The 8008 624

My first microwave had a mechanical timer, too, but it wasn't linear. Instead, the first five minutes took up about a quarter of the dial, with the attendant precision.

I loved that microwave. I got it in '73 or '74 and it was the first countertop microwave anyone we knew had. It was the first one sold in Lancaster, too, but only by a day or so. It had a browning coil, because this was when they were still trying to make microwaved food look roasted.

Its replacement is a convection oven as well and I love it, too. It has a digital keyboard, one of those flat sealed ones. I prefer that to the mechanical dial, partly because you can get it clean with just a swipe.

I just did the arithmetic; over thirty years and I'm still using my second microwave. That says something about how well Thermador and Amana built them. In those thirty-plus years I've seen a lot of changes in food because of the popularity of microwave ovens. Frozen foods used to come in heavy foil trays and dishes and boil-in bags were the fast version. Offerings were fairly limited, too. Now it seems as if everything is microwavable and the variety is astounding.

I did buy another countertop microwave for the new Sun City house; I didn't want a built-in microwave in it, because I buttume that microwave ovens have a shorter lifetime than the house does and the sizes aren't standardized the way regular ovens are. Besides, Ken can't reach over his head, so it would have to be fairly low, like counter height, anyway. Our first Sun City house had a microwave built in over the stove (it was also the exhaust fan). I didn't like that at all because Ken couldn't use it and I didn't like having to lift hot food down. It had a lot of nice features, though.

Mary

-- Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer We didn't just do weird stuff at Dryden, we wrote reports about it.