Toast

This is a beauty, isn't it? A classic worth about $8 last time I checked. This toaster is fifty years old, I think. The way I remember it, it was a wedding gift to my parents and when I was growing up it was the coolest toaster on the block. (You've got to remember video games hadn't been invented yet so watching toast had an amusement value.)

The feature wasn't that it made good toast - I'm not sure it ever did that. The feature was (and still is) that is has no buttons or levers for making the toast go up and down. It does that on its own. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's magic. Put the toast in and it lowers itself. When it's either toasted on one side or burnt to a crisp (I haven't found the middle setting yet) it comes back up.

Sometimes, it even makes good toast. Sometimes, it sets my smoke alarms into a frenzy. (I used to have to take the batteries out of the smoke alarms to make toast.)

But I can't get rid of it. I love it. It used to have a cloth covered electrical wire which I had replaced when it started to fray. I probably could have purchased a new toaster for less money. One that toasted bagels or hot dog buns. One that had knobs, buttons, settings. But I couldn't do it.

I don't know what will happen to this toaster when I'm gone. Who will want it? Maybe the Toast Marketing Board will want it for an edition of Vintage Toaster Monthly.

Maybe not. Maybe my toaster's future is just - toast.