Suburban Island

Harvest Gold Complex

If you have a kitchen then you have countertops. Countertops are good. Countertops are nice. We need countertops. The question is – what about the harvest gold countertops? Do we need them? The reason that I ask is that I am currently in possession of one and have been for years. As you can imagine given that fact, the harvest gold countertop question is one that I have pondered with some regularity.

Sometimes countertops that are harvest gold can’t fly under the radar anymore. My countertop is currently in that situation. It's all due to friendship, the power of the modern woman, and the irritating quality of outdated color schemes. Idle conversation also played a valuable role. Never discount the hidden value of idle chitchat between good pals.

One of my great friends is currently in town. We got talking about countertops. She has an amazing talent when it comes to doing things that are actually useful in the life. For instance, she can build furniture, fix things, and manage home construction projects. I have actually seen a stained glass and hardwood front door she made by hand with my own two eyes. Most impressive to me is the fact that she knows how to do things that require actual tools. I on the other hand, can’t glue together popsicle sticks. The only tools I know how to use are a hammer, a screwdriver, and a tape measure. Oh, and a level. I can use a level if you really want to push the tool envelope. So imagine my delight when my friend mentions that she's got an orphaned countertop with my name written all over it. It's brand new and was torn from the bossom of its very own kitchen due to the wiles of a heartless hussy countertop made of solid granite after just a month in grand residence. She thinks this brand new countertop would fit in my kitchen. She thinks that maybe she can even help install it.

This is a big deal.

My kitchen's original issue harvest gold countertops are the real thing. The stars of the modern kitchen of old were harvest gold and avocado green appliances and matching countertops. My harvest gold countertop provides a retro cooking environment made more authentic by the fact that the last appliance left standing from the original set is a vintage harvest gold stove that is over 25 years old. It works just fine and I plan to keep it until it stops doing so. I say – have some loyalty to the appliance that got you though over 20 years of Thanksgiving turkeys, fishsticks for toddlers, slice-and-bake cookies, and an occasional real dinner.

I’ve never actually seen a countertop that would work with brick red flooring, harvest gold stove, other non-original appliances in beige, and a tiled backsplash of creamy pale yellow. That has indeed been the great stumbling block of the harvest gold kitchen challenge. I’ve brought the chips home from the hardware store by the bushel but everything looks terrible with the color scheme.

Until last night.

Last night, my friend strides into my kitchen like a modern-day goddess. She is carrying a countertop in her hands as if it is as light as a box of Godiva chocolates. She plops it on top of the harvest gold countertop and my whole kitchen takes on a different look. If I squint my eyes a little bit I can see a nice kitchen, a modern kitchen, a must-have kitchen. However… after she measured the space she tells me that the bigger piece of countertop she had wouldn’t be a fit. We're all disappointed. Our rescue mission/renovation effort has been stopped in its tracks.

So close and yet so far away. Yet, all is not lost.

The end of the long reign of the harvest gold countertop could still be imminent. She is going to see how much it would be to buy a piece of countertop that did fit. This woman knows how to do it all. Meanwhile, I’m going to work on that popsicle stick thing.

Eventually my daughter arrived home from her evening out with friends. I was standing in the kitchen admiring the piece of countertop my friend had left behind for me to meditate upon. In my daughter’s hand was a box of Godiva chocolates. Obviously, she is a goddess too.

The universe balanced itself in our kitchen. It's a subtle thing. Awesome. And undeniably delicious.

NOTE: Can't get enough stories about harvest gold kitchen appliances? Read about the demise of the harvest gold refrigerator - Elvis Has Left the Building. You'll never look at your appliances the same way again.

Make it a Mango

Today is Cinco de Mayo. I am drinking some mango flavored blush wine that comes out a cardboard box container that is sitting on the shelf in my refrigerator. Who doesn’t like mango? – That’s what I said to myself when I carried the box out to my car this week. Why, I even had a conversation with a guy in the wine aisle about the mango flavored wine in a box. He seemed intrigued. We discussed mango flavored blush wine versus the boxes of sangria. Maybe he was hitting on me. More likely, he was simply a man drawn to large volumes of alcoholic beverages in handy containers.

Happy Cinco de Mayo with a mango on top.

Elvis Has Left the Building

QUESTION: What everyday items do we take for granted everyday?

WHAT I LEARNED: The average household holds many ordinary treasures.

Goodbye to the old…

We say goodbye today to a soldier of the cold wars. Many a refrigeration battle was fought within its gold-tone borders as it kept the world safe for mayonnaise, butter, and cold cuts- all kinds. Room was made for the refugees of holiday dinners – unwieldy containers of mashed potatoes, sticky bowls of cranberry sauce – jellied and whole berry, turkey – sliced, with and without gravy, a variety of pies – most notably pumpkin, and the obligatory containers of eggnog. The aged were always welcome – old salad dressing, a bottle of beets, large olives with pimentos, a can of grapefruit segments, and the oldest jar of butterscotch in the world. It did not matter the station one held in life – Evian Water hung out with a jug of filtered tap water and the Grey Poupon mustard rubbed shoulders with the grocery store relish. Diversity was the name of the game as a container of snow gathered in January rested snuggly next to glow-in-the-dark necklaces from a summer outing at the local theme park.

Visitors were always welcome too – restaurant doggy bags full of the last remnants of miscellaneous meals, and containers of half eaten Chinese dinners found a safe haven in its soft white interior glow. No one was turned away – not the single cabbage roll, or the leftover pasta, or the half a steak and cheese, or the open can of Coke. The light was always on – day and night - for any who chose to stop by. I for one, often basked in the cool safe light that spelt midnight snack in the wee small hours of the morning.

Thank you, old veteran of our small suburban kitchen, for your years of loyal service. Your gold-tone exterior was an act of bravery and a statement of persistent cheerfulness. I applaud you for the daily kindness of keeping us all well fed over the years and for the breakfasts, lunches, dinners, late night sugar cookies, ice cream concoctions, and miscellaneous snacks and beverages you kept conveniently on hand for us 24/7. We will see you in old family videos and smile at your golden insolence, marvel at the sea of magnets that covered every inch of you, and exclaim at your stalwart nature throughout years of toddlers hanging off your handles and teenagers standing interminably before your open door foraging for the perfect snack.

You may have been wheeled out of the front door this morning but you will always form a piece of our history and a part of what made our house a home for the last 20 years. For that, I sincerely thank you and say a fond and heartfelt farewell.

Comments to Alice in Suburbia:

purple chai - 2003-10-04 21:08:40
Ah, enjoyed this entry, and your writing always.
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cosmicrayola - 2003-10-04 21:39:22
That was sooo sweet! Can't you make a planter out of it or something?
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Christopher - 2003-10-04 21:50:43
You should keep the door and mount it for magnetic poetry. I would do that. I want the door. Good luck with a new one.
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Poolagirl - 2003-10-06 02:43:37
What a lovely eulogy! Bless you for making the tossing away of your old war horse fridge a poetic adventure.
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katie d - 2003-10-11 04:23:24
wow. i feel kinda bad i never said goodbye to any of our old refrigerators. gee. kd
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