had Dixie cup dispensers. They couldn't have cost more than a few bucks.
Intelligent-Monk-426@reddit
Could be a regional thing too. I think my grandparents up in Maine had them but saw them less where I lived down south.
IDunnoReallyIDont@reddit
No, we were poor. Friends had them, though. They had the good flintstones vitamins too.
xcptnl55@reddit
Oh we had an attached one in the bathroom. Living the high life for sure. Lol
mlo9109@reddit
I still have one that I inherited from my aunt. Problem is, they don't make the little cups that fit them anymore. Sigh...
Acrobatic_Bird_3972@reddit
Try Dollar Tree. We have an old popup dixie cup Mickey Mouse dispenser for the kids. I always get the tiny cups there. Sometimes find them over with the paper plates if not with the dental stuff.
SunshineAlways@reddit
The last time I saw a similar post, someone mentioned that a different company made some, but I sure don’t remember the brand, sorry. Maybe they got them at a dollar store?
LollipopGirl923@reddit
Nope! That was a product reserved for my Mom's rich uncle that resided at the poor house 🤣...
OldDude1391@reddit
Buy cups to throw away?!!! Use your hand or a plastic cup that can be washed. My parents were frugal. And that’s why my dad at 87 is bringing in more income in retirement than I make working full time.
Sector__7@reddit
Your 87 year old dad’s income has nothing to do with being fugal but more to do with investing and letting compound interest and time do its thing.
OldDude1391@reddit
Being frugal meant he had the money to invest. Not spending on what he considered luxury items. Like expensive athletic shoes, vacations, new cars, etc. He would buy a new car and drive it until the wheels fell off.
Sector__7@reddit
Believe it or not, there are tons of people who are not frugal, still invest and end up with millions in retirement. I’ll state it again, being frugal has nothing to do with his end results but more of the fact that he consistently invested aka paid himself first over MANY years. This is the point that many overlook as they don’t have the focus/dedication of paying themselves first for the later delayed gratification.
I think many Gen X parents ruined their kids as I’ve heard many say “I want to give my kids everything that I didn’t have growing up” and created the entitlement mentality that we have now.
smythe70@reddit
Yes, we did in the the shared bathroom. I remember it fondly for some reason, like oh wow, how cool. I think it came with the house.
Capable_Stranger9885@reddit
We had one in the house we lived in from my birth to 3rd grade. It was an almond plastic stick to wall deal next to the doorframe in the 2nd floor bathroom. My two memories of the Dixie cups was saving them (a lot of Empire Strikes Back designs plus general floral) and using them for Hot Wheels crash walls; and I believe in 2nd grade my dad was lying on his bed watching the Eagles and drinking an Amstel Light; I bugged him to try it so he got up, got a cup from the dispenser and poured me a centimeter. I didn't like it then but I recreated it for a toast at his 75th birthday.
Intelligent-Monk-426@reddit
second floor! okay richie rich! 😝
Capable_Stranger9885@reddit
I mean, didn't you clock it was a European import? 🤑
Sufficient_Stop8381@reddit
I don’t ever remember having Dixie cups at home. We used very few disposable cups and plates at our house. As a kid I had a toothbrush holder with a built in cup that said Jesus loves me. She was very religious. I still have it. I knew some people who had the dispensers and it seemed very fancypants to me.
WatermelonMachete43@reddit
We still have one.
upv395@reddit
Lol. Never had one as a kid, but just recently got a counter top one because we now have evening meds that we take after brushing teeth before bed. It’s so handy for mouthwash as well. Though they do smell like the dentist office.
Neener216@reddit
My parents would have been completely horrified at the casual waste of something like disposable cups 😂
happy_traveller2700@reddit
Omg! This is the funniest question! I was always so in awe of my friends who had one in their bathroom. We never had one🥲
UpbeatPhilosophySJ@reddit
Half my friends did. I was jealous.
LadyNorbert@reddit
Oh yes. I live in the part of Pennsylvania where Dixie Cups were originally made, so it was a bit of local pride. Plus it was always fun to drive east of home and see the factory with the giant Dixie Cup on its roof. They actually just removed it last week, long after the factory closed, to be refurbished for a museum (I think/hope).
ONROSREPUS@reddit
Nope. Paper plates, plastic silverware and non plastic/glass cups were banned from our house.
Dapper_Size_5921@reddit
My dad was the exact opposite when it came to the plates and cups, especially the plates. He didn't want to do dishes.
It got pretty hilarious. He'd write his grocery lists on paper plates, so for several days there would be a whole ass paper plate pinned to the front of the refrigerator with a magnet, and then he'd fold it up and stick it in his shirt pocket when he went to the store. There were always about two or three partially folded paper plates in the back floorboard of his car (last week's grocery lists) along with a couple crumpled up Marlboro soft packs.
TheVioletEmpire@reddit
I don't recall that we ever had the mounted version. Though at some point, I recall we were gifted with the later white plastic pop-up version.
BeatrixFarrand@reddit
We weren’t rich like that!!
DeFiClark@reddit
No, but I remember the cone shaped paper cups at the lifeguard station at the beach at my grandparents, and the ice cold water from the big blue bottle that tasted like paper. Memory unlocked.
My grandparents did have stacks of Dixie cups in the guest bathroom, but not a dispenser.
Heavyspire@reddit (OP)
We have a water cooler company deliver water at the office/shop and at those stations they have the paper cones for use. Most people use their own water bottle, but if you are just walking by you can grab a cup.
Dapper_Size_5921@reddit
My parents built my sister a "vanity" in her bedroom when she was about 10 (around 1980 or so). They accomplished this by sacrificing most of the coat closet in the adjacent living room. As part of this upgrade, a Dixie cup dispenser was mounted to the wall. It had one of those peel-and-stick pads on the back that, once applied, is impossible to remove without damaging the wall and/or the dispenser. The dispenser itself was pretty small and probably only held about 50 tiny 3oz cups.
