I'm bookmarking "Greenpa" and his blog. Thanks for the link.
His post on refrigerators brought up memories of my 18 months of living in a small community in England, in Huntingdonshire, many years ago when I was a young wife and mother of two toddlers--in the 60's. I remember the good-natured teasing I received by our elderly landlord and landlady about how they had to go to the immense expense of outfitting the rental unit (a wooden railroad passenger car, converted to a many-windowed !! apt. during WWII for their family, and extended family, to live in, then kept as income through the years) with a "fridge" and a "washer", or none of the Americans would rent it. The refrigerator came up to about my thighs--kind of like we would use over here in a camper. No freezer. The "washer" required considerable manual assistance--of which I have, overtime, forgotten the details.
The owners had a matching railroad car for their living quarters. Very spacious in square ft., but definitely "shotgun" style! They did NOT have a washer or a refrigerator nor a TV. They, and most of their neighbors in the village, shopped daily, at the local shops--walking or bike riding, and carrying a permanent, re-useable shopping bag.
Once, I asked directions of a local shopkeeper to a cathedral I was searching for to inspect tombstones. I then asked if the directions he gave me were
in walking distance. He asked, "American or English?"
I was told by an American school teacher that she thot the day would come when Americans would be born without legs
, if we didn't start walking more, like the English people she had been exposed to since being in England!!
Memories.