Aluminum for Your Home and Garden
Ah, summer: School kids yearn for its promise of freedom, poets write about its golden light and loves won and lost, even the days seem longer and more full of promise...yeah, whatever. It?s almost over and thank goodness because that means football season is just around the corner!
And, for a lot of people, that means getting together with family and friends to cheer on favorite players and beloved teams (Chargers!) even in those seasons when it can be a little painful to be a true fan (Chargers.)
But you may be wondering what all this talk about the old pigskin has to do with aluminum? Besides of course for the fact that most professional stadiums are created from aluminum, of course. For starters, let's take the grandest of football traditions, the bar-be-que. Whether it is set up next to the tailgate, or just on the back patio, chances are good that there is at least one aluminum grill set up anywhere people are getting together to watch the big game. And right alongside the grill comes a whole range of tools, from the requisite tongs and spatula to the more exotic skewer. Of course, the more high end tools might be made of stainless steel, but that shiny silver carrying case is all aluminum.
Speaking of cases and containers, how about the handy aluminum can? Invented in the 1930s and requiring a can opener, the aluminum can has been a staple of football, bar-be-ques, and household life in general since the mid '60s. Of course, having all these extra people around might require extra seating. So we turn to the mighty lawn chair. Lawn chairs and their cousins, deck chairs, patio chairs, and camping chairs, can all be made out of aluminum.
These are, naturally, fairly obvious uses of aluminum in everyday life. Aluminum's light-weight, resistance to rust, low cost, and easy manufacture are all key reasons why we see so much of it in our back gardens and at stadium tailgate parties. However, there are a few more things you might find in your own garden that you may not have known was made of aluminum:
Garden benches, gates, sheds, birdbaths, trowels, shovels, toolboxes, even statues can be cast or assembled out of aluminum.
Once back inside, there is still more aluminum to be found, primarily in the kitchen. The biggest difference is that, while garden tools and objects are made out of cast aluminum and designed to be kept for a while, inside the home, aluminum tends to be a disposable product. Everything from cookie sheets to muffin wrappers can be made out of thin sheets of aluminum or aluminum compounds. The most common example, of course, is aluminum foil - something no kitchen should be without - but also something that is rarely re-used or even thought of as being worth saving. So, while there are a few exceptions, like colanders and some utensils, by and large, aluminum in the kitchen is a one use sort of material.
Which makes it perfect for not only making food, but wrapping and protecting all the leftovers once the game has ended, the popcorn has been eaten, the burgers and hotdogs have disappeared, and the all guests have gone home.