Why you shouldn’t take your toaster for granted

Chances are YOU take your hard-working toaster for granted. Yes YOU!

I know I was guilty of toaster neglect and disrespect – until recently when I enjoyed a cool café in Sydney called Black Toast.

The café was decorated with lots of retro toasters as props and these props brought back so many warm and “toasty” memories.

As I looked at the prop toasters I heard other customers stop and look and react the same way I did:

Wow – I remember my grandmother had one of those!

 

So I started thinking about toasters and about how once they were once revolutionary designs that made our lives easier.

To simplify:

Before toasters – we toasted bread on a stick over a fire or in a metal frame in front of a fireplace.

Then we got the electric toaster – where we had to watch and operate it and  “change the toast”.

Then came the revolutionary pop-up toaster – you just put it in, the “magic” toaster popped up the toast when it reached the level of “toastiness” you required!

I love the retro ads – proclaiming the wonders of the new technological toaster – a real lady pleaser!

And toasters became the cliché for wedding gifts – when you wanted to help a married couple on the way to domestic bliss.

Then the toaster became commonplace and taken for granted.

We forgot it about because it “took care of itself” – and didn’t need our attention except for the occasional crumb clean.

Maybe if it wasn’t so reliable and burned your toast – you’d pay it more attention.

It became a victim of it’s own efficiency!

Anyway, I am glad to see the toaster is pushing its way back into our attention – claiming back its place in our kitchens.

Look at the bold retro colours and retro designs. Hard to ignore!

There are even novelty designs.

In my toaster research I even found out that there is a toaster museum.

If you’re interested at the end of this post  are links to that museum and some design/retro articles.

I’m so glad that Black Toast café’s toaster props  – got me thinking about toasters in our lives.

The props reminded me of my grandmother’s old toaster where you had to change the toast.

… as a kid on a cold morning watching the heating coils (don’t know the technical name!) glow orange.

… OR  being woken up by the welcome smell of toast wafting into your room when you were still in bed

…how with one of the  revolutionary (pre-pop-up) toaster design – you opened and closed the side and the toast would slide and change sides for you.

Haven’t thought about this stuff in decades! Memories keep popping up!

What about you? What memories do toasters have for you?

Here are  those links I promised:

http://www.toaster.org/museum.html

http://www.bellemaison23.com/2008/10/retro-kitchen.html

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Cheers,

Tony