Reading Jude’s blog post about leaving the stove on under the coffee brought to mind how I used to do that all the time … thereby ruining one Pyrex pot after another …

Thus it was that my mom bought me a yellow enamel pot at one of the many yard sales she went to …

I would still boil it dry at times, but at least it didn’t crack (until the day it actually melted down on an unattended burner, but that’s another story).

Anyway, in 1984, I was a semi-stay-at-home mom, having found a part-time job in the evenings at the William & Mary college library. Don would take our fire engine red Chevy Chevette to school to teach 6th grade during the day while I stayed home with Meg. When he got home, we’d eat a very early dinner and then I would head out to work from six to midnight.

One fateful morning, I once again turned on the burner under the coffee and forgot about it as I read a book to Meg. Well, maybe several books. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent I had turned on the wrong burner.

And here I have to back up to explain that we had a tabletop phone at the time …

which I used to keep on top of the microwave to keep toddler Meg from taking the receiver off the hook …

That, however, made it hard to dial, so I would put the phone down on the stove top when making a call.

That fateful morning, the burner I turned on to heat the coffee was actually the burner on which I had placed the phone. I discovered that fact after noticing the ash and smoke drifting into the living room from our one-and-only phone … which was in flames. With Meg on my hip, I ran across the street to use the neighbor’s phone and called 911.

Once the fire department got there, they did a great job of putting out the fire. But not before $2000 worth of smoke damage had occurred. What a mess.

You’d think I would’ve learned my lesson after that, but no, seeing as I did eventually melt down the enamel pot. At which point my mom got me a Mr Coffee. And all I’m gonna say about that is it’s a good thing they turn off automatically these days. Because, you know …