Toasters

7/5/2014

While it is now a household staple, it wasn't always so.  The first successful commercial toaster made by GE was introduced in 1909. Initially, if you wanted to have both sides of bread toasted, you had to take it out, turn it around and put the bread back into the toaster.  By today's standards that seems like a lot of work.

A pop-up toaster was invented in 1919.  When I was growing up, toasters were easy to use, pop the break in, push down the lever and eventually toasted bread popped up.  While you couldn't always adjust the color of your toast, but today you can.  I'm just not sure how accurate the settings are.  I like reasonably dark toast and so my dial is adjusted to produce brown but not burned toast.  Maybe my dial is off, because these days if I'm not paying attention, the bread and/or bagel come out a wee bit darker than I wanted.  I eat the bread anyway, figuring that the char on the bread gives my teeth and gums a workout.  And, with enough butter and/or honey, there hasn't been any bread that I couldn't or wouldn't eat.  Let's face it folks, I like bread products, whether it's a bagel, french toast or my favorite kind of bread - sour dough!! Yum.

With the little dial on the front of the toaster, I'm not sure I'm actually in control of anything.  Maybe the dial is there just to make us believe we're empowered over the toaster, kind of like some accessories on cars that are pretty but not really useful.

I had a toaster oven for awhile, but it took up too much counter space.  I don't need a completely clear counter top, but if it's something I don't use often, I want it put away.  For instance, I don't keep out my stand-alone mixer, my blender, waffle iron, bread machine, and one of those little cooking machines for making sandwiches.

By the time my toaster stops doing it's job, I know with 100% certainty that when I go to replace it, there will be all sorts of new gadget toasters for sale, and I'll probably be hard pressed to find a "plain vanilla" toaster whose only function is to make toast!

Before I sign off, I thought you might like a July 5th history lesson.  Could be a good conversation starter at a party, you never know.  A lot of other things have happened on the 5th of July, but I just picked out a few from history.

•  1865 - US Secret Service begins operating under the Treasury Department
•  1919 - Red Sox Babe Ruth hits 2 HRs in a game for his 1st of 72 times
•  1937 - Joe DiMaggio's 1st grand slammer
•  1944 Harry Crosby takes 1st rocket airplane, MX-324, for maiden flight
•  1946  Louis Reard's bikini swimsuit design debuts at Paris fashion show
•  1954  B-52A bomber made its maiden flight
•  1963  1st Beatle tune to hit US charts

P