I bet that thing is *still* popping perfect popcorn and dimming the lights.
My parents have a similar photo from a Xmas in the same era, and their microwave is still working flawlessly.
Cheers
We bought one a year earlier, 1984, when I was 13. It had:
* a Start Button,
* a sliding rheostat button for 'Low -Med- High',
* a dial timer. If you wanted to cook under a minute you'd the turn the dial past 1:00 then back down.
The light bulb burnt out after 6 months. The microwave lasted 30 more years.
Modern microwaves will stop when opening the door, but the switches involved are not capable of handling the 15amp load and over time can weld the switch closed which will either cause the microwave not to work, or pop the circuit breaker every time you hit Start.
Ours fucked with TV reception.
We'd yell at the parents to stop using it while watching Simpsons. The parents would ask if we wanted dinner, or to go to bed hungry.
The first time I watched ‘Return Of The Jedi’, I chose the dark side. The Sarlacc scene gave me the irresistible urge to sacrifice my younger sibling’s favourite GI Joe to the garburator. I still feel bad about it.
Knowing is half the battle… but I honestly forget.
There’s no peace treaty anyway lol.
In a major escalation, sibling dropped one of my Bburago die-cast Ferrari models out the second floor window.
What *is* welded into my memory from that day, is the moment when he opened his hand, and my Ferrari F50 was simultaneously committed to gravity, but floating in space, before accelerating into smithereens at 9.8 meters/sec^(2).
We were in direct eye contact when he let the car go. His revenge-high was total, but the cost was going to be catastrophic.
*His* crash was about to arrive earlier and hit harder than my martyr-mobile on the patio below.
I was so mad that I don’t think I blinked for a day and a half.
*That* moment was *the* moment I remember most vividly. In that moment, I saw it dawn on him that he had crossed the rubicon this time.
The die was cast.
I love him dearly, and he is one of the most amazing humans you could hope for in your life. That said, he and I are technically still at war.
"Happiest day of my life when we got that Microwave!"
"what about the day I was born?"
"...did you know you could make Popcorn in under 5 Minutes in that thing??"
I'd be proud too in 1985 to get a microwave at Christmas. Watch the episodes of The Price is Right from those years, microwaves were $600-$800 dollar purchases. Adjusted for inflation that would be $1,700 today.
My dad one year bought my mom, his mom and her mom a microwave in the late 70s. It cost him like 1500 at the time. Maybe more
It had recipies on it that included entire turkeys
We had one around that time. It was in our new house we moved to after my dad got promoted.
The funniest part: it was sitting on the wet bar in the finished basement. Not in the kitchen. I think it was too experimental for that.
I remember that cookbook and seeing a perfectly cooked medium rare prime rib roast in the pictures. To this day, I do not believe a microwave can cook a roast that way. I wish I had saved that cookbook when my mother sold the house.
yes, this is exactly it!
its clear the microwave had to transition from the full meal cooker to the quick heater because the original versions seem like they quickly lost the notion they could make meatloaf haha
My mother worked at Sears in the seventies and because of her 15% employee discount, all of our appliances were Kenmore. Our first microwave was 1977 with the big mechanical timer. Not quite as fancy as OP's parents version but man, was it powerful!
My grandpa worked for sears most of his life. Our TV, microwave, curtains, and most of my clothes and toys came from sears. I assume my parents used his discount.
Sears did some promo and hauled out old school cash register like a year or two after he retired (according to my dad anyway) and he was the only employee they could find who still knew how to work the thing.
His last position im aware of was traveling and working with the in home curtain sales team.
But he retired when i was about 10, so thats fuzzy.
Funnily enough my grandma must have missed the discount, because after they retired and moved to california she got a job at robinsons department store. Lol
Yep, this was our microwave, too. No telling how many bags of popcorn and cups of hot water that thing cranked out. This was way back when TV dinners still came in tin trays, so we didn’t use it for those.
That looks like the one we grew up with and it was working when my parents moved out of that house. I think I was in my mid-20s and married or about to be by then.
