I found another memory in a box. A big box. Actually, a big box store. Funny, isn’t it, where memories emerge?
There we were, on a snow filled New Year’s Day, shopping for a new stove at Best Buy. Among the many items that go on sale in the new year are appliances. In this newly minted year, we find we need to replace our oven, so, off we pottered, research having been done online and through a few well-placed phone calls, looking for a range.
Trudging into the store after making our way through a parking lot that had not yet been plowed from the first 24 hours of a 48 hour snowfall, we stomped slush from our feet and were greeted with a rush of welcome fit for a duke and duchess. We were so welcomed, of course, because we were just about the only patrons in the store!
Off we went, the Duke of Deer and his Duchess, down aisles of all things electronic, toward the big appliances. Once we found our bearings, we inspected a fine row of stoves and rounded a corner of stainless steel, when I exclaimed “oh, this is just like the stove we had when I was growing up!”; and it was. White enamel in look and as pure as the white driven snow, it had coal, black burner grates and (WAIT FOR IT) and an analog clock with a chubby, round face and arrowed hands, right smack dab in the middle of the range.
My girlish glee immediately aroused a clerk, smelling the prospect of a sale, maybe the only sale on that very first day of 2014. A rather young chap, he slid around an LG, or was it a Samsung, and, swift as a lord-a-leaping, opened the white oven door. “This is GE’s new retro model, and it is only $….“. We weren’t interested in buying this smart new model. Though it would have fit into our budget, it would not have worked in our kitchen.
Even so, the Duke of Deer, whose childhood also held such a white cooking wonder, and his Duchess spent several sweet moments warmly recalling the features of their childhood ovens. How very wondrous it seemed.
Now, dear reader, there is more to this New Year’s day story, which I will soon share with you, for one thing, you know, always leads to another when memories are stirred on the Cutoff – and they even involves Hershey’s Cocoa.
My Mamaw had a gas stove/oven combo very similar to this one, Penny. Her whole kitchen smelled like gas, and the floor was uneven, and the cabinets were metal, and she had this wonderful bus cookie jar. And, thank you for bringing all that back in one post.
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You are welcome, Andra. Old houses and uneven floors; memories for sure for so many. I’ll bet that bus cookie jar was often filled with wonders from that stove.
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That stove looks very familiar to me as well! It sounds like you and Tom had fun shopping, I hope you found just what you were looking for! I remember all the snow we had that day, it was gorgeous. The beauty before the big freeze! Funny, I know two other people who needed to by major appliances right after Christmas too! One a refrigerator and the other a dryer.
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I think all of us in our generation either had one or someone in our family did. It was gorgeous snow, wasn’t it? We did find a stove and it will be installed today. Isn’t it striking that you know three people who were out shopping at year’s end o refrigerators, dryers, and stoves? There must be something to this end-of-year sales.
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I am really going to enjoy hearing what comes next, Penny. I haven’t seen any of these retro models yet, but I, too, am going to need a new oven before long. Mine is sadly limping along. But I have a stove story, too.
When my parents upgraded their kitchen decades ago, they gave their original 1950 O’Keefe and Merritt white gas stove–with the clock and the shelf and all the accoutrements of that day, to my grandmother. When she died none of us could part with that stove. We still have it in storage, and for a decade my brother has said he wants it. It was in excellent condition when it was first stored, but I don’t know about now. I’d like to have it, but…hahaha! I think he has claimed it for sometime in the future. But the point really is our attachment to that stove! Isn’t it funny to think what memories are stirred by the nostalgia of what happens in the kitchen. Now we’ll wait to hear the rest of your story. 🙂
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It took me by surprise, and back in time, when I noticed it, Debra. It just wouldn’t have worked in our kitchen, or I might have considered it. They are actually targeting 25-40 year olds with this retro look.
That’s a great legacy to the O’Keefe and Merritt stove! I love it! I’ll just bet that stove still works and will roast up Thanksgiving turkey sometime in the future. Sounds like your brother has “dibs” on it. When we moved from Chicago, the stove came with us and was used for all my childhood. When we moved again, it was stored in my aunt’s basement. Tom’s folks also moved theirs to a new house and it sat in the basement. In just the right kitchen, wouldn’t they make a tasty statement?
We certainly understand the adage of “the heart of the home is its kitchen”, don’t we? Stay tuned.