In what was absolutely typical for my family, once the cups were all used (took about 3 months, give or take) no more were *ever* purchased and the dispenser was never reloaded. It sat empty on the wall for three decades until it was finally torn out when the vanity cabinet was removed and replaced with a new one for my daughter. The new setup does not have a Dixie Cup dispenser.
safetyCircuit@reddit
We had one in our bathroom that was also the toothbrush holder. It was round with the cups coming out of the middle bottom, with holes for brushes around the rim, and a spot for a tube of toothpaste.
JaguarNeat8547@reddit
In our bathroom, we had a dirty, congealed, toothpaste stained, hard plastic drinking cup, sacrificed from the kitchen drinkware set, that we all shared.
labboy70@reddit
Same. My parents saw Dixie cups as frivolous. Your hand or the plastic cup in the bathroom were perfectly fine to use.
Didi-Why-Me@reddit
My "rich" friend had one.😄
lisanstan@reddit
Not branded Dixie cup. But I did put one up a few years ago when my uncle lived with me. I used them for his meds. Put all his daily pills in a Dixie cup and put in front of the coffee maker. He's since moved into an apartment and uses pill boxes. I forget those cups are there and don't use them for anything now. The dispenser is mounted on the side of a cabinet and I never see it.
lazygerm@reddit
We had two.
One in the kitchen next to the sink and another near the sink in the bathroom.
PeorgieT75@reddit
Yep, we had one in the kitchen that held the larger cups, and one in the bathroom for the smaller ones.
TapeFlip187@reddit
No, we weren't millionaires.
Randeth@reddit
We still do. We used it when the kids were little and it's just sort of stuck around for guest use. We refill it with generics from our local grocery store though.
butterflygardyn@reddit
No!😭. My childhood was terribly deprived. My bff had one and I BEGGED for one too. My parents were unmoved.🤣
kmoore61@reddit
We did have one in the bathroom. It was handy when you needed to take an aspirin.
Feminist_Hugh_Hefner@reddit
My grandma had one, I guess technically this means my grandfather did as well, however I suspect that many of the bathroom decor decisions, such as matching the theme with blue-tinted toilet paper, were entirely grandma's domain.
Those cups were perfect when you wanted 3/4 oz of water that tasted like paper.
Up2nogud13@reddit
I've never seen a built in one, but I remember the plastic Dixie-branded ones you bought (likely from K-mart, TG&Y, etc.) that screwed to the wall. My grandmother had one by the kitchen sink and in the bathroom.
Affectionate-Map2583@reddit
Ours was mounted on the inside of the cabinet door under the sink.
metricnv@reddit
In our travel trailer.
annihilatress@reddit
My friend's house did. I thought it was so fancy!
Equal_Trash6023@reddit
Same!
C-romero80@reddit
We did not, but I knew people who did
Equal_Trash6023@reddit
We were poor so did not have one.
tspoon-99@reddit
One in each bathroom
fridayimatwork@reddit
I was obsessed with these and considered them super rich and fancy. My doctor had one and I was always getting a tiny cup of water so much that my doctor called me “water drinker” in his thick polish accent. I saved up allowance and birthday money to buy a dispenser I put in my ROOM and rehashed the cups for reuse.
Apart-Cream-4940@reddit
I forgot about those. We did, but I don't think it lasted long.
Significant-Way-7893@reddit
Also the older homes had slot near the medicine cabinet to dispose your razor blades.
FoleyV@reddit
Which sometimes just dumped them inside the wall behind the drywall lol
Otherwise_Object_446@reddit
We sure did. It went well with the purple sinks we had.
Big77Ben2@reddit
Still have one
Reader47b@reddit
We had one that sat on the countertop. You put the stack of cups in upside down and pushed them and it held them so you could take off one at a time. Kind of dumb when I think about it now. You could have just put a stack of cups upside down on the sink and had pretty much the same effect...kept the bottom ones from getting damp, I guess.
omfgwhatever@reddit
I suppose it's better than all the plastic crap. Of course, there wasn't a shortage of that back then either.
boybrian@reddit
Well I have the tile toothbrush and cup holders in my bathrooms. They hold four brushes and a spot for one cup. So I presume that the cup was communal. Disposable Dixie cups were much more hygienic than that shared glass.
DrHugh@reddit
Disposable paper cups were seen as healthier than a shared glass.
omfgwhatever@reddit
We didn't but both sets of grandparents did.
Awkward-Actuator-596@reddit
I miss those-
Comprehensive_Sir49@reddit
Yes we did
Trolkarlen@reddit
They came with mounting screws. We had it mounted in one house, but in our next house it just sat upside down on the counter.
lalacourtney@reddit
No, those were for rich and/or wasteful people 😂
Wrong_Pen6179@reddit
Yes! My parents never did but my friends did and I got one for my bathroom first apartment.
superbad@reddit
Did I? I still do.
DeadMetalRazr@reddit
There's still one in the bathroom at my parents house.
Bubbly_Following7930@reddit
No and neither did any of my friends
jamshid666@reddit
I wouldn't call it fancy, but my grandparents had one screwed into the wall next to the bathroom sink
Ok_Kick6546@reddit
My parents did, too.
yayayagilliganhell@reddit
Yes
esp735@reddit
My grandparents did. I loved that thing when I was. kid.
dj_1973@reddit
My mom had the movable pop up dispenser. My grandparents had the stick on wall ones - kitchen and bathroom. Fancy! But I get it - mom didn’t want to ruin that baby blue bathroom wallpaper.