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September 1938. "Kitchen in farmer's home, Lake Dick Project, Arkansas." 35mm negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
How do you sell appliances in 1943 that you're not selling in 1943?
had to be eaten immediately in the days before large capacity freezers! (No inconvenience, when you think about it!)
You typically got it hand delivered in town, and hand churned it out of town.
If you had no electricity, gas-powered fridges were available. They are still used in RVs and similar applications.
I have two old grange tables that are topped with that lino pattern. it has beiges as the background, and red and blue for the blocks of color - it's not so bad to look at.
The federal farm electrification program began in 1936, same time as the 'new deal' farm resettlement project. When the Lake Dick Resettlement Project was completed in 1938, most farms were still without juice. (electric, not cow!)
But I guess they don't have to worry much about keeping the kitchen warm durog an Arkansas winter.
The Linoleum rug is very modern and low maintenance (compared to wood floors, I suppose).
And you had to manually remove the ice from the outside of the freezer compartment. Eat up the left over ice cream that was inside first. Shut off the power, a fan helps to loosen the frost.
My parents also had a refrigerator similar to this one, a 1934 Westinghouse. The "freezer" was pretty much useless, as it would have to be set pretty low to keep a half-gallon of ice cream frozen, but it couldn't be beat for keeping drinks chilled. It had a degree setting instead of the "1-2-3-4" settings of modern fridges.
It finally gave up the ghost in 2008. They don't build them like that anymore.
As Norwegian I find it hurtful to have my land and nation associated with cold environments like this. :P
My grandmother had a fridge very similar to this one. She put the six and a half ounce Coca Colas in the tray under the freezer, and to this day, I have never tasted a colder or better drink. That old fridge ran for more than forty years. This photo brings back memories of my grandmother and her ice cold cokes.
When I was very young back in the late 40s we had a Norge refrigerator that was just slightly newer than the one shown.
What I find really interesting is the freezer is NOT the large area below the open refrigerator compartment but the small square door in the center just below the woman's head.
The lower area was where the belt driven compressor and its associated motor resided. As a youngster I would run the other way whenever my father removed the cover on this "scary" area.
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