I was born in the late 1960’s and at that time, probably only one-in-a-hundred American households owned a microwave oven. The number was far fewer in the mountains where I grew up to be sure, as microwave ovens were a high-priced novelty. Even though we didn’t have a lot of money for things like microwaves, in 1980, we were one of the first families that I knew that had one. One of my mother’s friends had purchased a microwave, but said that she could never figure out how to make it work, and so she gave it to us. I’m guessing that first microwave probably cost $1000 when it was new, at least that’s what we told everybody, as we sowed the seeds of covetous jealousy. According to my research, a home microwave oven in 1970 sold for $495 (about $3,500 today).
I soon learned that owning a microwave came with a lot of responsibility. You can’t put metal in it, or rocks, or other non-edible things. Whole eggs in the shell are also a no-no. There are other things you CAN put in them, but you really shouldn’t, like peanut butter, live animals, plastic bags, wet clothes, etc. Indeed, in those early days, I conducted quite a lot of research on what works well in microwaves.
I would like to report that microwave technology has improved a lot over the last forty years. In the early days, some foods became incredibly hard, like concrete, but only in certain places. The temperatures and cooking times varied wildly. Sometimes, a cup full of water would seemingly explode into a boiling fury when you opened the door, while a can of soup cooked on high for three minutes would still be cold.
Perhaps the most worrisome concern about those early microwaves was the risk of cooking your own liver if you stood in front of them. Aunt Anita, my mother’s sister, was terrified of having her liver cooked and frankly, I didn’t like the idea either. My mother would get madder than a wet hen and tell me that watching the spinning table during the cooking process would indubitably scar my corneas. Others swore that the microwaves, and more importantly, the radiation they generated, actually stayed in whatever was cooked in the electronic wonder oven. Someone my mom knew said that water heated in the microwave would kill plants if you tried to water them. I never quite understood since boiling water heated in the traditional ways also kills house plants! Again, I did a lot of research.
We were also convinced that microwave popcorn would kill us all with cancer, but we slowly decided the most everything causes cancer. Over time, we found the best uses of the microwave oven and determined which foods were worth the cancer risk. We had that original microwave in our house until I graduated high school and it always heated unevenly. My dad, who seemed to devolve into a completely useless imbecile in the kitchen if my mom was home, never even tried to use the microwave until after my mom passed away. Despite my curiosity and unbounded pursuit of knowledge about microwaves, thankfully both my corneas and liver remain intact to this day.