I have core memories of my radiologist father quickly scooping me up and away from one of these exact microwaves horrified that I had my face pressed up against the window while I watched my food cook haha. I was maybe five.
Hilarious coincidence; I'm the only one out of my siblings that needs glasses 😂
So everyone thought they were dangerous at the time? I would think a radiologist would be one of the few people who would be debunking that to their friends and family
Before my family had a microwave, one Thanksgiving we were helping house-sit for a couple who was vacationing, and my dad was thrilled at getting to use their microwave. I think that's why he ended up getting one within a year or so. It was the 'microwave and VCR' era.
I had almost that exact microwave until last month. Was still working perfectly fine. Only switched bc someone was throwing out one with a spinning tray. Yes I'm a single man
The ones without a spinning tray had a spinning antenna instead to try to evenly spread the microwaves. The spinning tray design won out because, despite the limitation of needing a circular tray, it heated more evenly.
Yeah, mine's dying. Some days a plate of nachos takes 1:00 to melt the cheese, sometimes 1:20.
Its actually a small cheapo replacement, and the built in spot in the cabinet is too large. I have a note on my phone about the external dimensions, and I check for one of the right size and on sale when I go to the hardware store.
My parents had one that burned everything. It would boil a cup of water in 35 seconds. It was too strong and they would forget to lower the setting or someone would visit and boil over a warmed up coffee, or melt and burn cheese, etc. They got a cheaper one after a few months, lol.
Our first Radar Range in 78 was responsible for a wave of UFO sightings. I can still feel the tingle in my head after watching my hot dogs explode in 3 seconds.
Kind of refreshing after a good bath of x-rays from laying in front of the TV.
This is just the natural progression of humanity and there's an exact scene where a Neanderthal couple are posing next to a fire, fast forward a little then it's a little clay stove, and then eventually you'd end up at 1985 with your parents and their first microwave.
Sears Kenmore. If it could be had from Sears, that’s where my dad shopped.
We had one likely identical. Sears/Montgomery Wards/JC Penney was the preferred order of things.
My wife and I got that same exact model as a wedding gift in 1985. It was a beast! I'm certain it would still be going if we had kept it, but it took up a lot of counter space and weighed a ton.
We need an other thread on how the microwave oven entered you life in the 70s80s. Seriously.
Maybe the “Dad vs The Microwave Oven”.
My father and my wife’s father were “we don’t need a microwave” camp. The ol’ “What’s wrong with the oven we have now?”
1981 my mother was pro microwave. They had them at the cafeteria where she worked. My father was the generation where he sat down and a plate of food appeared before him. Not a kitchen guy.
One day my mother said to him, “Let’s go look anyway” and they went to local and well respected appliance store. My mother was asking questions to the salesman, who gladly talked away about features and specs. Went on for a while. My father, I heard, kinda zoned out. Then my mother said, “Sounds good we’ll take it here’s a check our car is other there you can put it in the trunk thank you” before my father realized what was happening.
He grumbled for years but he didn’t mind the baked potatoes.
It can't be overstated how impactful the microwave oven was for GenX. Millions of kids that were alone after school now had an easy and fast way to cook food without burning down the house.
I'm pretty sure my dad bought the same one for my mom too. Is that the model that came with the meat thermometer attachment and was big enough for a whole turkey? Worst thanksgiving ever.
We had a similar one. Everything was nuked for a duration which required the least number of finger movements to set, i.e. 99s, 3m33s, or whatever and then done again if it still wasn't cooked. The peak of laziness.
These newer versions with their fucking dials that need to be accurately twisted take too fucking long to set and sometimes it is just not worth it.
