Childhood Kitchens

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jakeseacrest

jakeseacrest

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Not really sure if this is the right forum for this, but does anyone have any memories of their childhood kitchens? From 75-89 I remember having a harvest gold GE stove and fridge, Kenmore washer and dryer, no dishwasher or disposal,and a Litton microwave that my dad bought in 87. When we moved to our new house in 89 we had Kenmore stove, Coldspot fridge with bottom mount freezer, Whirlpool washer and dryer from the early 80s, and an Amana stand up freezer in a closet off of the kichen. My parents eventually got an Amana side by side fridge, a new Kenmore stove, GE washer and dryer,and an ISE Badger 5 in 1991. The Badger only lasted 4 years until it was replaced with a Sinkmaster disposal. Can't believe that I remember all of this.
 
Right out of the Dick Van Dyke Show

My parent's house was built in 1961, and the kitchen appliances were Caloric. We had the exact wall oven and gas cooktop that was on the Dick Van Dyke show. They also had a 1959 GE fridge with the swing-out shelves the lower freezer (from their previous house). In 1966, they bought the TOL built-in GE dishwasher and garbage disposal. The fridge has been relocated to the laundry room when the kitchen was remodeled in 1981 and is still keeping beverages cold, and hasn't skipped a beat since it was built.
 
GE Kitchen

In 73, my folks bought a 1960 ranch, still original appliances, GE Wall oven, in pink, with a thermometer probe and rotisserie. The counter top 4 units was brushed stainless, matching the sink. The controls were mounted on the wall behind it, kind of difficult, and I replaced a burner about annually. The Dishwasher was GE, pulled out instead of front door, and a bowtie blade propeller, lasted until about 75. Also, an undercounter 50 gallon hot water tank at the end of the kitchen, don't know the brand, but I've never seen one again. I think the fridge was our own from our old house, and very likely did not match. There was a GE vent/light/fan, something tells me brown/bronze, not pink. We had moved from an un-remodeled 1929 home, I was extremely impressed with a built-in dishwasher, a fan/light, and the disposal. Our 1960 home also had a built-in vacuuum system, frankly I don't think it worked as well as most vacuums, and the 25 foot hose was really a pain. But, our folks left a portable dishwasher in the old home, maybe GE? I do remember the top-opening lid and the very rounded corners, wish I had it now. One knob, no buttons, pretty simple. I don't remember where the hoses came out, front or rear or top.
 
1953 brick Cape Cod in Towson MD

lived in from when built new in '53 until 1968:
1952 Frigidaire 12cu ft , replaced in 1964 by Frigidaire Custom Imperial 15 cu ft.
1952 Magic Chef 40" gas double oven range... used until we moved in '68
1952 no d/w, later a KDS-15 built-in w/ stainless panel, added in 1965.
 
Poor

We had a Majestic wood range, a Philco single door fridge, no running water, but an old Gray Ghost Maytag that had been converted from gas to electric. In 1963 we moved and had running water. We got a BOL Sears range and fridge and finally used the Maytag. In my teens I worked everywhere I could and saved my money to bring my family into reality. I bought a new Frigidaire CI 40 inch double oven range in 1967 which my mom still has. The same year I bought a used 1959 GE Keyboard washer and dryer and a 1960 Frigidaire Spin Tube dishwasher. Moved out in 1969, the happiest day and year of my life.

mixfinder++2-27-2012-17-42-59.jpg
 
1974.............................

