When we still had four kids at home, we had an extra full sized refrigerator in the garage. It died about a decade ago and we couldn't justify replacing it with only two adults and one kid living here. We live close to the supermarket and Andy's dorm refrigerator summered with us during his college years. The attached garage is cool enough in the winter to keep "pop" at just at just the right temp. This week the little workhorse died. Summer beverages were now competing for space in the kitchen refrigerator .
We purchased a slightly bigger dorm frig at Sam's Club yesterday. It has three shelves and a better storage area on the door. This model doesn't have a small freezer, which is wasted space, and instead has larger shelves which could hold three tupperware containers of food, Jon set it up and stocked it yesterday afternoon. Then he asked me not to open it. It would take almost a day to cool down when it was full. Might take longer if we kept opening the door to see if it was cool enough. (I think he had been doing that.) It hadn't occured to me to check how cool the Coke was getting. Now it is 3:00am and I can barely resist going out there and opening the door to see if it is cool. I don't think it would hurt, but it is a point of honor not to. My mother's voice is echoing from the past telling me not to leave the frig door open too long. She wanted to save energy.
Before I was in elementary school we lived on a farm. We didn't have electricity until I was five and the REA electrified the countryside. Food was kept in an "ice box" which looked like a refrigerator. It was cooled by keeping a big chunk of ice in it. Kids job was to empty the drip pan that caught the water from melted ice. Understandably parents told kids not to open the door too often or too long.
I guess I will chill out. I won't peek. I'll respect my husband's wishes and fondly remember mom.
Website link: http://www.aeci.org/SG_REAHistory.aspx
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