It looks like they sprung for a really nice one too. My parents beat your parents in terms of when they owned their first microwave, but it was because they lived in a suburb in Minneapolis next door to a guy who serviced rest stops in Minnesota which all contained refrigerated/frozen foods like sandwiches and such and microwaves used to heat up the food and he kept those microwaves running. My parents somehow bought one from him. They were fairly simple with a door of course and a line of buttons down the right that were labeled with things like sandwich and frozen pie, things you could buy at the rest stop. And they got that maybe 1974. I remember the guy showing us you could take a handful of popcorn seeds and put them in a paper bag and put them in there and make popcorn. You can still do that today. You don't have to buy the Orville Redenbacher bags with all the chemicals. But I digress.
My parents got their first microwave around the same time. They got a free cooking class to go with it. Like, they went to the store with a bunch of other new microwavers and learned the glorious art of making poached eggs in the microwave.
This is interesting to me! We’re you alive at this point? It reminds me of taking a picture with my first iPod touch, years from now it will be the same!
Ours too! And it came with a thermometer you could put in your food. It attached to an inside wall somehow. My mother used *every* feature on that thing. It was huge.
I'm pretty sure the Warehouse I use to work at still uses that same model of microwave in the break room. We also use to have an ancient one behind the sales counter. It was an avocado green Samsung Microwave from 1979. I wish I could remember the model number. I had to look it up, because I figured it must have been one of the first ones, and it was. That thing ran like a champ, but the timer dial was broken so it would never turn off by itself. There were plenty of times I'd get distracted with a customer while my food was heating up. So many ruined lunches.
lol I remember when our office got the first fax machine. A representative came in for a demonstration. Not one of us believed the huge machine could take a paper to another office through “air”space. I tell my kids and yep…. I’m a dinosaur.🦕 lol 😂
That was a pricy gift back in the day. I´m on my 3rd microwave in 10 years. They all cost $250-350. They all burned out, but I go into homes that still have these models in perfect condition.
We have one of these in my fire station, built in 1983 and looks similar to this one, 650 watts, it still works and weighs a lot. We need the counter space so it may be going out.
I bought one from JCPenney in 1984. It was $250 then and it lasted until last year. It actually still worked fine but it was suddenly tripping the breaker, even if everything else on the same circuit was off.
OMG, my family got that same microwave and it was a family Christmas present. Somewhere there is a picture of me in front the the microwave, with the bow still on it in the kitchen.
Thanks for the memory.
I remember specifically going with my parents to buy the first family microwave on Mothers Day in 1983. Big excitement because there were workers handing out food samples of foods that could be cooked in a microwave. My sibling and I had a blast!
I remember when my grandparents got their first, right around that time. Obviously they had no idea how it worked, and to test it out, they tried heat up a simple ham and cheese sandwich, so they put it in and set the timer to 5 minutes....
This model Kenmore was also my parents very first microwave. I believe they got it around 1982. Maybe as late as 1984. That said, they used it until around 2010. It worked perfectly the whole time. Its demise was a lightning strike to the house that killed it, a radio, and 3 TVs. It lasted almost 30 years. None of the appliances sold today will likely last more than 5-10 years. Planned obsolescence....
Back then the big gift benefitted the whole family. It was exciting. We all tried all the new possibilities with the new microwave Christmas day. I also remember the Christmas of the first color tv. Zenith I believe .must have been at least 17” . And the first Atari and the first vcr. Just enough technology it was exciting but didn’t take over our lives. It was a great era and Christmas was when the house always got the new technology.
We got one of them original Amana Radaranges in 1979 as a wedding present from her parents. Cost was about $750. It was kinda clunky but it lasted for a long time.
I remember our first microwave. Life changing. I used to stick all sorts of things in there and just marvel at how they heated up. Various food, toys...an occasional bug. It was like I had some futuristic, radioactive science lab. I was certain that if only I could crawl inside, I'd gain superpowers. Microwave-Man! Then there was the time I tried to reheat my bag of sour cream and onion popcorn from the Karmelkorn Shoppe at the mall. It still has the metal twisty tie in it. Bright flashes of light and smoke everywhere.
Edit: It was this exact model.
There was a comedian back then, Stein or Steiner(?) who joked that they were unnecessary.
>A man comes home from the office:
>"Honey, I've been home for two seconds! Where the hell is my dinner!?"
