Toaster Toast
The date that the old toaster oven fell into my possession is unclear, as is when the old battleaxe was created.
But I had the thing at least 15 years, spanning a variety of eras in life and producing countless tuna melts, pop tarts and toasted sandwiches.
The British invented the manual toaster in 1893, according to http://www.scribd.com. The United States joined the toaster arms race in 1909.
My beloved toaster oven originally belonged to my maternal grandmother, and if I had to guess, I'd say it was from the early 1970s. The oven survived seven of my residential moves involving five cities over the years, during which time the appliance gained a certain element of character.
Once the children were born, the oven saw heavy usage, toasting up pop tarts and other breakfast goodies, heating up biscuits and cooking garlic toast.
It's deteriorating state resulted in it becoming a kind of joke as well as a sentimental piece of history. My grandmother would have been proud to have seen how much workload the oven took on during the raising of my sons.
The oven even became a prop in a prank Christmas card, whose heinousness hopefully will never see daylight.
Alas, the toaster earlier this year finally was replaced with a shiny new state-of-the-art model. I stuck it in the camper for usage in its not-so-golden years in the great outdoors.
I pulled it out during a recent camping trip with the boys, and it looked even more horrible than I remember. I guess sometimes that you can get so used to something that its flaws and shortcomings become less apparent. Back at the house, I decided to give it a good scrubbing in hopes of salvation.
However, upon closer examination, the task not only looked insurmountable, but the darn thing just looked dangerous to use.
So with heavy heart, I conceded defeat and grudgingly tossed the thing into the garbage can.
It's easy to get blinded by even the most simple of sentimental things. And then again, too often we take too many things for granted.
The bottom line is that life presents a never-ending series of various things that we embrace and eventually have to let go.
But I had the thing at least 15 years, spanning a variety of eras in life and producing countless tuna melts, pop tarts and toasted sandwiches.
The British invented the manual toaster in 1893, according to http://www.scribd.com. The United States joined the toaster arms race in 1909.
My beloved toaster oven originally belonged to my maternal grandmother, and if I had to guess, I'd say it was from the early 1970s. The oven survived seven of my residential moves involving five cities over the years, during which time the appliance gained a certain element of character.
Once the children were born, the oven saw heavy usage, toasting up pop tarts and other breakfast goodies, heating up biscuits and cooking garlic toast.
It's deteriorating state resulted in it becoming a kind of joke as well as a sentimental piece of history. My grandmother would have been proud to have seen how much workload the oven took on during the raising of my sons.
The oven even became a prop in a prank Christmas card, whose heinousness hopefully will never see daylight.
Alas, the toaster earlier this year finally was replaced with a shiny new state-of-the-art model. I stuck it in the camper for usage in its not-so-golden years in the great outdoors.
I pulled it out during a recent camping trip with the boys, and it looked even more horrible than I remember. I guess sometimes that you can get so used to something that its flaws and shortcomings become less apparent. Back at the house, I decided to give it a good scrubbing in hopes of salvation.
However, upon closer examination, the task not only looked insurmountable, but the darn thing just looked dangerous to use.
So with heavy heart, I conceded defeat and grudgingly tossed the thing into the garbage can.
It's easy to get blinded by even the most simple of sentimental things. And then again, too often we take too many things for granted.
The bottom line is that life presents a never-ending series of various things that we embrace and eventually have to let go.
posted by Brian at 1:54 PM
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