Refrigerators? HA HA! I'll bet few of you remember the old Ice Box, where the IceMan delivered a 50-75 pound block of ice and slid it right into your ice box from the leather shoulder piece he wore. (Don'r forget to empty the Drip Pan!) Hal
I can remember when that was what we had. When they bought the electric one, that one went to the camp.
I lived in the country. We didn't get all the new stuff. I remember a car with a rumble seat that started with a crank. I remember our crank telephone, including our "number" - short, short, long. I can remember when we first got running water in the house, and we still had to resort to the outhouse from time to time, when pipes froze in the winter. We made a go-kart out of the gasoline engine for my mom's washing machine when they replaced it with an electric one. Even then, the washing machine was outdoors. I remember when my uncle was the first person around to have a television, which, I think, had more to do with the fact that we didn't have much in the way of television reception - only one channel that was dependable.
@Ken Anderson We got our first T-V around 1950. At that time, I recall Chicago-land having about 5 channels. A person could count on loss of reception on any given station at least once a week, or oftener. Sometimes out for minutes, less often hours. Early shows were broadcast live; there was no such thing as "taped" t-v. Lighting necessarily had to be very intense, to suit the degree of technical requirement. I recall Jackie Gleason with sweat pouring down his face, as he ad-libbed much of his material. One memorable scene had him puffing on a big cigar, during which he got to coughing loudly, clearly not in the script. Recovering, he held the cigar up in front of him and solemnly remarked, "It pays to buy the BEST!" If a station went off the air, often a strange unmoving screen was broadcast as a reminder there was a channel there.