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Looking Back This year marks the 40-year anniversary of my marriage. While the late Mr. Schafranek, my spouse, met an untimely demise in our 22nd year, a surprising number of the wedding presents, like the Energizer bunny, just keep going with no sign of heading to the scrap heap yet. Admittedly, I have never put an undue burden on my kitchen appliances, but they do get used, and forty years is a long time no matter how you look at it. They function not The toaster was one of the earliest electrical appliances. It was first invented in Britain in 1893 and the pop -up toaster in 1919. Some of the early one-side-at-a-time-toasters have found their way to my museum in Electrical appliances of all kinds entered the market in the 1920s and 1930s as electrification spread to all areas of the country. Imagine the rural householder of the 1920s looking at all the new conveniences advertised in the magazines and unable to actually buy and use them until the mid-1930s when electricity finally reached the farms. It really seems that the newer appliances don’t last as well. I can’t comment on the newer blenders or hand-held mixers since the ones I have may never need to be replaced, but I’ve never been able to get a coffee maker to last longer than six months to two years no matter what price I paid—high or low. It is the same with answering machines. On the other hand, I replaced my 1969-era refrigerator in 2002, and my electric bill dropped by $50 a month. There’s an improvement. I have surveyed some of my friends, and in general it seems that wedding presents last longer than husbands. One of my friends who married in 1950 still has a functional waffle iron, and she has passed on her mixer to a granddaughter who continues to Maybe I’ll have my enduring gifts buried with me in the tradition of the ancients. They can be a little curiosity for archaeologists a millenium hence. Joyce M. Tice, creator of the Tri-Counties Genealogy and History, can be reached at lookingback@mountainhomemag.com. Her Web site is www.joycetice.com/jmtindex.htm. |
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only in their original purpose but also as a reminder of the people who gave them. Whenever I make mashed potatoes or cookies using my hand held mixer, I am reminded of my boozy landlady in Binghamton who gave it to me. I can’t remember her name, but I do remember her with fondness. My favorite “soup pot” is the Teflon-lined Dutch oven from my husband’s company. In truth, it should be replaced as the Teflon is worn, but I’ve never been able to find one with the same depth. The father of my maid of honor worked for GE, so she gave me a GE electric can opener that has opened many a tuna can in forty years. An ex-roommate gave the blender. It has had both blade and bowl replaced, but the motor still runs fine. 
supposedly working order. I am not about to risk an electrical short trying to prove it. The blender was invented in 1922. The Sunbeam Mixmaster was patented in 1928 and was marketed from about 1930. I have one of these of 1930s vintage in my museum, too, but lack the courage to test its functionality.
use it. She also still uses her now collectible Candlewick crystal glassware that she says everyone who married in Mansfield in the 1950s received. That’s because Sadie Finesilver carried it in her store, and that’s where people shopped for wedding presents. Sadie would be surprised to see how far her influence has spread. Blenders, irons, and coffee pots are still in working order in households much older even than mine. 
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