Fellow Jacksonville blogger Doyle wrote a great post on the death of her microwave. Her history with hers reminded me a lot of how we wound up with the one we still have here.
After Kaitie was born in 1986, Kelly took a few weeks off for maternity leave. Once she returned to work, I took a month’s leave from my Navy duties to stay home with our baby. We had a lot of fun, as I dressed her up, put little barrettes in her long hair and took her out and about.
One night, Kel was commenting on the hassle of cooking for three, especially after a full day of work, and this gave me an idea. The next day, I dressed up the baby and drove over to some appliance stores in nearby Orange Park to price microwave ovens. In spite of being together over seven years, the two of us never had a need for a microwave, since cooking simple stuff for two people didn’t require one. But with a baby, and our jobs (I worked the night shift at my duty station, so Kel would be alone with Kaitie most evenings), having something to make heating up our dinner, a bottle or baby food easier seemed like a good idea.
We wandered from store to store, looking at a vast array of devices. I carried Kaitie in one of those knapsack-like devices which allowed me to keep her right against my chest while keeping my hands free. In the last store we visited, I wandered up and down a row of microwaves, trying to compare the features and prices to see which one was the best buy. At one point, I looked at my infant daughter and whispered “Honey, why don’t you help Daddy out and pick one of these for me? I can’t make up my mind.”
I had no sooner said this than her little hand reached out from the pouch and the slapped the top of a microwave next to which we were standing. I stopped, looked at the features and the price, and decided that was the one. Who knew? Maybe this kid was pretty smart after eight weeks of life.
That was over eighteen years ago. That microwave (a Quasar, by the way) still sits in our kitchen, waiting to serve our every fast cooking and reheating need. Over the years, the only thing I ever had to do was replace a blown fuse. In addition to it’s cooking duties, the old Quasar also doubles as a handy storage device for bread and rolls.
I know I’ll feel like Doyle and her family if my microwave ever departs from this earth. In this day of throwaway consumables, some things should last forever, or close to it.
Years ago I decided to clean out my Quazar and it wasn’t so hard. You need a fairly large surface to put it on. Then you remove the screws from the edges and a couple at trhe back and lift the outside case off. The you can get to the insides to replace things. It is fairly modular.
i think the story must be hog wash.
how can the kid at 8 weeks have long hair?
The story is not “hog wash.” The child, who is now 22 years old, was born with a full head of hair. The event in the story occurred about six weeks after she was born, so he hair was even longer then. I don’t have any digital images of her that young, so you’re just going to have to trust me on this.
Why would I make up something like that anyway?
I have a very old insta matic that I got from a friend and I cannot figure out how to set the clock and nothing else works without it and she says that she hasn’t used it in ages and can’t remember. Can anyone help?
Looking for Manual for my Quasar Over the Range Microwave Model # MQ9968W. Can’t seem to find it now that I need it. I find that you can buy them for $15.99 but I hated to pay that kind of money. I was hoping someone had one that I could buy for less money.
Same thing happened to me as to many of you where you were using it; it beeped then completely went out on Christmas Day too when I needed it. No rhyme or reason. It was made June 1990. I took out the interior and the exterior light bulbs to see if they were blown and they weren’t. Took off the push panel but couldn’t find any IN LINE FUSE that someone mentioned it might be. Any help where it is????
I’m forced to fix this one because it’s only 14″ in the front with the slope down to 16″ in the back which works for us because our ceiling is low in the kitchen.
I went on line and put in Quasar MQ9968W and found AMI Resources which is an appliance parts resource. I printed out the parts lists. Can’t find where the Capacitor is that #97 Chris had mentioned. Don’t know what I’m looking for. Any help on this? HELP !!!!
I thought I was the only person on earth still using a Quasar microwave! Wow!!
I am sure mine is about 30 yrs old now, and working like the 1st day I had it. I don’t even think it was new when I got it! I have not even had to change the lightbulb! It is big and has no turntable, but nowhere on it could I find the power output. Any ideas?
What a product!!!!
My husband’s parents have a Quasar microwave they bought the year he was born, 1977! Still works beautifully.
We bought our Quasar Microwave circa 1985. It still works like a charm!
DCR, 01/09