personal anecdotes aside, here's a general idea of the popularity growth of microwaves.

In 1946, the first microwave was publicized as a "high frequency dielectric heating apparatus"(Amana radarange, n.d.). It was manufactured and promoted for restaurants and took a long time to establish itself as a staple appliance ie. it was not until 1959 that microwaves were introduced to Britain. (Yarwood, 1983)

Skepticism of the success of the microwave oven was high, but those that had faith in the success of the technology had to be the ones to push it.

It wasn't until 1965, that an oven-mounted microwave was produced. The first Tappan microwave was about $1295.00, but once Amana Corp created a $495.00 microwave(1967) their popularity increased.(Amana radarange, n.d.)

But you asked for public reaction, to give you an idea, from 1950 to 1975 sales grew from under 10,000 to 100, 000. In 1965, they were first introduced onto planes and by the mid-eighties they were selling 5, 000, 000/per year without a major change in price. (Osepchuck, 1984; Ganapati, 2010)

It's like any modern day appliance; if something is really cool and makes your life easier but is expensive it will sell--but drop the price and it is then in every house. Compare it to the growth/popularity of wi-fi in a sense. in awe of the technology and convenience but the cheaper and more mainstream it becomes the less we think about it.

Side note: There were many developments that were needed in order for the convenience of the microwave to adapt to the needs of society--within the mechanism itself ie. it started with only two buttons: on/off

Amana radarange. (n.d.). In Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation. Retrieved Nov 23, 2013 from http://www.smecc.org/microwave_oven.htm

Ganapati, P. (Oct 25, 2010) Oct 25, 1955: time to nuke dinner. In Wired. http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1025home-microwave-ovens/

Osepchuk, J. (1984). A history of microwave heating applications. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 32(9), 1200-1224

Yarwood, D. (1983). 500 years of technology in the home. London: Batsford ltd.