All brand new
Frigidaire Avocado Green Frost Free 21 cu ft Elite Refrigerator
Kitchen Aid Imperial Dishwasher, avocado green
"Custom crafted by Hotpoint" electric coil self cleaning range
General Electric 2speed 16lb. cap. washer white
Frigidaire BOL electric dryer white

The only appliance I liked was the GE washer.
MIKE
 
Ah, the kitchen that I remember best was in the house we moved into in spring of 1970. The house was originally built in 1957 and I swear that when we first looked at the house, it had a Youngstown Kitchens 30-inch dishwasher! I guess it was not part of the sale, because when we moved in, there was a honking big gap next to the sink! They left the busted YK disposer, though!
From 1970 to 1974 our major appliances were a 1957 white GE single-door refrigerator (it had the swing-out shelves, which I still miss) and a 1957 Frigidaire range (not a high-end one). We also had a coppertone Viking (Westinghouse) top-load portable dishwasher. This slipped under a counter my father rigged up between the sink and range. We had a Tappan microwave that ate most of the counter near the fridge.
In 1974 my mother got fed up with defrosting the GE fridge and the increasingly unreliable range (two burners were shot and the oven control was off by 50 degrees - yet the timer still worked - go figure!) She went out and bought a harvest gold Baycrest range and refrigerator set (made by Westinghouse in those days).
The big changes came in 1978 - the kitchen got a facelift - new cupboard doors and counters and a brand-new GE Potscrubber dishwasher. We gotten a GE trash compactor in 1976, but it lived in the back porch until then. In 1978, my father added a shelf in the corner of the kitchen opposite the range with the compactor underneath and the microwave on top. The Tappan microwave got replaced with a Moffat one in 1980.
I actually have a couple of pictures, too!
This one was taken in GASP... 1982

turquoisedude++2-27-2012-18-18-10.jpg
 
This was the kitchen from when I grew up in the late 70's. My mom had a Roper double oven gas range, Ge Potscrubber DW, and a Frigidaire Gemini 2000 Side by Side. All in beautiful avacado. In the Laundry we had a GE Filter flo with the dispensal lid and a Sears Kenmore Model 60 gas dryer.

parunner58++2-27-2012-20-20-16.jpg
 
Earliest Memories,

Circa 1948 Tappan 4 Burner Range, Hotpoint Refridgerator with the Big Brushed Chrome Front, Boomerang Grey Formica Countertops and a 24" Princess Pullout GE BowTie Dishwasher. Sunbeam MixMaster with Juicer attachment and a Sunbeam Self Lowering Toaster.
Basement : 1955 GE Washer and a GE Single Dial Dryer.
 
In our first house we lived in until 1993 the Kitchen had formica wood pattern cabinets, a beige brick pattern vinyl floor, a 36" or 40" avacado green GE gas range, and matching top freezer frost free fridge, and on the counter was the Sears Frog Family canister set and the TOL 1984 JCPenney solid state microwave which was a wedding shower gift of mothers.

 

In 1993 we built a new house, we have a medium finish all wood cabinets, cream formica couners with some color flecks, a 1993 Frigidaire 30" range with encapsulated steel burners(I bought a new Kenmore smooth top in 2007), and a white Sears Kenmore 18 top freezer fridge(which is still in service, and the TOL 1984 JCPenney microwave came along(I bought a new 2.0 cu ft Kenmore Elite in 2008), we started off with no dishwasher as mother didnt want one, then in 2000 we got a Kenmore Elite that has been replaced twice each time with a slightly lower end Kenmore
 
The house I remember the most (the last one we lived in) was built in the 50s, and probably had most of the original kitchen intact. The only probable change was one wall had been taken out between the kitchen and the room next to it. That meant the wall, and probably cabinets. My parents added that wall back again.

Cooking appliances were electric, and made by Thermador. There was a separate cooktop/oven arrangement. Plus there was an electric griddle. I don't know if the griddle worked--as far as I know, it was never used. In fact, it was hidden under a particle board cover that increased counter space. (Probably not the safest idea--but it was that way when we moved in. Since the griddle was never used, and actually had switches that would turn off, one might argue it was safer in some ways than today's appliances using voodoo electronics.) Our refrigerator was Kelvinator with freezer on the bottom that probably dated to the 60s (it mentioned Rambler cars on some label). There was a portable Sears dishwasher--with Roto-Rack!--but it was never used. I'm not entirely sure why--I know my mother worried about dishwashers breaking dishes. Plus I suspect my parents might have taken the attitude it wasn't worth it for the volume of dishes we'd use.

