Since well before my time there has been a hulk of an icebox sitting in the pony shed at home on the farm. Nobody knows where it came from, and my father’s best bet is that my grandfather sold this refrigerator in his appliance store; similar wares were sold and repaired at Roeth Appliances during the 50’s and 60’s. The thing weighs well over 500 lbs. according my father, sister, and a string of others who drug, hoisted, pushed, and pulled it from the cobwebbed corner of the pony shed in Miami County across the state to the family cabin, after my father, with a whole pale of elbow grease, some paint, and electrical tape, fully restored this relic and brought it back into service as an integral part of the families’ social well-being and morale.
When the previous mini-fridge that sat by the porch door gave up the ghost this past fall, we all knew nobody wanted to face next summer without proper provisions for cold beer – it was half the point my father built the porch he did at the cabin. Now, fully resorted and quietly humming along, this 1932 General Electric Type CK-30-D16 can cool a cache of beer that could keep the heartiest of drinkers satisfied on the hottest of summer days. The chill April evenings will claim the rest of the firewood that sits in front the ice chest, allowing space for the congregations that will surely gather.