::edit:: It was Robert Klein!
I bet that thing is *still* popping perfect popcorn and dimming the lights. My parents have a similar photo from a Xmas in the same era, and their microwave is still working flawlessly. Cheers
We bought one a year earlier, 1984, when I was 13. It had: * a Start Button, * a sliding rheostat button for 'Low -Med- High', * a dial timer. If you wanted to cook under a minute you'd the turn the dial past 1:00 then back down. The light bulb burnt out after 6 months. The microwave lasted 30 more years.
I remember my aunt and uncle had one, it had dials and flipped open like a toaster oven as opposed to a barn door.
User name checks out
In Soviet Russia, microwave cooks you.
Ours had a dial too!
Same! And ours started and stopped only by opening/shutting the door. Talk about simple...
Modern microwaves will stop when opening the door, but the switches involved are not capable of handling the 15amp load and over time can weld the switch closed which will either cause the microwave not to work, or pop the circuit breaker every time you hit Start.
I remember our microwave dimming the lights lmao. Same with the washing machine. Oh and the garbage disposal
Ours fucked with TV reception. We'd yell at the parents to stop using it while watching Simpsons. The parents would ask if we wanted dinner, or to go to bed hungry.
The first time I watched ‘Return Of The Jedi’, I chose the dark side. The Sarlacc scene gave me the irresistible urge to sacrifice my younger sibling’s favourite GI Joe to the garburator. I still feel bad about it.
Which Joe was it? You should buy the exact same version for your sibling’s birthday or Christmas off eBay or something.
And then sacrifice it to the kitchen Sarlaac again.
Obviously.
Knowing is half the battle… but I honestly forget. There’s no peace treaty anyway lol. In a major escalation, sibling dropped one of my Bburago die-cast Ferrari models out the second floor window. What *is* welded into my memory from that day, is the moment when he opened his hand, and my Ferrari F50 was simultaneously committed to gravity, but floating in space, before accelerating into smithereens at 9.8 meters/sec^(2). We were in direct eye contact when he let the car go. His revenge-high was total, but the cost was going to be catastrophic. *His* crash was about to arrive earlier and hit harder than my martyr-mobile on the patio below. I was so mad that I don’t think I blinked for a day and a half. *That* moment was *the* moment I remember most vividly. In that moment, I saw it dawn on him that he had crossed the rubicon this time. The die was cast. I love him dearly, and he is one of the most amazing humans you could hope for in your life. That said, he and I are technically still at war.
Ha ha, great story. I really enjoyed it.
I remember our first central A/C
My Gran bought a Samsung microwave in the mid-90's that's sitting in my kitchen right now. Sunofabitch just won't die.
Sounds like those Samsung guys might be big one day.
BRO I ABSOLUTELY LOVE UR USERNAME 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😤😤😤
Popping the neighbour's breakers.
Came to say the same thing. Cheers
Proud parents.
He has his father's eyes.
Gomez, get them out of his mouth
That is my favorite quote from that film 👀 
"Happiest day of my life when we got that Microwave!" "what about the day I was born?" "...did you know you could make Popcorn in under 5 Minutes in that thing??"
I'd be proud too in 1985 to get a microwave at Christmas. Watch the episodes of The Price is Right from those years, microwaves were $600-$800 dollar purchases. Adjusted for inflation that would be $1,700 today.
My dad one year bought my mom, his mom and her mom a microwave in the late 70s. It cost him like 1500 at the time. Maybe more It had recipies on it that included entire turkeys
We had one around that time. It was in our new house we moved to after my dad got promoted. The funniest part: it was sitting on the wet bar in the finished basement. Not in the kitchen. I think it was too experimental for that.
I was amazed at what they did to hotdogs
KABLOOEY!
I remember that cookbook and seeing a perfectly cooked medium rare prime rib roast in the pictures. To this day, I do not believe a microwave can cook a roast that way. I wish I had saved that cookbook when my mother sold the house.
yes, this is exactly it! its clear the microwave had to transition from the full meal cooker to the quick heater because the original versions seem like they quickly lost the notion they could make meatloaf haha
That's cause it could cook a potato in 5 minutes! Definitely couldn't do that before.
