A while ago I mentioned I was using a new coffee maker. My old one, a Braun, was still fine but it was so old everyone I knew made fun of me for keeping it. It also didn’t match anything else in my kitchen.

I still can’t throw the old one away. It’s in my garage.

But I’ve been using the new Cuisinart for a few weeks now. It’s stainless steel and black and looks good in the kitchen and it makes good coffee. It took some getting used to (with the old Braun you could see from the outside how much water is in the tank; this one you have to look inside and it’s more difficult to tell).

My mother also once had an old pot that she never threw away. Not a coffee pot, but a small, one-quart saucepan that was lightweight and well used and full of lumps and bumps. It wobbled on the burner. She never used it. It was just there in the cabinet.

I once asked her why she kept it and she told me that when she heard the announcement on the radio that World War II was over she and everyone else in the neighborhood ran outside with pots and pans and started knocking them together.

It was her victory pot and she could never let it go.

Click here to ask Ronnie a question: http://ronniefein.com/ask