Grillin'

For many years we had charcoal grills. Every so often we'd cook outside, eat at the picnic table, and just have an "escape the house routine" type meal. I always wound up being the chef (using that term very loosely), but I've never really been into creative cooking. I could manage a reasonable steak, some BBQ chicken, burgers and dogs and the like, but gourmet it wasn't. I was always happy to settle for edible, and the closest I ever got to shish-kabob was roasting a hotdog on a stick over a camp fire. We gave the last charcoal grill away about July '87 and other than a few wiener roasts, and propane stove cooking on a camping trip, our home cooking has been in the kitchen.

Then about a month ago we bought a small outdoor grill made by Char-Broil. One of those $99 dollar items, but manufactured in the state of Georgia. No sense in spending a lot unless we decide we really want to do this sort of thing on a regular basis. After I assembled it and tried to fire it up, I found I couldn't get a spark from the igniter. I called the manufacturer. I got a three or four number menu, selected the appropriate number expecting a secondary list - but immediately reached a live person. It took me a second to orient to the idea I'd reached a live person that easily. Of course that's one of the differences between a for-profit business and a government bureaucracy. I talked to a very nice lady that was American, residing in America, spoke very distinctly and pleasantly, apologized for the problem, and they shipped a new part to me free of charge. If I ever upgrade to a larger grill it will be that brand just because of that.