Sunday, November 9, 2008

FIRST MAJOR PURCHASE

In 1967 we were married. We lived in Kentucky across the river from Cincinnati. I was a teacher making a smidgen over $3000 and Marty was a CHEVRON sales rep making around $5000. Even back then, that was not a whole lot of money. I was very frugal, some might say tight. Marty wasn't. He knew what we could afford, or could save up for. He would not accept junk, only good brands. If it wasn't what he wanted, we did without until we had the money. Usually.

He came home one night with a 10 speed blender, an Osterizer. This was the Cadillac of blenders. It was maybe even a Mercedes. The blender cost $50.00. I had a melt down. That was a huge amount of money to spend without discussing it. Plus why did we need a blender? Where would we put it? Our apartment kitchen was so tiny we kept dishes and pots in another room.

We still have that blender. All we have done to it is replace the gasket every 10 years or so. I made daiquiris in it, sauces, baby food, crushed ice, all kinds of things. It was a great investment: metal parts, glass jar, made to last. But alas today tragedy. While getting a crock pot out of the closet, the blender jar was bumped and it fell! It broke.

This blender is so old that the model number is only three digits. Everything today is four digits or more. I found a place online that sells replacement kits. The cost is $24.99 for jar, blades, lid, gasket. A very reasonable price. We figured the blades might be a little dull after 41 years, so let's go for the kit. The replacement jar should fit most Osterizers. We shall see.

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