In the last couple of years, I somehow came to posess a small, mishmash set of Melmac dishes from my grandparents’ house--four dinner plates (two yellow, one pink, and one blue) and about three times that many saucer-size plates. I love, love, love these plates...more than any others (and I do know plates; some women like shoes, I like dishes). These are the plates we always, always ate from on the farm, and I know they are nostalgic for more than just me because everytime my sister or an aunt or uncle sees them they say, “Heeeey, how’d you get these?”

Until today, I was under the impression that Melmac was indestructible. Sadly, it is not so. I left a potato in the microwave and ran upstairs. When I came back down I heard a loud crack! that at first I thought was just our overactive ice maker. Nope. I was relieved to find that the bits of plate had simply cracked off of the bottom--my fear was that they had melted.

Since I couldn’t readily think of a good or crafty use for a compromised Melmac plate, I had to let it go. R.I.P., sweet Boontonware.