Don’t You Know?

Shortly after Winona and I were married in 1963, I worked for a while as a salesman for Wearever cookware in Nashville.  This brand of cookware was not sold in stores but by salesmen going into homes.  Ideally, the customer to find was a girl in high school, preferably a senior, who was beginning to collect items she would need for marriage or for living on her own—in those days called a “hope chest.”

After proper training with my head salesman I went for my first in-home demonstration with just such a girl.  I was to demonstrate the virtues of the cookware to this girl and her mother.

Part of the demonstration was to show how evenly the heat is distributed in the pots and pans by using the eight-inch skillet to bake a cake on top of the stove.  With a box of Jiffy cake mix, a can of four slices of pineapple, a little water, and an egg I was to mix the ingredients and pour into the skillet which would produce in a few minutes a tasteful up-side-down pineapple cake.

I provided all the ingredients for the cake except for the one egg and a little water which I asked the mother if she could provide.  She willingly got an egg from her refrigerator and handed to me.  As I cracked the egg on the edge of the cabinet it broke, and its insides ran down the face of the cabinet onto the floor!

Before I could make a quick apology, the mother said, “Don’t you know you should never crack an egg on the edge of the cabinet?  You should use the edge of the bowl!”  I was embarrassed and apologetically asked for another egg since my mix was ready, except for the egg.  She willingly handed me another egg and I proceeded with the mixture and poured it into the skillet setting it on the stove on medium heat.  It baked while I showed all the pieces of the cookware set and the various combinations of sets with the prices.  After a few minutes, the cake was baked and we all ate a piece, impressed that it baked so nicely in the skillet on top of the stove.

Despite my clumsiness in breaking and ruining the first egg, the mother bought a cookware set for her daughter’s hope chest, laughing all the while about the egg episode.  It was a mistake I have never made since—an egg should always be cracked on the side of the bowl or pan into which it goes.

I sold cookware only long enough to pay for the demo set that I had to buy to be a salesman.  Winona thinks that it was one of the best purchases we ever made, for suddenly her efforts to become a good cook were greatly enabled by such quality cookware.  We still use it daily after more than fifty years!