Sunday, May 23, 2010

The first refrigerator I recall

I got this picture online, obviously.  You can see it's not very tall, and in my memories of our GE refrigerator, I was far shorter than the top of the door.  I had to look way up high to see the round thing on the top.  I've searched online and found that this model was manufactured from 1927 to 1937; I was born in 1944, so obviously ours was getting on in years by the time I was old enough to form memories of it.  Although I read HERE that hundreds of them are still working.  Isn't that amazing?  




What started this particular walk down memory lane was a segment on today's CBS Sunday Morning (one of our favorite shows).  
I wonder who got our GE when we were done with it.  I imagine my mom wanted something more roomy, because that little thing couldn't have held much.  
Another memory is provoked when I think about that refrigerator:  Back then, margarine (we called it oleo), was white, and wrapped in cellophane.  There was a little yellow capsule included that you added to the white margarine; you kneaded it into the oleo until it was the same color as real butter.   Somehow this was supposed to protect the dairy industry, I believe.    
Cliff actually remembers the ice man coming, when he and his parents and siblings lived in "the Shirley apartments" in Kansas City; he remembers them putting the sign in the window when they needed ice.  The only ice box I recall is the one that sat in my grandma's front porch.  

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:44 PM

    YES IT WAS OLEO MARGERINE.
    MOTHER MIXED IN THE YELLOW POWDER.
    MOTHER ALSO SLICED THE LOAVES OF BREAD UNLESS WE HAD BISCUITS.
    THE BREAD KNIFE HAD INDENTS IN THE CUTTING EDGE, OTHERWISE DID NOT DO WELL CUTTING SLICES.
    MOTHER'S BISCUITS WERE PREFERRED.

    IN THE LATE 20s, EVEN WITH THE OIL BOOM GOING, WE STILL USED THE 'ICEMAN' SERVICE, PLACE THE 'ICE CARD' IN THE WINDOW TO SHOW THE SIZE BLOCK OF ICE PREFERRED.
    THEN WOULD COME ALONG THE HORSE DRAWN WAGON WITH BAKERY AND OTHER PRODUCTS FOR SALE.
    TAXI SERVICE WAS AVAILABLE ALONG CERTAIN STREETS.
    ELECTRIC STREET CAR LINES SERVED GROWING CITIES. sam

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  2. Lindie11:28 AM

    When I was young we went to spend 4 to 6 weeks in Canada, where I was born. The only place I remember ice boxes and the white oleo is up at the lake. All us cousins took turns massaging the oleo until it was yellow.

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  3. I remember my grandparents having one like that. I was asking Ken the other day if he remembered margarine like that and he had never heard of it. Helen

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