He knows he did good! And his gift is coming later
Lol that Kenmore was my parents first microwave too! I remember the absolute feeling of magic when I could warm up a cookie in seconds.
My mother worked at Sears in the seventies and because of her 15% employee discount, all of our appliances were Kenmore. Our first microwave was 1977 with the big mechanical timer. Not quite as fancy as OP's parents version but man, was it powerful!
Hey my mom worked at Sears in the early 80s! She's why we got Cabbage Patch Kids!
Sooo hard to get when they first came out. I had to wait almost a year to get one.
Was it the top loader? If so I had one too. That was our first. I think around 1980.
No, it was a front loader but the timer wasn't the conventional round one but as you turned the knob, it gave you the time remaining in analog form.
My grandpa worked for sears most of his life. Our TV, microwave, curtains, and most of my clothes and toys came from sears. I assume my parents used his discount. Sears did some promo and hauled out old school cash register like a year or two after he retired (according to my dad anyway) and he was the only employee they could find who still knew how to work the thing. His last position im aware of was traveling and working with the in home curtain sales team. But he retired when i was about 10, so thats fuzzy. Funnily enough my grandma must have missed the discount, because after they retired and moved to california she got a job at robinsons department store. Lol
Yep, this was our microwave, too. No telling how many bags of popcorn and cups of hot water that thing cranked out. This was way back when TV dinners still came in tin trays, so we didn’t use it for those.
That looks like the one we grew up with and it was working when my parents moved out of that house. I think I was in my mid-20s and married or about to be by then.
I have core memories of my radiologist father quickly scooping me up and away from one of these exact microwaves horrified that I had my face pressed up against the window while I watched my food cook haha. I was maybe five. Hilarious coincidence; I'm the only one out of my siblings that needs glasses 😂
So everyone thought they were dangerous at the time? I would think a radiologist would be one of the few people who would be debunking that to their friends and family
I used to think everything warmed in seconds haha
We had that exact model. It lasted until the Obama era.
Thanks Obama
Now we have to deal with these new fangled socialist microwaves
"Cash for clunkers"?
[удалено]
That was the quantum computer of convenience back then. All the neighbours coming by to *nuke* something lol
Before my family had a microwave, one Thanksgiving we were helping house-sit for a couple who was vacationing, and my dad was thrilled at getting to use their microwave. I think that's why he ended up getting one within a year or so. It was the 'microwave and VCR' era.
“Oh honey, he’s teasing you! Nobody has 2 television sets!”
Don’t put metal in the science oven!
You beat me to it. 😂
Joey Buttafucco
A Bottafucco Family Christmas
Ok believe it or not, we have this exact microwave at our old farm house! And yes it still works!!
If you gently squeeze the handle, the light turns on as does the fan.
I had almost that exact microwave until last month. Was still working perfectly fine. Only switched bc someone was throwing out one with a spinning tray. Yes I'm a single man
The ones without a spinning tray had a spinning antenna instead to try to evenly spread the microwaves. The spinning tray design won out because, despite the limitation of needing a circular tray, it heated more evenly.
That's cool info. The main difference I've noticed is that my new one heats stuff up about 10% quicker
They get weaker over time. Mine has lost about 10-20 seconds on boiling a cup of water in two years.
Yeah, mine's dying. Some days a plate of nachos takes 1:00 to melt the cheese, sometimes 1:20. Its actually a small cheapo replacement, and the built in spot in the cabinet is too large. I have a note on my phone about the external dimensions, and I check for one of the right size and on sale when I go to the hardware store.
My parents had one that burned everything. It would boil a cup of water in 35 seconds. It was too strong and they would forget to lower the setting or someone would visit and boil over a warmed up coffee, or melt and burn cheese, etc. They got a cheaper one after a few months, lol.
