30 Comments
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Rich Colbert's avatar

Ironically our DW just 'broke' again! Unlike yours our KitchenAid was circa 2003 so it had a long life. I told my family that growing up we had a dishwasher named "Dick", my Dad. Hand washing was SOP back then. If my great aunt's or grandmother had dinner with us one would volunteer to "wipe" the dishes. We have become so accustomed to gadgets and I am not convinced they make our lives better than back in the days of Donna Reed? We purchased a new unit, a Maytag, made in USA w/out and extended warranty. Happy T-day to all and remember dishpan hands are clean hands!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Ha. I can remember plunging my little hands into the dish-dish (the big tub that held the dishwater) and being pretty happy about it. I made a complicated (for me) cake yesterday, and used the dishwasher but honestly, I haven't gone back since.

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Lori Pelletier's avatar

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m grateful for your written words... keeps me connected. 🦃

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for you and your work. Thank you, Lori.

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Cynthia Fridlich's avatar

We’ve always had dishwarshers, but we never used them. I love warshing my old friends: my knives, my wooden spoons, my chopping boards, the little bowls collected over the years, including my kids’ cereal bowls, my grandkids plastic plates with the little sections and place for their cups. Every morning, mom’s biscuit pan and her cast iron skillets rest quietly under a counter waiting to get to breakfast or supper. My guy’s mom’s mixing bowl from her now-long-gone Sunbeam mixer (the cool white and black ones) prompting me to fill it with flour and bake, mainly to warm up the kitchen, mainly to feed our motley crew.

Wow, Susan, thank for this morning’s meditation on relational health and fitness! You are too cool! I’d say, “groovy,” but I rack up too many complaints for that one!

Lonesome no more! Hi ho! ⚔️

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Nah. Groovy works!

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Lou's avatar

Loved the tale, although it's a bit disappointing how the durability of appliances has diminished over the years. Glad it's back in commission.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I hope yours was wonderful, too!

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Pat Taylor's avatar

Happy Thanksgiving! Nothing like having a heart-stopping event last summer to make me thankful the docs got it going again and now makes me express gratitude to God to see the sun rise each day.

I can just hear my Mom saying, “Yep, I hear ya.” on your finding enjoyment in slowing down to simply wash dishes by hand. My sisters & I would fuss at her for not using her dishwasher. She’d tell us the warm water in the sink felt good on her arthritic hands or “I can take time to look out the kitchen window while doing dishes and enjoy seeing all my colorful flowers in the backyard.”

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Susan Campbell's avatar

She had the right idea!

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Ava's avatar

Happy day to you and yours!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

It was. I hope yours was, as well.

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ArtM's avatar

G'day Susan, Get ready for add'l failures in your appliance collection. We re-did our kitchen 12 years ago and updated all appliances. This year the Maytag dishwasher, Whirlpool refrigerator, LG glass-top stove all failed. Not to be left out, the Maytag washing machine gave up the ghost as well. Get your credit card ready. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Oh, yay?

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Joan Sheehan's avatar

I’m so glad I know you and get to read your columns! I grew up drying dishes and graduated to washing them. We currently have a very old dishwasher that still works and we’re hanging onto it for now.

I have skin allergies on my hands so the water isn’t necessarily helpful for me. My husband hand washes most of the things we don’t put in the dishwasher and I try not to complain about missed spots. 😉

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and try to keep all your fingers intact!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Ha. Thumb is still attached, thank you.

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Charlene L. Edge's avatar

Terrific. Thankful to know you, too, even though we've never met in person. Thanks for waxing poetic today (waxing with words is not so unlike waxing cars). "They are only here for a moment in time, like a moth’s wing or the dawn.".

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Susan Campbell's avatar

It is my pleasure. Thank you for reading.

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Deacon Art's avatar

Me too.

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Paul Ashton's avatar

We came to a dishwasher relatively late in life, fifteen years ago (we’ve been together 38 years). Before that the words “dirties” and “cleans” were cornerstones to our daily lexicon. For whatever reason neither one of us was fond of putting away clean dishes (still aren’t), preferring to wash them instead. The result was the nightly race to the phrase “I’ll do the dirties, if you do the cleans”. Today there’ll be lots of dishes and pots and pans too big for the dishwasher so Thanksgiving being a nostalgic time, dibs on the dirties!

Happy Thanksgiving! Peace and thanks to you all.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Peace to you, as well. It was a good day.

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Debra Cohen's avatar

This is one of the most delightful things I've read in a long time!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Well, thank you! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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Doug Hardy, CTNewsJunkie's avatar

Loved this. If life could be simple again.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

(Mine never was, but I like to think I had it together circa 1993-95; if we examine the record, though, that's wishful thinking on my part.)

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Sharon Foster (CT)'s avatar

My dishwasher functions as a great big dish drainer. There's a boo-boo in the ceiling where the dishwasher in the apartment above me leaked, and I take it as a warning. It's just me most of the time, so no big hardship. I do enjoy waking up to an empty countertop and no pots or dishes still soaking in the sink, a habit I used to have and finally broke.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

That's funny. I started doing dishes right after the meal in my 40s. There's something about restoring order that makes me happy (a less kind version of that is: I like control. Whatevs. I am grateful that for all the problems facing the world, a dead motor in an Amana was the biggest thingI faced in the last few weeks.

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Jac's avatar

You reminded me that I miss filling the sink with warm, soapy water type of hand-washing. There is something about it that is comforting. I use a dishwasher and only handwash a few things, here and there, without filling the sink. However, I'm very happy to have a working dishwasher which I trouble- shooted myself, too. 🤞 we won't have to call in the experts for awhile.

Happy Thanksgiving! Give your guy a hug from me, too!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Hug everyone around you, Jac, as you happen to hang out with awesome people, all of whom I like (some from afar). I will be judicious with my hugs today and hug only people who deserve it. Just kidding. I'll hug everyone today.

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Nov 25, 2022
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Susan Campbell's avatar

That's lovely, actually. We went to a niece's house. It was small. It was lovely.

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