A Tale of Two Stoves

This was my little play stove when I was a kid, back in the dark ages. I have it in my kitchen on my baker's rack and it makes me smile whenever I look at it. Wouldn't it be fun to have a real stove like that, with the cool primary color buttons? How about the electrical outlet? Or the built-in salt shaker?

I had some metal pots and pans to cook with and my dolls had some very delicious meals! Can you see the deep fat fryer on the back?  In real life, that was a frying basket that was removable and the heat element was down at the bottom.

Goes to show you how much frying went on back in those days! No Fry Daddies needed, it was all in your stove!

I was looking at some old family pictures and came across this one of my mother, taken in 1958.  Doesn't it look like a photo out of a Ladies Home Journal or Good Housekeeping?  I remember this stove -- it was electric and had two really deep drawers at the bottom. She kept all her pot lids in one of them, and kitchen linens in the other.

  

Like my toy stove, it also had the deep fat fryer on the outside back burner. Our kitchen had a swinging door that was next to the stove and opened into the dining room. The dining room was an extension of the living room which had a door leading into the hall (always kept open). From the hall was another open entrance into the kitchen. (Are you following this? I've never been good at directions!)  

Anyway, you could run in a complete circle from kitchen to dining room to hall and back to kitchen. Which, of course, I did with much regularity.

OK, back to the deep fat fryer, which (as a reminder) was on the outside of the stove, next to the swinging door.  So my mother was frying chicken -- I was running through the doors -- my long hair was billowing out behind me -- I know you know where this is leading -- I singed my hair!!! 

Fortunately nothing really bad happened -- except I wasn't allowed to run in the circle anymore.  My mother, however, did go on to fry more chicken!!

♥♥♥ Linking my stoves to Rednesday over at It's a Very Cherry World. Check it out for some more reds!

♥♥♥ Found a brand spankin' new link up party for vintage kitchen goodies and recipes -- it's called What's Cooking in the Cottage Kitchen (hosted by Etsy Cottage Style) and it sounds like fun! My stoves are linking up there, too!

♥♥♥ Yay!  Another new linky for me!! So now I'm linking my stoves to Knick of Time Tuesday over at Knick of Time Interiors! Have yourself a look, lots of vintage treasures to see!

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