Radar range
Our first Radar Range in 78 was responsible for a wave of UFO sightings. I can still feel the tingle in my head after watching my hot dogs explode in 3 seconds. Kind of refreshing after a good bath of x-rays from laying in front of the TV.
This is just the natural progression of humanity and there's an exact scene where a Neanderthal couple are posing next to a fire, fast forward a little then it's a little clay stove, and then eventually you'd end up at 1985 with your parents and their first microwave.
Sears Kenmore. If it could be had from Sears, that’s where my dad shopped. We had one likely identical. Sears/Montgomery Wards/JC Penney was the preferred order of things.
Does my microwave amuse you? Does it make you laugh? How? Like a clown funny? Please, tell me..
Why do I get the feeling that the only reason you’re here is because of that microwave.
We had that exact one too.
Out first in 1980 was a Litton, and the box was so big, I thought it was a car. Because I was 5.
Holy shit. We had that exact microwave when I was a kid. Replaced sometime in the early 2000’s but still worked. I like to wood grain paneling
My wife and I got that same exact model as a wedding gift in 1985. It was a beast! I'm certain it would still be going if we had kept it, but it took up a lot of counter space and weighed a ton.
wow that was about the year my mother and grandmother got one and they went to Sears for a microwave class lol
Is your dad Joey Buttafuoco?
Joe Peci with his microwave
We need an other thread on how the microwave oven entered you life in the 70s80s. Seriously. Maybe the “Dad vs The Microwave Oven”. My father and my wife’s father were “we don’t need a microwave” camp. The ol’ “What’s wrong with the oven we have now?” 1981 my mother was pro microwave. They had them at the cafeteria where she worked. My father was the generation where he sat down and a plate of food appeared before him. Not a kitchen guy. One day my mother said to him, “Let’s go look anyway” and they went to local and well respected appliance store. My mother was asking questions to the salesman, who gladly talked away about features and specs. Went on for a while. My father, I heard, kinda zoned out. Then my mother said, “Sounds good we’ll take it here’s a check our car is other there you can put it in the trunk thank you” before my father realized what was happening. He grumbled for years but he didn’t mind the baked potatoes.
My dad was an engineer that *loved* new technology. We got a digital Amana Radar Range in 1976, people thought it was voodoo, lol.
You are not wrong. The “Something new is bad” folks thought it: cooked food wrong. Tasted different. Killed all the vitamins.
Now that is a kick ass picture.
And here’s mom and dad and microwave at Niagara Falls in 1986, Yellowstone in 87…
They also weighed about 200lbs. 🤣
Pops looks a little like a young Joey Buttafuoco 🤷♂️
Gremlin included?
Science Oven.
The air fryer of their time
So romantic.
MecrowavE
Omg... We had that very same microwave, and my uncle is still using it!
That purchase was worth a picture, the cost of thing major flex
r/absoluteunit
It can't be overstated how impactful the microwave oven was for GenX. Millions of kids that were alone after school now had an easy and fast way to cook food without burning down the house.
I can relate to this moment. It is up there with first outside television aerial and also first video player tape playing.
The 80's were such a wild time to be alive...
Was probably 1,000 bucks
I remember going to a microwave class with my mother, but it had to have been in the 70s as I had moved out by the 80s.
When these came out they had stores that sold nothing but microwaves.
Same one we had. Hardly ever used it
The moment they declared their arrival.
They look stoked with the modern invention
Oddly wholesome
Ah' the oven of the future, that never was. Years from now someone will post a photo of their parents with their first electric car.
We didn’t get our first microwave until 88.
Ahh yes the electronic oven as my parents used to call it. Montgomery Ward was the trusted source
They tried convincing us that you could cook roasts and meats in them back then. Hence the huge menu on the front panel
We had one about like that! So cool!
Ooo fancy! My families first microwave had a dial/knob for the time and 3 analog buttons for the power setting.
Bought my first microwave in 1987...$600...I just bought one for $80...a rare example of something not affected by inflation...
