Two years
ago on Thanksgiving day the family was at my house cooking our festive
Thanksgiving meal. We were almost ready except for the mashed potatoes. My
niece, Betsy, put the potatoes on to boil while we finished up a game of
Parcheesi. (Board games are just part of our tradition on holidays.
We had just
gotten into our game when we heard a loud crack and looked at the stove to see the
bright flash of an electric arc leap up from the burner under the potatoes to
the ventilation hood over the stove. Water poured from the pot where the arc
had made a hole in my heavy duty steel pot. We all scrambled to the stove
grabbing tea towels and the mop while my nephew, Matthew, took the pot off the
stove and carried it to the sink. In an insane moment I thought I could save
those potatoes, but as Betsy pointed out, a film of metallic gray floated on
the top of the water. I knew that old 1957 cook top wouldn’t last forever, but
gee whiz, did it have to go out with all that drama on Thanksgiving Day?
For the next
two years I kept thinking I would get a new stove top and repair the electrical
connection. Every time I thought I could get it done, something more urgent
would come up and the money for the stove had to be used. I cooked everything
on one burner for so long I was really getting used to it. At least I still had my 1957 wall oven and
casseroles can come in mighty handy.
Finally,
this year when I got my income tax return I had the money to get my stove top
and have an electrician repair the electric outlet to it. I want to say here
that the hickory tree in the back yard decided to die all of a sudden, but I was
determined the stove was going to come first this time. I marked down to Lowe’s
and bought my new stove top. They had to special order it because it is white
instead of the stainless steel everyone is buying now so it took three weeks
for it to arrive. I called the electrician my faithful plumber recommended and,
voila!, my new stove top in up and running. I no longer have to cook just one
thing at a time. I hardly know how to act.
The 1957
pink wall oven original to the house, is still working and I hope it keeps on
working for a while longer because I still have that hickory tree to remove.
Maybe I should have them cut and stack the wood so I can burn it in case the
oven goes out. Anyway, I’m glad things are almost normal at the house again. It’s
nice to own a home, but there is always something that has to be fixed or
replaced. Someday I may even get to do some kind of beautification project or
renovation…maybe.
Diverse
stories filled with heart
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