The Kitchen Flambé Debacle…

After my parents' wedding, they moved into their first home together, full of hopes and dreams. However, the kitchen held a challenge my mom, Eileen, wasn't prepared for: a gas stove. In 1955, gas stoves were the norm, but Eileen wasn't familiar with their quirks.

Determined to cook a nice meal for my dad, she began her culinary adventure by turning on the gas oven. She got busy with other preparations, assuming the oven would light itself eventually.

When she realized the oven hadn't lit, she decided to take matters into her own hands and light the pilot light. However, unbeknownst to her, all the gas she had been letting out had built up inside the oven.

As she leaned in to light the pilot, there was a sudden, small explosion. The door of the oven flew open, and a ball of fire shot out. It burned brightly but quickly extinguished itself, leaving Eileen singed and shocked, with her eyebrows slightly scorched.

Thankfully, aside from a few singed hairs and a bruised ego, she was unharmed. It was a lesson learned the hard way about the importance of understanding gas stoves and their pilot lights. The dinner plans may have gone up in flames, but it became a story they would laugh about for years to come, but it only took a few months for her eyebrows to grow back!