Joe DiMaggio, Christmas and Mr. Coffee

I am not a big coffee drinker, but I come from a family where coffee was prepared multiple times per day. So I find the smell of coffee being prepared to be very satisfying. When I was young that smell managed to reach even the furthest reaches of the house because my family used a stovetop percolator to brew our coffee.

Then one year for Christmas two gifts were given that changed how coffee was consumed in my family…Mr. Coffee had arrived. I had seen the commercials on TV for this “drip” coffee maker and had even heard my family discuss them and how they were supposed to make a superior cup of joe. So it should have not have been a surprise when on Christmas morning in the 1980s my Mother bought my Grandmother one and vice versa.

It looked like a cool new toy and I learned how to use it with the excitement of any new piece of technology. The next morning though, when I woke up, the coffee smell wasn’t in my room. It wasn’t anywhere on the second floor of our house. So I was surprised when I came downstairs to find everyone was already drinking their morning coffee. Something had changed and I didn’t like it.

I half expected Mr. Coffee to disappear like so many kitchen gadgets that made their way through our kitchen over the years, but as the months rolled on I realized that it was here to stay. Eventually, I would get used to the loss of that comforting smell, but from time to time, when I am making a pot in my modern equivalent of Mr. Coffee, I catch a whiff that transports me back in time.

This commercial starring Joe DiMaggio was very popular and I imagine it convinced a lot of people to give Mr. Coffee a try. Damn you Joltin’ Joe!