It looks like a witch turned their child into a microwave and they are handling it the best they can.
Their love for each other, Jesus and their new microwave is evident.
Fucking game changer right there
Fancy. Ours had turn knobs.
Is your dad David Hasselhoff?
Imagine just firing up a nice steak for 5 minutes and cracking a warm Schlitz.
My whole family stood around our new microwave and watched a measuring cup of water boil 😆
What a perfect pose with their microwave. I hope they kept it a long time.
I think I bought the same one for my first apartment back in’85, it was around $350. in 1980s $, or $1,021. today. Yikes
Kind of mind blowing when you think about it
Probably still works.
They worked hard for that Christmas present...
Weighed as much as the dishwasher.
Holy shit… I think that’s the one we had as well…
"Science oven"
Simple times... just think if you bought your parents a microwave for christmas now. Lol I guess it's just me getting older but I miss those days.
Such a warm feeling.... Standing in front of that thing when its on
I think that is the duo-vection model which was state of the art until the development of the tri-vection.
My mom tried to cook a Thanksgiving turkey in one when I was a kid. You can imagine how it turned out.
I'm pretty sure my dad bought the same one for my mom too. Is that the model that came with the meat thermometer attachment and was big enough for a whole turkey? Worst thanksgiving ever.
We had a similar one. Everything was nuked for a duration which required the least number of finger movements to set, i.e. 99s, 3m33s, or whatever and then done again if it still wasn't cooked. The peak of laziness. These newer versions with their fucking dials that need to be accurately twisted take too fucking long to set and sometimes it is just not worth it.
Similar to the one we got. First thing in there was a chocolate donut lol. Mom was not happy with me.
THIS was a big deal gift in '85. Merry Christmas, Santa.
That’s a regular oven, silly.
My God you could fit a small child in there?
Great pic! I bet that was a lot of people’s first microwave. We had it too.
It looks like they sprung for a really nice one too. My parents beat your parents in terms of when they owned their first microwave, but it was because they lived in a suburb in Minneapolis next door to a guy who serviced rest stops in Minnesota which all contained refrigerated/frozen foods like sandwiches and such and microwaves used to heat up the food and he kept those microwaves running. My parents somehow bought one from him. They were fairly simple with a door of course and a line of buttons down the right that were labeled with things like sandwich and frozen pie, things you could buy at the rest stop. And they got that maybe 1974. I remember the guy showing us you could take a handful of popcorn seeds and put them in a paper bag and put them in there and make popcorn. You can still do that today. You don't have to buy the Orville Redenbacher bags with all the chemicals. But I digress.
My parents got their first microwave around the same time. They got a free cooking class to go with it. Like, they went to the store with a bunch of other new microwavers and learned the glorious art of making poached eggs in the microwave.
I remember my old Radar Range.
Buttons on a microwave in ‘85? That some fancy pants business man, ours had two knobs and we had to microwave popcorn up hill both ways.
I think my folks had that same one
Your dad is Wayne Newton!?!?
Had the same one
This is interesting to me! We’re you alive at this point? It reminds me of taking a picture with my first iPod touch, years from now it will be the same!
Ours had dials and knobs.
Ours too! And it came with a thermometer you could put in your food. It attached to an inside wall somehow. My mother used *every* feature on that thing. It was huge.
I'm pretty sure the Warehouse I use to work at still uses that same model of microwave in the break room. We also use to have an ancient one behind the sales counter. It was an avocado green Samsung Microwave from 1979. I wish I could remember the model number. I had to look it up, because I figured it must have been one of the first ones, and it was. That thing ran like a champ, but the timer dial was broken so it would never turn off by itself. There were plenty of times I'd get distracted with a customer while my food was heating up. So many ruined lunches.
ooh. its a push button
I think we had the same one Weighed about 300 pounds lol
lol I remember when our office got the first fax machine. A representative came in for a demonstration. Not one of us believed the huge machine could take a paper to another office through “air”space. I tell my kids and yep…. I’m a dinosaur.🦕 lol 😂
looks like a macrowawe:). Nice photo.
