There are a few things that I try to remember to look for at yard sales and such. I try to remember to look for a bundle of stainless forks, because you just can’t have enough, and I don’t care about matchy-matchy at the lake house. I try to remember that I really want some of those hanging wire baskets that are small-medium-large, to hold stuff like gardening gloves in the summer kitchen. I need to keep an eye out for an un-wireless wall phone, for the bathroom, because there’s a hook-up next to the terlit, like in a schmancy hotel.
And I always keep in the back of my mind a Pyrex percolator, just because I think it will sound and smell so much better and old-fashionedy, and just right for slowed-down mornings at the lake house.
Found it at Aunt Patty’s Antique Mall on Tuesday, in Rockville!
So on Wednesday, I perked my first pot of coffee, with Pixie supervising. See that blue-ish light? That’s early morning shining in the kitchen window. Our lake house is situated smack up against the dividing line between Eastern Time and Central Time, so while the clock says 7:45, it is really 6:45, by only a mile or two. And lil Pixie has no idea of time zones; her inner clock says 7:14, and she’s ready to play.
I filled the pot with water and coffee grounds and put the flame under her.
Pixie and I stood there and watched her. And watched. And watched.
Then she got all bubbly.
Then bub-bub. Bub-bub-bub. Bub-bub-bub-bub-bub-bub-bub!
THEN from the other side of the kitchen came the shhhhhhhhh-bip-bip-bip from Mr. Coffee, who was auto-set for 8:00am.
After 30 years in children’s books, I find myself personifying pretty much everything. So you’ll understand why I felt kind of bad cheering for the new-girl percolator. I really wanted her to make a better brew than our old-boy electric coffeemaker who has served us cups and cups of morning goodness.
I was so happy it was a tie! Both were delicious. Phew! We can all live happily in one kitchen.
And do you know what else I imagine? I think with no humans around, they’re flirting and falling in love.
Mr. and Mrs. Coffee.
ginnygram 
Keep your filter clean, Mr. Coffee. Otherwise it’s grounds for divorce.
You should remember to keep an eye out for a french press coffee maker also…..my favorite. Missed you this week, Lil’ Elf.
What a wonderful scene you describe!!! I can almost smell the coffee now;)
During my last years of teaching, my students had no idea what I was talking about when I told them the first step in writing was to “percolate.” I tried to describe the old percolators and the sound they made as they bubbled the water into coffee–just as writers percolate ideas. Just didn’t work. I had to call it “thinking,” and that’s not nearly as meaningful as “percolating” while you are walking in the cemetery.
My Mom only ever had a percolator coffee pot, so I remember those fondly
I had to laugh when you talked about the un wireless phone. We still have 2 in the house and I thought i would replace them with a newer model, but I don’t think they sell them anymore. Plus I think we are one of the few houses that still has a land line.
Years ago a friend stopped by our house with her son and we still had a rotary dial phone on the wall, he could not figure that one out for anything, even though we told him what it was.