Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Icebox


Norge.
Hotpoint.
Fridgidaire.
Can you remember other brands?
I was watching a movie from the '50's the other night and one of the characters referred to "The Icebox", then walked over and opened the door to a contraption that looked like the one pictured above.
That tweaked another memory from when we were kids-
It seemed every summer we'd hear about some poor kid playing "Hide and Seek" who had found the PERFECT hiding spot-
In the old Icebox one of the neighbors had taken out back and abandoned there. They'd pull the door closed and the latch would latch, and then the victim would find there was no way to push the door open from the inside. When the child didn't show up for dinner, authorities would go looking, only to find the child had suffocated in the cramped, overheated space.
Tragic.


I can remember at least two kids dying from suffocation this way.
As I delivered "The Indianapolis News" on my route, I can remember reading the pleas from officials to disable the latches on these old machines if you had one outside on your property.

And of course, the reason our new "Iceboxes" have doors that seal magnetically is a direct result of these tragedies.
Thank God.

Can you think of any other scenarios like this that have improved our appliances/tools?