The owners of a home I was showing to buyers this weekend were having a garage sale. I glanced over the tables of chotchsky and assorted household items as we left. They consisted of the usual garage sale fare; a well intended but never used butt master exerciser, a yogurt maker, books and out grown clothes and toys.

A slick looking G.E. coffee percolator at the end of a table caught my attention. Tall sleek and chromed. Looking like new, this was a sharp piece of kitchen appliance without question and stood up up against any modern day made in China plastic knock off offered by upscale stores today.

When I picked it up to scrutinize I couldn’t help but notice its sturdy weight and solid bakelite handle. When I got it home to give it a scrub and polish I noticed on the bottom it said “Made in Barrie Ontario Canada”.

This morning I made a debut pot of coffee. No bleached paper filters, no plastic baskets and reservoirs, just a solid chrome plated copper urn and a few scoops of Maxwell house. It began to gurgle just seconds after pushing in the plug. Hearing the rhythmic sound of the water and watching it pulse through the clear class knob at the top of the pot took me back in time. Back to a time when products were designed and built to last and there was a good chance it was made in a town you had been to, perhaps by a friend or relative.

As I enjoyed my morning coffee, which tasted incredible by the way, I wondered how the paper cone filter coffee maker came to replace the perfectly good percolator. The only reason I could come up with is the percolator requires no throw away after market products to continue to sell the consumer. No disposable items that will end up in a land fill site along with a billion swiffer wipes, water bottles, mountains of excessive plastic consumer packaging and two short lived made in China black plastic kettles purchased by me within the last year.