Before that house, we lived in an older house. I don't remember much about that kitchen, but it did have a white electric range.

Before that, we lived in an even older house (early 20th century). I can't remember anything except a shadowy memory of a round top refrigerator. I remember my parents taking the door off it when they got the Kelvinator mentioned above. (The door was removed for safety since it was taken out of service, and there was the fear of a child--specifically me--climbing in and shutting the door.) That house apparently had a gas range. I don't remember it, but I do remember my mother talking about it years later. It slightly terrified her--I think when it was lighting burners (either no pilot light, or dealing with pilot lights that had gone out).
 
I might add this to my comments above. The Thermador oven was, my mother said, the best regular oven she ever used. Unfortunately, it broke by 1980, and couldn't be fixed by the repairman my parents called in. The stove also developed lots of "quirks." One burner didn't work when we moved in, and I think I heard a story about someone getting an electric shock when it was on. I can't remember for sure--it was always in my memory the burner you never, ever use. Other burners lost temperature settings as the years went by. Still, those appliances were at least 20 years old when we moved into that house, and probably had seen heavy use during those years.

The refrigerator was amazingly reliable. The only problem we had were with fan switches for the freezer compartment. It was funny, because my mother commented in the early 80s that she expected us to need a new refrigerator within a year...and yet it soldiered on at least ten more years. It may still be in that house running to this day for all I know.
 
Growing up, the house was built in 1945. It had the same appliances when my parents moved in, back in 1974. It had an incredibly deep tub sink, gas stove and a fridge I can't remember, but I do barely recall it had a chrome handle on it.

In 1984, my father completely renovated the entire kitchen by himself and replaced all of the appliances with Inglis ones, except for the fridge and trash compator, which I seem to recall were Kenmores... I believe my father went Kenmore because the fridge had the "Micro-Freezer", Mostly fridge, very little freezer. It quit on my father last year..

The Inglis range packed it in sometime around 1998 or so, but only because it saw extremely heavy use while I was growing up. It was always cooking a meal of some kind. I'm sure as teenagers growing up, we didn't help lengthen it's lifespan any.

The dishwasher packed it in sometime around 2009, but it was on its way out way before that, it sounded like something howling whenever it washed. I gave my father my old 1998 vintage Roper dishwasher. (It works and it's quieter. What a great son I am. :) )

I also fondly recall the Kenmore Trash Compactor, which my father still uses, but he doesn't really use the compacting part much anymore because bags for it are expensive. (Not to mention, who uses a trash compactor in a modern kitchen anymore?)

I distinctly remember loving the sounds it would make if we filled it full of bottles and turned it on. Cans also made neat noises too, but it wasn't nearly as dramatic.

Part of me wishes we had a trash compactor, but my wife is an avid recycling freak so that idea went out the window really fast.

The stove at my parents place has been replaced with a mid-1980's vintage Kenmore which my father picked up for a song because the house next door was getting demolished.
 
The first house I lived in was built by my father in 1955, four years before I was born. It is a very small place--only about 550 square feet. To maximize use of space, the kitchen and dining room were located in the finished basement, along with a bedroom, a bathroom, and laundry room.

The kitchen had Westinghouse appliances. There was a built-in dishwasher (the pull-out kind), a wall oven, a refrigerator, a cooktop and a garbage disposer. The laundry room had both a 1959 Kenmore wringer washer and the 1960 Model 80 automatic pair which were purchased when I was a year old.

My parents bought the automatics because I kept crawling/walking into the laundry room to plug in and unplug the wringer on washdays. They thought I'd leave the automatics alone. Ha! Little did they know that pair would mark the beginning of a lifelong interest in washers.
 
