67 years on...Ida pulls plug on cooker
ONE of the country’s oldest cookers is being forced into retirement after making family meals for 67 years.
Ida Stevely, 92, bought the cooker soon after getting married in 1954 and it has been a fixture in her kitchen ever since.
Mum-of-two Ida had refused to swap the dated cooker for a more modern version.
But now it is being replaced because her carers are baffled by the decades-old device.
Daughter-in-law Elza Stevely said: “The carers aren’t quite used to working with such an antique model, so we are finally getting rid of it.
“It’s that whole ethos of make do and mend. I’ve always known her to be like that.
“You don’t have to teach an older person about reduce, reuse, recycle. They lived like that long before they became buzz words.” Post-war rationing was still in place when Ida and her late husband Bob bought the electric cooker soon after tying the knot.
Elza said: “Ida made meals using rations on the cooker at first, which is mind-blowing.”
“We’ve been saying for years she should get something new, but she wouldn’t have it.”
Ida, from Middlesbrough, loved to bake for her family.
Elza added: “She always used to make lovely scones when she knew I was coming over, right up until her late 80s. They were her signature.”
The cooker might not even be the oldest domestic appliance in use. In 2013, Mary Waite and husband Ivor told how they had been using a multi-purpose Piccolo which did everything from vacuuming to mincing. It was built in 1925.