COMMENTARY

Outdoor Grill Has Stood Test Of Time

ARKANSAS-MADE PORTABLE KITCHEN DEVICE PURCHASED 44 YEARS AGO STILL GOING STRONG

Warm weather brings more outdoor activities, including, of course, the popular American custom of cooking out, grilling, barbecuing or whatever term you prefer.

Many of us who indulge in this activity have our own techniques and preferences, our favorite sauces and preparations, and, importantly, the equipment we use for cooking.

I have this matter of equipment on my mind because of an article I read in Arkansas Times about the history of Portable Kitchen grills.

I have been cooking on a Portable Kitchen grill - the very same grill - for 44 years. In today’s world of planned obsolescence, constant modernization, development of new gadgets and gizmos, and technological advances, it is rather remarkable to be relying on the same cooker for all these years.

I bought my grill in a Gibson Discount Center store in eastern Arkansas in 1968. In those days before Walmart dominance, Gibson stores were widespread throughout the central and southwestern parts of the country. I’m notsure if I had my mind set on a Portable Kitchen grill when I entered the store, but after taking a look at a floor model I knew it was what I wanted. It turned out the floor model was the only one the store had, so I bought it, for what I believe was around $30, and rolled it right out.

My fi rst venture with the new cooker was on the banks of the Spring River.

Pleased with the results, I decided to take it with me back to Washington where I was living at the time.

I wedged it into the tiny backseat of my Karmann Ghia convertible for the drive to D.C. I might note the grill long outlasted that treasured car and a numberof others in the interim.

The grill was at the center of many pleasant and convivial evenings in our nation’s capital.

Subsequently, it survived a long stay and considerable use in Austin, Texas,before winding up in Northwest Arkansas, where it has served faithfully for several decades. Over the years, family - including my children and now grandchildren - and friends, as well as visitors from around the world, have tasted savory victuals fresh from the grill.

I’m certainly no master chef, but over the years, hundreds of burgers, hot dogs, brats and many dozens of steaks, ribs and potatoes and lots of shrimp, trout and crappie have had their turn over the coals. My wife occasionally suggests I vary from the normal menu by adding some shish kabobs, for example, to my repertoire.

My Portable Kitchen grill is very basic. The thick, cast aluminum cooker with adjustable vents is not as shiny as it once was, but has proved to be remarkably durable. Yes, I have had to supplement the original cooking grid and charcoal grate and the stand is rickety, but it works as well as ever.

I am using charcoal when today many of my fellow members of the grillerhood have gone to high-powered and high-priced gas grills, some of which have control panels like those in a jet plane. I’m quick to say,however, I have had some delectable meals cooked on gas grills.

I should add that I’ve also used a Weber charcoal grill as a back-up to my Portable Kitchen, which is relatively small (less than 300 square inches of cooking surface), and the Weber has been quite serviceable.

Cast into the top of my 44-year-old grill is “Portable Kitchen by Hamlin Products, Inc., Little Rock, Ark.” As I understand it, the original company went out of business in the 1970s, but has been revived by some longtime Portable Kitchen fans in Little Rock.

Today, you can order a Portable Kitchen grill from Amazon.com.

That Internet availability is a reminder of how much things have changed in the years I have had my Portable Kitchen.

Much of that change has been positive. While this column is written on a computer, in 1968 I was using a typewriter, even if it was an electric one by that point.

Robert Caro, who recently published the fourth volume, “The Passage of Power,” in his massive and magisterial biographical series onLyndon Johnson, has used a typewriter rather than word processor for all of his work, although he has gone through a number of typewriters he had stockpiled. Good for Caro.

I’m sticking with myPortable Kitchen as long as it sticks with me. But I am not going back to a typewriter.

HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.

Opinion, Pages 19 on 05/20/2012

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