[Jeffhs]

When I was growing up, we had a Gibson freezer in the basement. That thing lasted, IIRC, some 40-50 years, then finally quit some time in the early 1990s. As far as refrigerators go, we had several that I can remember -- my earliest memories of fridges in our house are of a small one in our kitchen, made by a company called "Leonard". I don't know a thing about that company, whether it was a house brand of a department store chain in the '50s or what, but that refrigerator lasted for us through the '50s into the '60s, IIRC. That refrigerator was replaced by a Sears Coldspot that lasted until 1972, then replaced by yet another Sears CS. The latter kept going for many years, but was removed (I'm not sure if it was trashed) when the house was sold (long story/OT) in the late 1990s.

If it was trashed, I would have been surprised (I don't know if it was or not, since I wasn't there when the house was being readied for sale -- I was temporarily "living" in a motel in the next town at the time, then moved to my apartment 2 weeks later), as that fridge was like the old Eveready Energizer batteries -- it kept going and going and going . . .

Just goes to show how much better everything was built decades ago. The fridge currently in my apartment is a Frigidaire, which replaced an old beat-up one that was in the apartment when I moved in. The old one quit within a couple of years, so the landlord replaced it with the current Frigidaire -- but who knows how long the latter will last? It's been here some time, probably at least eight or nine years, and still runs, but for how long is anyone's guess.