By Gretchen Leigh

I was sitting in the living room yesterday just after I started the dishwasher. Apparently, I’m not usually near the dishwasher when it gets started. It filled with water, then began to make the worst sounds I’ve ever heard coming from an appliance.

Startled, I gazed at its door, fully expecting it to burst open and a monster explode into the room. I pictured it as a blobbish dragon-like, green creature with bulging red eyes, and a huge drooling mouth full of sharp, yellow teeth. I haven’t decided if it was coming after me or if it was trying to flee the noises of the dishwasher.

When we moved into this house 24 years ago it came with a free standing, rolling dishwasher. It was very noisy, but the cabinet layout didn’t seem conducive for a built-in one. However, after living with the beast for a couple years (unlike the creature I expect is living in the dishwasher), we sacrificed a column of drawers next to the kitchen sink and installed a dishwasher. It was so blessedly quiet.

We can’t even remember if we had children yet when we replaced the rolling beast; that’s how long ago it was. The year my oldest turned eight, we remodeled the whole kitchen, re-positioning the sink to the outside wall and of course, the dishwasher moved along with it.

The dishwasher has been through the war with us. It has a slight green hue on the inside from when I told my husband to put our daughters’ paint cups in the dishwasher. The unspoken direction was to rinse them first; he just emptied the paint and stuck them in. Since then I’ve told him we could sell the dishwasher on eBay if one of our daughters became a famous artist.

But the dishes still came out clean; it has always given an impressive performance. I’ve never even rinsed our dishes before we put them in the dishwasher and no matter how sloppily we loaded the dishes, it seemed to find the grime and get everything clean with no problem (probably the monster who now is trying to get out).

As with anything, though, time and use wore out its shine. We have to be more careful about rinsing and positioning of the dishes and it’s obviously lost its blessed quietness. The green interior has faded over time, so it’s really not eBay worthy anymore and the color has been replaced over the last couple years with a pink.

We had problems with it leaking for several months last year. After replacing the door gasket and a few minor parts didn’t fix it, my husband noticed the vent was leeching pink grime (maybe my monster is pink). It was so gummed up after twenty-some years, it was leaking steam onto the floor. He cleaned it out and it quit leaking.

We rejoiced that we had averted another appliance crisis, but as I sat in my Big Red Chair and watched my dishwasher, I began to think it might be the end. So my husband and I looked at new dishwashers. They run in price from ridiculously expensive to modestly priced. I don’t need bells and whistles or even stainless steel. I just want a simple, white dishwasher that cleans like the champ my current one used to be.

I found one I loved. Same brand even, better design. But then I thought of my old, noisy dishwasher with the monster inside and the memories rushed in; “We’ve been through so much together.”

Maybe it’s not quite time yet.