In the early days of the 1960's, appliance manufactures were putting ice makers in to refrigerator freezers.
As this started to catch on and you didn't have to make your own ice or buy it from an ice plant.
We sold a many Norge and Hotpoint refrigerators with an ice maker. Then the manufacturer said were putting it in the freezer of our refrigerators, why not put them in our chest freezers. They would mount it over the hump in the freezer just above the compressor.
We purchased a one to show to our customers and if they wanted more we could get one for them.
Chest freezers sold great twice in a year. The first time was when people were putting in their gardens and wanted a place to store their vegetables for the winter. The second best time was in the fall when they killed and butchered their hogs. They would purchase it in time to make sure it was really frozen inside for that meat of the hog to be put in.
Well, we sold the chest freezer that we had to a family over in Bank's County. We delivered it and took their old freezer in for trade. The old freezer had sat so long in it place on the screened in porch that when we lifted it up to move it to replace it with the new one the bottom was so rusty it started coming apart.
I asked the family if they could use the old freezer in their barn to store feed in, and if they wanted it we would move it to their barn for them. Otherwise we were just going to take it to the city dump for trash.
We swept the porch and then brought in the new freezer and plugged it it so it would start to get cold. We removed all of the shipping cardboard and tape that held the baskets in place while delivering it. We then ran a copper tubing line to their nearest cold water line and then hooked the line to the freezer ice maker.
I explained to the lady of the home that the baskets could be used for things that she may use everyday, so that she didn't have to rummage around in the freezer looking for these items. I also explained that the large white plastic bin was to stay under the ice maker to catch the ice as it was made. I also let her know that it they used a lot of ice she could take it out of the plastic bin and put it in a plastic bag and store it in the freezer for later use.
When I finished showing her all about her new freezer, I asked her did she have any questions. As their were none we loaded up the blankets into the truck and went back to the store.
A few days later the husband of the chest freezer with the ice maker called and said that they had a freezer full of ice and that they thought that it was frost free. I said yes that it was, but had they been lifting the lid several times a day getting ice out. He said that they had, and they had even given some to their neighbors.
I told him to put some in a bag and put it in your freezer in the refrigerator and that that would not make moisture build up ice on the freezer and it wouldn't have to be opened as often.
A few days later the wife of the family called and said, "I have half of my freezer full of ice and when we kill the hogs we want have any room for the meat."
I said that if it was alright that we would come out a little later and check it out for her.
When we got there and opened the freezer, what a sight to behold. The freezer had been making ice as fast as it could and her freezer was half full of ice cubes. I laughed and said, You have your own little ice plant going on here. Where is the plastic bin that goes under the ice maker? The man said what plastic bin? It was then that I also noticed that the wire baskets were missing as well. I then asked the man if his wife was here, and she said she and the kids are down yonder in the garden picking vegetables.
I excused myself and asked him where was the garden located, that I needed to speak with his wife. When I went around the barn there was the wife and the kids busy picking fresh vegetables in the garden. The kids were carrying the vegetables that they were picking in the wire baskets. I spoke with the kids and said it sure looks like you have been busy this morning. Yeah, these wire baskets sure come in handy carrying it all back to the house. Then I saw the wife and she was picking some tomatoes and in the middle of the row was the large plastic ice bin with fresh tomatoes in it. I don't know how I kept from busting out laughing but somehow I did.
I said, Martha, "remember me telling you that when the ice maker makes ice it will drop it in this plastic bin and when it gets full the metal arm will shut off the ice maker and it will not make more ice until you take some out of the bin." I remember you telling me that but the kids took the baskets out and were using them as well as this bin and I never gave what you said another thought.
We put the bin back in the freezer and explained again to the whole family why it needed to stay there and they knew what would happen it it was removed.
We left with a happy customer once again.
Later that evening I took her a spare ice maker bin that we had in parts and gave it to her so that she could use this one in the garden and the other one could stay in the freezer.
