"Pop."
And then the microwave was dead. The microwave that has been in my family for decades. The first microwave our family ever owned. The huge microwave. The microwave with the faux wood panelling. That microwave.
We got that microwave at Christmas about 20 years ago. I think microwaves have been around that long, haven't they? We weren't the first family to get one. We weren't usually the first to get any new piece of technology. I remember when we used to rent a VCR, waiting a few years before we shelled out the cash to buy one. Back when Nintendo first came out, we rented one of those too -- and never bought one. But we never rented a microwave. We bought one of those.
And we kept it for a really long time.
When we got married, my parents passed this family heirloom down to us, in a ceremony of sorts. They said something like, "We have a new microwave in our new house, so you can have this one." It was a special moment for everybody.
That was in the year 2000. The giant microwave served faithfully for seven more years, waving its last micro two short weeks after our anniversary. Not so lucky.
You don't realize how dependent you are on a microwave until it goes "pop." My supply of theatre-style buttered popcorn was completely cut off. I had to eat crackers and stuff. R had to find creative ways to heat up some pre-processed organic baby food that was stored in the freezer. We were lost without our wood-paneled giant.
I bought a new microwave at Canadian Tire on Friday. It's not as big, and it doesn't have any make-believe wood on it, but it will hopefully serve long enough to make popcorn for another generation of our family.
It can be a wedding gift for Scott.
6 comments:
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I had no idea that microwave was still around. I remember when it was brand new an oldest brother J cooked a meat pie in it for something like 30 minutes. He flung the smoking mass into the snow on the deck where it sizzled its way down to the wood. For days everything we cooked in that microwave tasted stringly of burnt meat pies. Those were good times.
Is selling microwaves at a tire store normal in Canada?
Canadian Tire is not just a tire store. It's like a little piece of heaven on earth.
They sell automotive stuff all the way through to camping gear, clothing, sporting goods, hardware and housewares. The only thing they don't sell is food (unless you count the gum at the checkout counter).
It's kind of like an exploded version of the back-left corner in Walmart.
Just to keep the record straight--we did not buy the microwave. My mom and dad gave it to us for Christmas,lo, those many years ago. It has served our family faithfully and well. I am having a moment of silence in its honor.
I do remember the meat pie incident quite well. What was funny was the snow on the deck was about two feet deep and that briquette of a meat pie just sank like rock as it seared its way through the snow mass. We were all on a steep learning curve on microwave use at that time in our lives. (hard to fathom isn't it.)
I wouold be totally lost without our micowave!!! My "other cooking" went away with my young age.
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