X-Message-Number: 28892
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:07:34 -0500
From: Keith Henson <>
Subject: Re: Postponing the future (Mark Plus) [Olaf Henny]

At 10:00 AM 1/12/2007 +0000, Olaf wrote:

snip

>Our kitchens are equipped with microwave and dishwashers, all subjects of a
>fantastic future only half a century ago. The freezer and the air condition
>in the home were then so far removed from his reality as from ours a self
>parallel parking car. Parallel parking??? - Certainly not a problem in East
>Germany or when he owned his last car prior to WWII. You just pulled over to
>the curb and stopped. The weren't a whole lot of cars around then.

Depends on where you were.  Half a century ago is 1957.  That's the year my 
family moved away from Arlington, Virginia.  I know we had both a freezer 
and a dishwasher for at least a few years before that.  The dishwasher was 
top loading, my dad installed it into the counter.  I think we had the 
freezer prior to 1950, I do remember it was a Sears model.

This got me to look at Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezers

"In a few exceptional cases, mechanical refrigeration systems had been 
adapted by the start of the 20th century for use in the homes of the very 
wealthy, and might be used for cooling both living and food storage areas. 
One early system was installed at the mansion of Walter Pierce, an oil 
company executive.[1]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven

Large, expensive microwave ovens were available over 50 years ago.  I don't 
remember when my parents got one, but it was after I left home in 1960.

Snip (agree, good points)

Keith Henson

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