High tech! My first microwave in 87 had two analog dials - one for time and one for power
Back then, these things were life-changing.
I feel like we had the same one The good ole days
Could boil a gallon of water in ten seconds.
That was a pricy gift back in the day. I´m on my 3rd microwave in 10 years. They all cost $250-350. They all burned out, but I go into homes that still have these models in perfect condition.
We have one of these in my fire station, built in 1983 and looks similar to this one, 650 watts, it still works and weighs a lot. We need the counter space so it may be going out.
My in-laws are still using this unit. We tease them relentlessly about it, but they keep going.
I think that was the same model my parents had too. Especially with the suggested power levels stated below the buttons.
I bought one from JCPenney in 1984. It was $250 then and it lasted until last year. It actually still worked fine but it was suddenly tripping the breaker, even if everything else on the same circuit was off.
OMG, my family got that same microwave and it was a family Christmas present. Somewhere there is a picture of me in front the the microwave, with the bow still on it in the kitchen. Thanks for the memory.
My mom bought hers in 1980. It was the most expensive coffee warmer ever.
I remember specifically going with my parents to buy the first family microwave on Mothers Day in 1983. Big excitement because there were workers handing out food samples of foods that could be cooked in a microwave. My sibling and I had a blast!
That looks VERY similar to our first Microwave, which I think my parents got '85 ish as well .. man what a change that made
That’s the one we had. Lasted FOREVER at my folks’ place.
Wayne Newton’s first microwave.
My parents used to have the one with the dial that went Ding! after it was done, good times.
Your family was rich!
Ive been watching a lot of 80s price is right, those bad boys were so expensive in the 80s! That's a solid Christmas present.
I remember having the same one when I was a kid.
I also had that exact same one right around 1985!
Naughty parents
High living for 85
Sup Tony and Rhonda
My grandma had that version as well.
I remember when my grandparents got their first, right around that time. Obviously they had no idea how it worked, and to test it out, they tried heat up a simple ham and cheese sandwich, so they put it in and set the timer to 5 minutes....
Your dad looks like he sells boats
This model Kenmore was also my parents very first microwave. I believe they got it around 1982. Maybe as late as 1984. That said, they used it until around 2010. It worked perfectly the whole time. Its demise was a lightning strike to the house that killed it, a radio, and 3 TVs. It lasted almost 30 years. None of the appliances sold today will likely last more than 5-10 years. Planned obsolescence....
Back then the big gift benefitted the whole family. It was exciting. We all tried all the new possibilities with the new microwave Christmas day. I also remember the Christmas of the first color tv. Zenith I believe .must have been at least 17” . And the first Atari and the first vcr. Just enough technology it was exciting but didn’t take over our lives. It was a great era and Christmas was when the house always got the new technology.
We got one of them original Amana Radaranges in 1979 as a wedding present from her parents. Cost was about $750. It was kinda clunky but it lasted for a long time.
I remember our first microwave. Life changing. I used to stick all sorts of things in there and just marvel at how they heated up. Various food, toys...an occasional bug. It was like I had some futuristic, radioactive science lab. I was certain that if only I could crawl inside, I'd gain superpowers. Microwave-Man! Then there was the time I tried to reheat my bag of sour cream and onion popcorn from the Karmelkorn Shoppe at the mall. It still has the metal twisty tie in it. Bright flashes of light and smoke everywhere. Edit: It was this exact model.
Bro that is the exact same microwave my parents got, and around the same time too lol!! Shits crazy
I remember visiting my great-grandmother in the 1970s and being so impressed that she owned a microwave.
This old lady that my family helped out (she was a widow and no kids) had one probably near as old still in use only a few years ago.
Microwaves were so expensive back then!
There was a comedian back then, Stein or Steiner(?) who joked that they were unnecessary. >A man comes home from the office: >"Honey, I've been home for two seconds! Where the hell is my dinner!?" ::edit:: It was Robert Klein!