​Recently, the dangerous business of digging through bins of kitchenware at thrift stores finally paid off when I found this Merry Mushrooms carving knife. It is in rough shape but it is undeniably part of the collection. And for a very affordable $.99. But when I took a closer look, something clicked and I realized that the handle designs changed!

On July 4, 2019, the third season of Netflix's Stranger Things dropped. Stranger Things is a sci-fi horror series that is chocked full of 1980s pop culture nostalgia and references for of those of us of a certain age.

This season begins in June 1984 but most of the action takes place from June to October 1985. In the first episode, Suzi, Do You Copy?, Winona Ryder's character, Joyce Byers, comes home and finds that her two sons are not home. She microwaves a solitary meal of Stouffer's lasagna and peas before settling in to watch Cheers. Prominantly featured on the counter are two embossed ceramic Merry Mushrooms canisters. There was a spike in interest in our favorite fungi around that time. Coincidence?

Wonder if Stouffer's experienced the same surge in attention.