I have spent many a long year with my bathroom scale. It is an antique — literally. It was my grandmother Yost’s scale in her old Florida home, before she moved in to the retirement home. I think she bought it years before she moved down to Florida. It’s one of those old-fashioned heavy steel scales.

We grow used to our ways. I’ve started every morning for decades with that rusty old scale — I never wanted to paint it or change it because it reminded me of my grandmother. The paint has chipped off and the matting has cracked, but it was my scale. And boy was it accurate …. as long as you didn’t move it.

So funny the attachments we have to items, and the memories that we cling to. I can remember the bathroom scale that was in the home I grew up in. The house was a 1950s tract home built on Long Island. It was a tiny two-bedroom, one-bath house when built. The bathroom was as tiny as possible, with no square inch wasted.

The bathroom featured a “Hall-Mack hideaway scale.” The height of ’50s technology! The bathroom scale was tucked away in the wall in a steel case painted silver-grey with a stainless steel frame and chrome handle. As a kid, I would stand barefoot in the bathroom, wrap my toes around the brushed chrome handle to pull down the spring-loaded door to reveal the hidden scale. What magic! When done weighing for the day (and done either crying or shouting for joy at the results), a little tap-kick up and the scale magically disappeared into the wall.

Why don’t they have things like this anymore? I recently saw one of these Hall-Mack hideaway units sell on eBay for $240.00, and it had 39 bids. I guess I’m not the only person nostalgic for these old units.

But, as I enter into my new lifestyle, it’s time to put behind these fond memories and get a scale I can actually depend on. There’s so many digital scales out there, it’s hard to know where to look when shopping. Having never had a digital scale before, I was amazed at the variety. I was surprised how many were glass-based. That worried me: at my weight, stepping on glass and not expecting it to break? That seemed like too much of a leap of faith.

After reading reviews on Amazon and suggestions on the community board of MyFitnessPal.com, I decided to spend some real cash and buy the Eat Smart Precision Plus Digital Bathroom Scale with ultra-wide platform. Yes, I need that ultra-wide platform. It also will weigh up to 440 pounds. I don’t need a scale to go that high, but it did allay my fears about the glass to know that I’d have to be over 440 pounds to endanger breaking it.

It has the step-up technology, which means you don’t have to tap it to wake it up before weighing yourself. Gee, I never needed scales needed to be woken? Grandmother’s scale never seemed to sleep. And if the concealed bathroom scale ever took a nap, you’d never know it. Once I found out about this advanced step-up technology (that wasn’t needed on mechanical scales), I knew I had to have it.

It also features REALLY BIG numbers, so I definitely don’t need my “readers” on to see how I’m doing. It’s nice, too, that the display is backlit so I can see the results (good or bad) without turning the  lights on. With grandma’s scale, I need very bright light to see the pound markings.

My new Eat-Smart scale worked straight out of the box and so far, so good. I’ve finally joined the 21st century in regards to weighing technology. It proudly boasts “four high-gauge Precision G sensors” (whatever they are) and sleek, ergonomic design.

But I still have my grandma’s scale. It’s nice to keep a bit of tradition around. And I wonder, like Grandma’s scale, will the new digital scale still be working 50  years later? Hmmmm.