August 10, 2020 (Monday)
When my sisters and I were living with our grandparents during World War II, my father gave us a weekly allowance. I saved up mine until I had enough money to buy my grandmother a gift. Sometimes I walked to the downtown area, but most of the time I took the bus, which was very cheap. But when I reached 11 years of age, I was big for my age so the bus drivers thought I was at least 12 and had to pay the adult fare. Usually I won the argument, but sometimes I had to get off the bus because I could not afford the higher price. (I faced the same problem elsewhere [like a theater] many times before I finally turned 12, and after that I just paid what I owed). Well, anyway, I went downtown one way or another, and straight to the bargain basements to shop for my grandmother’s gift. It was in Woolworth’s basement (their store that at that time was on the corner of Main and Capitol. Kress was on one of the other corners of that intersection). There I found a pyrex glass percolator. As best as I can remember, it looked like this:
I found this picture on the internet. It’s an antique that sells for $102.00 (others list for $180.00 or more). I don’t recall what I paid but you can rest assured it was probably less than $2 or $3. Anyway, my grandmother loved it, and used it for 30 years — the rest of her life. I remember seeing it on her stove during her last years. I don’t know if she loved it as much as she loved the fact that I gave it to her. I was spoiled rotten by my grandparents. I told you in another blog about the jig saw puzzle I completed that she had framed for her living room wall.
The best percolator Wanda and I ever had was a Corning Ware brand. It made great coffee. We used it for years. I think we still have it somewhere.
When they were available for sale, I always brought home a “dripolator.” Heat the water and pour it into the top container where the water flows down through the coffee grounds into the aluminum carafe. They don’t sell those anymore, as far as I know. Probably are antiques. My father used to make coffee for himself every morning in one of these. He would get up early, drink coffee, listen to the radio news, eat a little bite, and go to work. Same routine every week day. I think he liked it because it allowed the coffee to be poured back through the containers, thereby using much less dry coffee. I liked it because it tasted better than percolated.
The Mr. Coffee arrived later, and paved the way for all kinds of coffee makers and all sorts of strange brews. Today we have a Keurig. Easiest way yet to make very good coffee. I like it.
In my family’s cafe, coffee was five cents, with free warmups and refills. Those were the days. In some places today, you have to use a credit card because you don’t carry around that much cash.
Reminds me of the hobo who asked for $1.00 for a cup of coffee when coffee was still a nickel in a cafe. When the response was, “That’s too much” he said, “You don’t expect me to go to some cheap joint, do you?” That joke is dated. Today $1 per cup is cheap, if you can find it for that.
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Pour yourself a cup of coffee and listen to pleasant coffee music until you’ve heard enough (4 hrs)