I'd like to tell you a story. A story about a refrigerator. It's something we all take for granted, a convenience of modern living that's found everywhere in the world. But this isn't a story of how the invention of refrigerators changed history, it's only the story of a single refrigerator -- ours!
When I moved to Maryland, I was single and for awhile stayed in rented rooms. My first two roommates kicked me out; the first because I was too messy (!), the second because he finally decided to sell the cockroach infested condominium he called his second home. The third place was with a few people I worked with. One of them committed suicide and after that, the landlord, who was just as disturbed as the rest of us, decided to rent to a family instead of a bunch of mentally unstable single people.
For the forth time I was headed out on the street. But this time I was prepared. Many of the people I worked with were young and some newly married. They were thinking about building that little love nest for starting their families. They talked about the different housing projects and real estate deals available in the area. I always though it was funny, just having come straight from university where you live like a monk, with a four year vow of poverty and suddenly you're thinking about buying a house. I figured buying a home was a good idea and went from the last place I was kicked out of to my new three bedroom townhouse.
Everything went well until I got married and had five kids. That huge townhouse that had so much room I didn't know what to do with became impossibly small. That huge refrigerator that used to hold pint cartons of milk that would go bad before I could finish them gave way to armies of gallon jugs which would disappear in hours. The refrigerator just couldn't keep up with the demand. The refrigerator was packed so densely that it was difficult to shut. When the door seal started to go, it was time. It had serviced our growing family for fifteen years but its time was definitely up.
BestBuy is my favorite home away from home. It's chocked full of computers and computer parts, games and software, tv's, stereos, CD's, cameras and all those happy electric and electronic devices that give meaning to life. They also have refrigerators! There was kind of a problem though. Since our original frig was only a 14 cubic foot, it needed only a 28" opening to fit in. And that was about all that there was room for. BestBuy just didn't have many decent sized frigs that would fit in the tiny opening. I guess it all goes back to the fact that there's a family of seven all crammed into a tiny townhouse. I gave up. It's just another thing that wasn't meant to be.
One sunny Saturday afternoon the refrigerator and I finally had it out. I hunted unsuccessfully for lunch -- it was just too crammed to find anything. On top of that, whenever I opened the door, food fell out, the apples on the top fell to the floor and then the door wouldn't close. I took the kids on a hunt… a hunt to defeat my old enemy… a hunt that took us to the wilds of the Circuit City superstore!
Circuit City was great! They had huge refrigerators, buckets of them, and they all fit into the tiny space we had. You can imagine the kids' excitement! Well, actually, all they wanted to do is to open them up and play with everything inside but I was excited! There's really two kinds available, the side by sides and the more conventional freezer on top style. I was ready to buy one there on the spot but perhaps I should check with Juanita. Her advice is usually good.
I dropped the kids off at home and left the oldest there to prevent the younger ones from killing each other. Then I dragged Juanita to Circuit City to confirm my great discovery. She didn't jump up and down with joy and rapture but she did seem interested. But she's not the impulsive shopper that I am and very carefully examined each possibility and grilled the salesman like the Miami city police would take on Ted Bundy. He assured her that most manufactures are very similar with regards to reliability and design and the main differences in price were due to little features like size and adjustable shelves, sound proofing, etc. That makes sense, doesn't it, since there's approximately 325 million frigs in service world wide? Okay I just made up that number but the idea is still sound. Don't sweat the brand name.
Next, we examined just about every floor model for size. There's a little sticker that says how much space is proportioned to the freezer vs. the cooler. Amazingly enough, the side by sides weren't really that much bigger, mostly because (I think) of the ice dispenser taking up so much room. The model we finally chose was based on a cavernous cooler section, I think it was the biggest in the entire store (that would fit). It fit with a whole one-eighth inch to spare on either side!
The next difficult decision was regarding the optional ice-maker. The side by sides almost all had ice-maker/water dispensers right in the door and you didn't even need to open the door for some cool refreshment. And remember, this is in Washington DC where the summers are long and occasionally the temperature climbs over one hundred. Well I really, very badly wanted an ice-maker. This is how they work: you stick them in your freezer, hook them up to a water supply and magically, while you sleep, they make ice-cubes. Ooooooh, what a dream come true!
The old frig's freezer section contained a mini-shrine dedicated to ice cube production. There was a section where the ice cube trays were allowed which was very jealously guarded against encroachments from other citizens of the freezer section. And believe me, with the size of that puny little freezer, constant vigilance was necessary to protect the purity of the ice cube shrine. The trays themselves were a mixture of the original trays that came with the refrigerator and some upgrades. When one of the original trays died, I scoured all the grocery and kitchen stores for just the right kind of tray. I finally found one 200 miles away in Chincoteague's only grocery store. It was well worth the trip! We even had designer ice cube trays that would create ice cubes in the shape of ducks and porpoises! In the door of the freezer, there was a special plastic bucket that held pre-made ice cubes since we used so many that there just wasn't enough trays. The ice cube shrine was also a source of fun and scientific discovery as the kids often performed cyrogenic experiments in there.
Imagine an ice cube maker that works while you sleep! My head whirled with the possibilities! But it was an extra fifty bucks and even worse, you had to hook that darn thing up. The salesman suggested a local plumber who would do it for the paltry sum of $70 - $100. Did I really need this thing that badly? But if I let it go now, I may never get another chance? Is this an unnecessary extravagance? WHAT SHOULD I DO??
To tell you the truth, I didn't really think that having a bigger refrigerator would help the overcrowding problem we were having. Going from 14 to 21 cubic feet is a big improvement but I believed that the overcrowding was really just the way Juanita likes to do things. I must admit I was wrong on that one, it's so uncrowded now that I can even find things I like to eat in it. No longer do I need to be brave in order to find the eggs and cheese (it has a handy little drawer!) And yes, there's always a bountiful bucket of refreshing ice cubes. Man, what a great country we live in!