. With the arrival of the refrigerator, young mike was relieved of his icebox duty would he miss the icebox, young Mike thought, “Not”. Emptying the water pan underneath the ice box was part of life. He was assigned that charge when it was discovered he could shoulder the partial melting remains of a 50 pound chunk of ice, purging the watery remnants out the dining room French doors, and off the Shone Avenue side porch. No more sign rituals either, the act of correctly positioning a sign in the living room window, so the 50 pound number was in the up position, rather than 25 75 100, or the backside turned over reading No Ice. No more ice man with his leather sheath, and ice tongs, and no more watching him chisel and reduce the larger blocks of ice to lesser ones, the fragments left for eager young hands to grasp from the back of the truck. The Lad witnessing the passing of an era.
. Mike could tell from its appearance, that the new addition in reality was old. It had an emblem above its door, displaying a familiar name, General Electric. A refrigerator was a copious step forward, considering the prevailing history of an icebox. Observing it more closely, it was very similar to its predecessor, performing the same function, but without using a dissipating cooling source. The refrigeration mechanism was located on the top, and appeared to be a motor encircled with tubing. The only down side Mike could see, was that it didn’t make ice and there was no longer a block of ice available for chipping. The boy knew very little about refrigeration, except recently George Chamberlain, a neighbor who lived behind them had a refrigerator explode, damaging the kitchen, and partially moving the house off its foundation. It was Mike’s understanding, George’s refrigerator was something called an absorption ammonia gas unit, and that had something to do with it.
. The school day completed, Mike proceeding home from Burckhalter Elementary. Upon entering the house, discovered his Mother scurrying about moving furniture from the dining room which adjoined the kitchen, toward the front of the house, Mike asking what was going on, and why the moving of furniture. Her reply was, “It’s going to blow up”, Mike noticing that his mother was upset, asking for an explanation. She immediately began explaining in hurried tones that the refrigerator was making a hissing sounds, and she was afraid that it was going to blow up, with a reference to the neighbors refrigerator. Mike ‘s first inclination was to investigate, with his Mother in tow, they entered the kitchen. She pointed to the top of their recently acquired refrigerator where the large coils were located, exclaiming that the noise was coming from there. He asked if she had turned it off, and she replied that it was off and unplugged. He politely asked her to step out of the room so he could look and listen for the sound of the impending disaster. With the room quiet he waited, at first nothing but silence, and then a unmistakable hissing sound.
. A smug Young Man calling his Mother to return to the kitchen, announcing that he had found the source of the noise , and it was not coming from the refrigerator. Prior to the family acquiring the refrigerator, Mike, having opened a mason jar of Grandpa Marvin’s canned cherries, placed the leftovers in a newly acquired Tupperware juice container, and instead of placing it inside the icebox, he placed the container in the cupboard above it. The newly acquired refrigerator having replaced the icebox beneath the cupboard, the youth surmising, because the refrigerator motor gave off an insurmountable amount of heat, whereas the icebox gave off none, causing the Tupperware enclosed container to heat, the cherries to ferment, and the carbon dioxide gas from the fermentation was lifting the container lid and escaping with a hissing sound.
. Mike reasoned that in essence his Mother acted in accordance with her supposition being astute in her vivacity of the circumstances involving the refrigidaire* He had to laugh Mike’s mom having a habit of assigning brand names to products, thus all refrigerators were known as refrigidaire’s) and the event also confirmed that Grandpa Marvin’s cherries would ferment.
Inquisitive Quest 