Old Refrigerator

[RedAngie]

Up until I was about 6 or 7 years old, my family had a refrigerator like this. One door with a curved top. You had to open the whole door to access the freezer compartment. And I remember my mother having a drip pan underneath to manually defrost it when necessary. I think it was a Philco brand like the photo.

Furthermore, our kitchen was small, and the refrigerator was by itself in a corner, not in line with the stove, sink, and countertops. And I had to stand up if my mother wanted to get something out of it while I was eating because my chair at the table blocked the door.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

My Grandmother had one of those in her "upstairs" kitchen (her house was zoned a duplex by they had stopped renting out the upstairs apartment long before I was born." I'd always check when I played up there, sometimes that's where she hid the twinkies.

 

[Klayfish]

Did you also walk to school...uphill...both ways...in the snow?

Sorry if I interrupted your nap. I'll get off your lawn now.

 

[dyna]

We had 1 too until about 1970. I still remember how excited mom was to get a fridge with a bigger freezer on top that did not have to be defrosted.

 

[cabanafrau]

My parents had one in the garage for years that must have been older than that one. Freezer was just a small, U-shaped metal shelf that didn't even go all the way from side to side across the refrigerator and didn't have a door. They never used the freezer portion, just the extra refrigerator space. Can't even imagine the power draw to run that thing.

 

[SC Minnie]

My mother has one of these in her basement apartment. It was her grandmother's, my great grandmother's. Still runs great. She moved in her house 30 years ago and bought a new fridge for the main kitchen and it's been replaced but the basement one is still running strong.

 

[kimblebee]

My grandparents had one up until the day the house was sold in 2002. It still worked great. They also had a small fridge in the basement along with a huge chest freezer.

 

[mamamary]

My mom has almost that same fridge in her basement. She got it when she married in the 50s. It's been in the basement since '69 when they bought the house. She only uses it during the holidays when she needs extra room. It even lasted thru a huge flood in her basement in the 70s.

 

[Micca]

We had a fridge like that when I was a kid (50s/60s.) When appliances broke down you could often get them repaired and they'd run for decades. My mother had an upright freezer in her house that was still working after 40 years. When she moved to assisted living the realtor who sold her house bought the freezer, I imagine it's still working.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Did you also walk to school...uphill...both ways...in the snow?

Sorry if I interrupted your nap. I'll get off your lawn now.

Barefoot. You forgot barefoot.

my parents had probably that same refrigerator in the basement as far back as I can remember. It was still there when my sibling sold the house two years ago.

 

[usnuzuloose]

You know I like older things like that as long they smell good. They don't make things sturdy anymore. They make it so you spend so much on new ones only to have to buy new in a few years. That is frustrating. They could make a good one for holding extra groceries in the garage or where ever. I had a black one and I put wall paper on it .

 

[Meriweather]

We had one of those (DH and I) as a garage refrigerator from 1986 to 2010

 

[PerfessorZ]

I wonder how much more electricity it used than a current model.

 

[UncleMike101]

We had one until 1966.
It also had a foot pedal that you could step on to open the door if your hands were full.
We had the aluminum ice cube trays with the handle that you had to pull up to free the cubes from the tray.
The cubes nearly always broke into pieces and the handles eventually broke.
And if they didn't defrost the freezer often enough the ice cube tray would become surrounded by frost and was nearly impossible to get it out of the freezer.
I did learn some new words from Dad when that happened.

 

[Kae]

My friend had one of those made into a kegerator for her husband and painted it high gloss red.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We didn’t have one like that, but as a kid several friends did.

 

[NotUrsula]

I lost 2 nails on my left hand to a fridge like that when I was 3. I ducked behind my mom's back to try to grab some fruit while the door was left open, and she didn't see me there. When she closed the fridge door it slammed on my hand and tore the nails mostly off. I VIVIDLY remember being taken to the doc to get them removed the rest of the way. (Trust me, there is a reason why pulling off fingernails is a very effective torture!) The nails grew back a bit crooked, so I can't grow them very long, because they stick out to the side of my hand.

 

[tcufrog]

Did you also walk to school...uphill...both ways...in the snow?

Sorry if I interrupted your nap. I'll get off your lawn now.

Nope but my dad's three older siblings rode a horse together to school. The horse wasn't very enthusiastic about having 3 kids on his back.

 

[ImDMous]

We had pretty much the same thing growing up. Until we stepped up to the avocado green number that actually had a separate freezer. Fancy!

 

[Skippy918]

My grandma had one of these in the basement. It was around 40 years old when it died.
Who else remembers the Punky Brewster episode where her friend got stuck in one of these and she had to do cpr?