Longaberger Travel 4: Boardwalk and other Tote Baskets

 As if the Good Ol' Summertime name in itself wasn't exciting enough for a Longaberger Basket series, its fifth year introduced Boardwalk Baskets in three sizes. Rich padded and stitched leather handles were so much more comfy than wooden ones, and the oval top tapering to a rectangular base was very user-friendly. The Boardwalk Baskets showcased Longaberger quality.

A boardwalk is a raised wooden path, often built where it is hard to walk, such as on sand or wet ground. In America, sand and water are important ingredients for summer fun, especially in those lucky states along the coasts. Boardwalks became traditional summer destinations with hotels, restaurants, stores, activities, and more built alongside. Longaberger's beautiful Boardwalk Baskets hearkened back to fun summer trips in style. 

Longaberger's WishList offered Large, Medium, and Small Boardwalk Baskets in different stain colors. Sometimes Longaberger included Boardwalk or other Tote Baskets with exclusive stain colors as a gift with trips earned  by Consultants. Longaberger Consultants earned generous incentive trips through the years and were treated royally . . . and then gifted with a very exclusive basket too! Wow!  

Useful as the Boardwalk Baskets are, they aren't Longaberger's only comfortable carrying baskets. Other Tote Baskets have similar shapes and long leather straps and are just as useful for carrying all sorts of items. As a school teacher, I appreciated these Tote Baskets (and several more!)  through the years and put lots of miles on them back and forth to school. They carried heavy loads with ease and rode well sitting on the floorboard of my Explorer behind my seat.

Pictured from the top are a Large Boardwalk, a Sales Leader Career Tote, a Mother's Day Weekend Tote, a Chestnut Carry All, and a Spectator Tote  Basket. I also enjoy using the Village Basket, a shorter and wider Tote that Longaberger created in some wonderful stain color combinations over the years such as Summer Lovin'.

My Large Boardwalk Basket is a prototype that was never offered. The American Celebrations Medium Boardwalk was chosen for the 2007 campaign over this Large one. The notations on the basket's bottom give much more information than usual--hopefully you can zoom in on them. Longaberger sold special, one-of-a-kind prototype baskets at Longaberger Homestead in Ohio in later years before they closed in 2018.

Longaberger Travel 3: Magazine Basket

Although it carries magazines, books, folders, and laptops handily with its tall thin shape, the versatile Magazine Basket can carry so much more. The Magazine is one of JW Longaberger's original designs, called the Bread and Milk Basket in the JW Longaberger Collection. He created it by cutting the wooden form for his popular market basket in half!

According to the JW Longaberger Collection book, the Bread and Milk (aka Magazine) Basket was called the automobile basket in its day, designed to fit between the two front bucket seats. Do you have a beautiful old restored car and need this basket for your travels? If you drive a vehicle, new or vintage, with separate back seats, a Magazine Basket can sit between them with snacks and games to entertain children on long drives. If you have one long seat, it can separate the children! :) It is also nicely sized to carry pet supplies if your furry friend travels with you.

The Bread and Milk/ Magazine Basket later became popular for quick trips to the store. One Longaberger family story told that it could hold three loaves of bread, three bottles of milk, or some combination of those for the big Longaberger family with its twelve children. It is handy traveling to the store today.

The Magazine is another perfect pool or beachgoing basket and can safely carry items both dry or wet if you have a plastic protector inside. Towels, swimsuits, and toys will reach their destination and home again in this handy basket. Other treasures from the sea can travel here as well.

Longaberger's Collectors Club offered a flag 25th Anniversary Basket in 1998 that is probably the ultimate Magazine Basket. Perfect for carrying picnic supplies, mine is loaded with paper platters, bowls, cups, and some fun decorations for this Fourth of July weekend. It would be great carrying three big 2-liter bottles of pop and other beverages. The protector could even hold ice. If you put ice in a protector, try to put something absorbent like a thin towel between basket and protector to absorb the condensation that will occur. 

Magazine Baskets are used and loved by crafters of all sorts. Parts and components of all sizes can fit neatly inside, as well as books and papers. Some users placed a Bread Basket inside the top of their Magazine Basket to hold another layer with tools or pieces. 

I don't have a regular Bread Basket any more, but I tried the Heartland Bakery Basket, which is woven on the same form. It sat nicely with its top band on the Magazine Basket's top band, and the handles could come up, but then I was able to push it down on one end into the basket. If the lower basket is holding some pieces or supplies, that might  help keep it from falling in. Baskets varied in size a little depending on the weaver, so your Bread and Magazine Baskets might work together well. You can imagine the many uses for them together, especially with a protector in the Bread Basket. 

Thinking ahead to fall, imagine carrying a Magazine Basket to football games with cushions or a stadium blanket, a thermos of something warm to drink, some cups, and other items to add to the fun. The Magazine has also been used as a baby basket, carrying the many baby supplies needed to travel. 

The Magazine Basket is great for all sorts of travel! Two more especially handy travel baskets to come.