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Of course, I remember stoves like that. I even remember one with no clock. Mom had a kitchen timer. We had plenty of clocks. My grandmother had a little gas stove in her basement that was on legs like a table. The small oven was on one side on top. I remember being told to stand back as it was lit. Light the match, turn the knobs and wait for the whoosh as the gas caught fire. Grandmother always used it for big family dinners when she had more to cook than could fit in her tiny stove in the kitchen. Imagine fixing a big meal with things cooking up and down stairs. No wonder Grandmother was in such good shape after running up and down the basement stairs carrying wonderful food back and forth.
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I was sure you would recall this type of stove, Janet, as sure as I was that your house had lots of clocks. I don’t recall a timer, just the clock, that the women would watch carefully when baking, although Yia Yia had a built in sense of when things were done.
What a wonderful little gas stove! I know I’ve seen these types of stoves in antique stores, with flowers and baskets on top. I always try to imagine where they came from and who cooked on them. Can’t you still hear that “whoosh”? What a memory you have. I can only imagine your Grandmother hurrying up and down the stairs to check whatever was cooking and then carrying it up for a dinner.
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Did it have a deep well cooker? That’s what I remember about our stove when I was a little kid….sort of like a pre-crockpot thing I guess …a back burner set down low with a tall soup pot that sat in it (with the top of the pot even with the stove top). I think it was an electric burner, but I’m not sure about that. Mother simmered soup and stews and even oatmeal (on a bad day ;>).
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Ours didn’t, Sallie, but my aunt’s did when we all moved to the suburbs and she had her own house (next door). Hers was several years newer and did have a deep well cooker. I’m pretty sure it was an electric oven, rather than gas. Ours was a gas oven. I’d forgotten about that feature. Oh, those soups and stews and oatmeal – which is good any time of day, we have found.
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It sounds absolutely wonderful, Penny. I love retro stuff ( I have spent months looking for a 1940’s/1950’s desk to go in my new office at the top of the house. But retro carries a price.
I can’t wait to hear about the chocolate. One of my all-time favourite subjects
🙂
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I hope you find just the desk you are looking for, Kate. Keep looking. Flea markets, I think you call them boot sales, should be starting up come springtime, and you never know what you might find. Half the fun is in the looking, though I’m imagining you are about ready to had a desk to use.
I hope the next installment pleases your chocolate palate. Hope all is well, and the kids are doing well.
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I can’t decide if I am a retro-lover or whether it leaves me cold….depends on the item, I suppose, but I found this cooker very pleasing. I remember my Granny’s as the type I disliked, even back then when she used it…it was badly proportioned and also badly placed in the kitchen (which was tiny, I admit) but it doesn’t stir any good memories other than of the wonderful food it seemed to produce, of course!!
It’s strange what does stir memories though and when I read your title, I did imagine an old, dusty box full of old photos, pressed flowers and snippets of newspaper, so well done for surprising me absolutely!
Axxx
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It would be perfect – in just the right kind of kitchen, which mine is not, Annie. Still, it was fun to see and acted as a portal for memories, both mine and all those each of you are sharing. All that wonderful food Granny’s awkward stove served up. This stove went from a big old kitchen to a modern suburban one – and took up a good part of the floor space.
Ha! Then the title worked. It is just such a box where I usually find my memories. Thank you, Annie.
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[…] « Big Box Memories […]
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A retro range indeed…. How dare these smart young things make the appliances of our childhoods into pieces of history? 🙂 I look forward to instalment two of the hunt for the range, Penny, especially if there is chocolate involved….
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How dare they, indeed! These are being marketed particularly to the 25-40 year olds, which I found interesting. Perhaps they will buy them trying to capture their grandparents’ eras.
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I remember those old ovens, and as soon as you said ‘analogue clock’ a big smile came on my face. What a delightful story, and I look forward to the next episode. Am beginning to catch up, starting with your blog. Nice to be back.
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It is nice to see you back, Juliet, and thank you for your words and for stopping here to catch up. I think most of us can remember such stoves from somewhere in our past. It was masterfully marketed, I thought, to place that analog clock. Signatures and analogs will be relics to our youngest of grandchildren, I fear – but, then again, we can talk to them and they will be able to see our faces from afar.
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[…] most definitely come to replace the stove, commencing with appliance shopping that brought about memories of stoves in lifetimes past earlier this month. This shopping was done in between snowstorms, a purchase made and a date for delivery was set, and […]
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