IN TRIBUTE TO FATHER'S DAY: (Coming-up)
When I was about 6 years old - back in '72ish, Dad did Sales for a TV & Appliance Store that also happened to sell Weber grills. With the Employee Discount, he set himself up with a top-of-the-line 26-inch brownie. He had the ring for holding potatoes / corn, and the wooden table that hung on the handle (if the set-screws for the legs were not tight, the whole dang thing could and did collapse occasionally).
It was a "small luxury" that Dad was able to afford - he worked 2 jobs, so that Mom could stay home with my brother and me. We did not have much money back then, but since we were small, we did not really know it.
Dad use lighter fluid (usually Gulf Lite) & blue-bag K, but always let it burn-off before cooking. He cooked all sorts of good stuff on that Weber (we hardly ever went out for meals - it was probably too expensive back then). Some of Dad's more memorable meals were Pineapple-glazed Ham and a Turkey for Thanksgiving.
When we got a bit older, I remember some good days in late summer where we spend the day Salmon fishing on Lake Michigan, and then had some really fresh stuff on the grill for dinner.
Then there was his father - Grandpa:
Nice, casual Saturday or Sunday afternoons. He had one of the old, glass-front units with a Rotisseree. He ALWAYS used an Electric Starter (heating element "loop" with a handle and cord that you plugged-in to an outlet). He would embed the starter in a pile of coals, get it started, then spread-out the coals, and after a while - he would put the food on.
I fondly remember grandpa's crispy-skin, golden-brown chicken with grandma's German-style potato salad (writing about this is making me hungry...). Washed it down with ice-cold Orange Crush that came in the brown bottles or Squirt.
Is all of this nostalgia making me sound like an "old-timer"? I'll admit that I'm no young'n anymore, but I don't feel THAT old...