My old stove -

One of my mantras is “people are more important than things” – it’s useful to remember with a house full of toddlers and when things break.

Last weekend, while I was away, my beloved old gas range broke. It was over 70 years old, and came with the house when I bought it 23 years ago. When I remodeled the kitchen, in order to do childcare here, it was the only thing that stayed – it still worked and had character – so we designed the rest of the kitchen around it.

I have baked thousands of muffins and hundreds of cookies in that oven – countless kettles of tea water were heated on it. The pilot light in the center was ideal for warming baby bottles placed in a Pyrex measuring cup full of warm water, or the dog’s special diet food. It was super sturdy and perfect for toddlers to explore, with the little cupboard on the side full of “their” metal bake ware. There were periods when I had to check before turning on the oven to make sure there were no Duplos inside - they fit nicely in muffin tins - and only once did we accidentally melt a toy.

Terri was not as fond of the range as I’ve been, and has lobbied for several years to replace it - you can follow the link to her stove story. She didn’t like that we had to light it with a match, or the way the pilot light on the stove top would sometimes go out when we turned on the oven, leading to a gas smell if we didn’t remember to relight it. Last year we had a repairman come and adjust the oven thermostat for us; he said that in his years of working on old ranges he had never seen this brand (a Wincraft) and that if it broke we couldn’t get parts.

So today we got a new range, and though it’s nice and I’m sure I’ll get used to it, I don’t like it nearly as much. As I fuss about this loss, I remind myself of my great good fortune and think of the group I send money to that employs refugee women in Darfur to build solar cookers, in order to stop deforestation and the rape of the women when they leave the camps to collect firewood. It helps to keep things in perspective.