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Toaster Museum From Out West #27 By Chuck Woodbury SEE UPDATE AT END OF ARTICLE SEATTLE, Wash -- Eric Norcross has more toasters than the average person. He has 300. And you can see them. Just climb a flight of stairs at 416 Occidental Street -- across the street from the Kingdome -- and there you are, at the one and only Toaster Museum -- the grandest display of toasters and toaster stuff in the world. It's a shiny, 300-square foot display in glass cases. Most of the toasters look like tiny Airstream trailers, but a few are different shapes, especially the oldest ones. The first electric toaster was made in 1908, but it didn't look anything like an Airstream trailer. It looked sort of like a modern day camp toaster where you watch the bread get toasted then turn it at the proper time. But toasters evolved fast, and by the mid-1920s they were pretty much in their modern form, although rounder than the present day squared-off models. The user would drop in bread and a few minutes later toast would pop out. You are no doubt familiar with the process. Norcross didn't plan his Toaster Museum. It just happened. He owned an art gallery that included a café and espresso bar (in Seattle, every business includes an espresso bar). A café specialty was toast. Norcross furnished a few tables with their own toasters and different toppings. Customers liked the idea, and Norcross did, too -- so much so that he began to search out unique toasters. He fell in love with a Toast-O-Lator, a tan, slender model from the late '30s with a thick Bakelite base. So did one of his customers, a woman named Kelly. She also fell in love with Norcross, sort of love at first toast. So they married. Eric Norcross decided he would write a book about toasters. So he kept adding to his collection. Some of his customers suggested he display them for all to see. That led to the Toaster Museum, which opened in August, 1993. Admission is free. The only charges are for toaster refrigerator magnets, toaster post cards, and a few other toaster things. Norcross earns his living as an artist and photographer, and by renting out space adjacent to his museum to other artists. Kelly is also an artist. The Toaster Museum displays toasters lined up one after another, with names and date of manufacturer noted. Norcross is proudest of his pre-World War II models. "There aren't as many of them because they were scrapped for the war effort," he said. Toaster history is also explained, as well as modern day toaster manufacturing. One display shows photos of the assembly line at the Proctor Silex factory. A huge pile of toast is at the end. "They test each toaster as it comes off the line," said Norcross. "They give the toast to local farmers." I asked: "So if you buy one of their toasters, it wouldn't be unusual to find a crumb or two?" "That's right" he said. "In fact, if a new toaster doesn't have any crumbs, then don't buy it, because it probably wasn't tested." Norcross said toasters today aren't generally as well built as they were years ago. "They're too cheap to even repair now," he said. "Before, they were made to last 50 years." He said many museum visitors tell him personal toaster stories -- none of them real exciting, mostly just about making toast with their old toaster way back when.
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