Post by turbokinetic on Dec 4, 2018 12:12:59 GMT
Wow, interesting. I wonder if they didn't survive, as in a lower percentage of the total number sold are still in existence; or if there were fewer to begin with and therefore there are proportionally fewer now?
Something seemed to change around the late 1990's - it was suddenly fashionable to get rid of anything old. I don't know if the home renovation shows that started to appear on TV at the time had anything to do with it, but it is very rare to see an original kitchen or bathroom in an old house now. Back in the 1970's, most suburban shopping strips had a second hand/junk store, and no doubt there would have been quite a few MT's to be had then. These have all gone now because the modern generation only buys new disposable furniture and appliances. Second hand shops now exist in the form of selling "retro" because it's in vogue...and charge accordingly. But you won't find an old fridge or black and white TV in such a place any more; just coloured plastic things like lamps and picnic sets from the 60's and 70's instead.
In my years of patrolling council clean ups (where everyone puts their junk out on the nature strip for collection) I have never seen a MT put out. I'd guess they were all privately dumped, or traded in (and then dumped). Australian houses don't have below ground basements like in the U.S., so if something isn't wanted it tends to get disposed of quickly rather than just being put out of sight out of mind.
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17210464?searchTerm=general electric monitor top &searchLimits=l-availability=y|||l-australian=y|||l-category=
It is interesting; in that as Travis says below - things did get pretty sad in the 1990's. In the states it was mainly driven by the continuing media-driven indoctrination of the public, as to how "bad" everything is for the environment and their health. This continues today; however more and more people are becoming wise to the fact that most of it is politically motivated. On top of that, China had a manufacturing boom because that is where many of the new disposable items were being made. That drove up scrap prices, further encouraging people to destroy Monitor Top fridges because of the weight.
The areas where electrification came early, are our big population centers. This was happening in the 20's and 30's, so that's where many of these were sold. That's also where a lot of people live now, who tend to fall for the media stories, it seems. So that again made Monitor Tops more likely to be destroyed than other vintage items.
I can tell you what happened in the 1990's and beyond. The older generation that bought and valued good things started to die, coupled with our "everything new is green" mindset came upon us. There's a nice huge 1960's chest freezer in the basement of my grandparents house. When my grandfather died, my parents cleaned it out. Then my father was hell-bent to get rid of the freezer, even though it wasn't in the way. I bitched and told him to unplug it. I had the last laugh as months later he needed to store a quantity of meat. I told him to turn on the freezer and he did. Normal people, including my father, have been conditioned to think that using anything vintage will destroy the world, pay no mind the all the open doors at the stores.
The Midwest is thankfully chocked full of vintage items. We have basements, sheds and low land value and less of an enviro-nazi mindset that causes these things to be discarded
Yes, thankfully the Midwest is still holding out and keeping things safe for the next generation to enjoy. We tend to keep things in the South as well, but the heat and humidity seem to take a toll on refrigerators by making them collect moisture and then rust out.
Glad your father listened to reason and didn't discard that freezer.
