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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I own and use a few pieces of kitchen equipment that are old, low-tech, and downright homely.  But I can’t bear to part with them because of how I acquired them or to whom they once belonged.  They don’t even work as well as they could, or once did.  But each time I use them, it’s a very special if brief connection to a person or a memory.  Does anyone else feel this way about kitchen tools they own, or am I the only one?

First, I have a crystal cake stand/punch bowl my mom gave me.  She is, thankfully, very much alive, but this item at one time was often used in our house when I was a kid.  It’s a clever construction wherein you can turn the stand upside down as well as the lid, and the lid’s rounded handle fits neatly in the base, making the lid a generous-sized punch bowl.  Many times I can recall seeing it filled with sherbet-and-soda concoctions, piled with cookies, or holding a cake.  Good times.  It wasn’t an expensive item, I know.  I can recall my mom getting it on sale at a a discount department store called Jamesway.  But it’s priceless to me because it evokes the feeling of childhood, family parties, and a belly full of good things.

I also regularly use my great Aunt Anna’s flour sifter.  I think it may sometime soon qualify as an antique, but for the fact that it’s definitely seen better days.  The handle sticks, it’s got a thin line of rust on its outside seam, and  it’s dented from getting banged around in a box the last time we moved.  But every time I use it I think of Aunt Anna…her poundcake, the unique old-lady smell of her house (very pleasant, actually, a combination of L’Air du Temps, laundry starch, and plant food), and the wooden crate of Coke in small glass bottles she always had around.  She could be a tough lady at times, but she liked to spoil me a little.  I loved staying overnight at her house.

I never got to know my husband’s grandmother Marie very well, something I feel a gentle pang of regret over because he was clearly so fond of her.  She passed away not long after he and I began to date.  Along with her stack of recipes, I was given the opportunity to choose things from among her bakeware.  To this day, I often reach for a cake pan she owned, another hybrid item.  It’s both a bundt pan and springform pan.  It has a bit of corrosion on the outside, but it’s a very heavy aluminum, the likes of which you just don’t find anymore.  Everytime I use it  I feel glad because what little I know of Marie, she’d be so pleased that someone was getting use out of her things, that her memory is cherished and her name spoken often.

I hope none of these things ever degrades to the point that they break or become unusable.  If you have a kitchen tools that you don’t use because they’re hand-me-downs, get them out, wash them up, and put them to use.  You’ll find yourself remembering times and people you haven’t thought of in years.