December 11, 2022

Reflections – The Old Cooking Pan

I have fond memories of my grandmother’s old cooking pan. During the summer of 1965, I worked at a natural gas plant near where my Grandma Thyssen lived. It was a wonderful period of weekend bonding during which I would mow her lawn and she would tell me stories of what it was like back in the country of Denmark and what it was like after they immigrated to America in 1930. At the time Grandpa Thyssen had passed and she was living alone in their tiny “farmer’s retirement house” along the main highway of the community of Danevang.

Today, I prepared my evening meal in an aged aluminum frying pan that had belonged to Grandma Thyssen. This old cooking pan has three sections that allow one to simultaneously cook a main dish and also warm up a couple of others. Obviously, the cook would be preparing much smaller portions than we might be accustomed to today.

The last time I saw it used was by Grandma Thyssen. It required both fewer items of cookware and, also less fuel for the gas stove. The pan reflected a life of extreme simplicity and frugality. Tonight, I cooked some hamburger meat, warmed over lima beans, and some simmered tomatoes–and I thought of Grandma Thyssen.

I wonder if anyone ever uses such a partitioned aluminum old cooking pan these days when our kitchens appear to be full of slow cookers, Instant Pots, Keurig coffee makers, and other high-tech conveniences? And I think of those others who even today might prefer to do so in order to save on fuel.

The summer of 1965, almost 60 years ago, was a very different time. I pray that my grandchildren will never have to face such scarcity-induced simplicity. If they do, may they have children who will notice and remember.

Blessings and peace,

Chaplain Allen
chaplain@nationsu.edu
chaplainscorner.org

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