1950!

Westinghouse fridge, 1954 Hotpoint 30 inch range....that I would love to find one like!!, and a 55 Frigidaire Pulsamatic washer, early 50s hand me down Slant Front westinghouse dryer that my aunt and uncle let Mother have in 67 when they bought their new 606 Maytag set, Dormeyer Dormey hand mixer and a Sunbeam waffle iron.
 
Two more kitchens I remember as a child were my grandmothers kitchens, as I spent alot of time there as well.

 

Grandma Mary has an eat in galley kitchen with 5 windows so it is always light and airy, as a child the walls were celery green, and there were sheer Sears Perma-Prest priscilla curtains on the windows(still have them) on one wall of the kitchen is a set of plain maple finish cabinets with grey cracked ice formica counters, and grandma also had the same Sears frog family canister set as mother, and set in the middle of the cabinets was a white 1967 GE 40" range with P*7 oven(later replaced by a 6 Frigidaire then a custom built 40" Frigidaire in 2009) on the other side of the kitchen was an early 1980's Kenmore 21 cu ft top freezer fridge, a microwave cart with a shelf full of Corningware and a 1984 Tappan solid state microwave with browning element, and a metal sink cabinet with porcelain top and sink. And always sitting on the GE range plugged into the timed outlet was a GE coffeematic II drip coffee maker, and she has a brown small stone patern Congoleum floor.

 

Grandma Rose has a larger eat in kitchen with a nice bay of windows around the table, her kitchen has medium wood cabinets with black hammered iron drawer pulls, white formica with gold flecks, a red brick backsplash, chestnut brown glued down carpet, and she had all TOL GE appliances from 1966 in avacado(afterall they were GE dealers) there was a side by side fridge, 24" P*7 wall oven, and Dishwasher with Rinse-Glo(DW is only appliance left) and there was also a 1970's GE glass cook top, and she has one of those built in Nutone food center thingys and the Cory crown jewel percolator and Mixmaster model 10 sat on the counter along with a police scanner, and there is also a Tell City dinette set and matching serving cart in the kitchen.

 

Belowis a pic of part of Grandma Rose's kitchen

xraytech++2-28-2012-06-26-36.jpg
 
In the mid 60's we had: a coppertone Welbuilt gas stove with an oven on the top and one on the bottom. I bought mom a 1967 coppertone Lady Kenmore portable dishwasher with the roto rack, a 50's Philco refridgerator and a 1963 Coronado automatic washer and gas dryer in white. In the 70's the fridge was replaced by a Kenmore in harvest gold and the washer was replaced with a avocado Kenmore automatic in 1971. I moved out in 72 and had a brand new Hotpoint harvest gold kitchen in the new apartment that I rented.
 
What great photos and memories!

I wish I had photos to share, but growing up we had a galley style kitchen with a sink and long counter on one side and a stove, short counter and fridge on the other side. Our first kitchen had a white 30 inch Norge stove - circa 1955 and a seafoam Frigidaire two-door combination.

In the early 70's, mom got caught up in the Early American design craze, and the kitchen was completely re-done. New maple cabinets, faux marble Formica, Z-Brick on the walls, and a coppertone Frigidaire Corning topped range and a matching side-by-side fridge, complete with woodgrained handles! Those were in service through the late 80's, when she remodeled once more.

Mom had a four-slice Proctor Silex toaster, a Sunbeam Mixmaster and a Proctor Silex "Lifelong" perculator with glass body that had lights on the bottom and was a lot of fun to watch!

While I wasn't fond of the decor, I'd trade everything I have for one hour in that Z-Bricked kitchen with mom.
 
I grew up in our house that was built in 1949 the same year I was born.  Was a huge kitchen had a Tappen Dough Boy range and Frigidaire refrigerator and next to it was mothers pride and joy the Ironrite.  Utility had the Maytag EL2 wringer and a Norge upright freezer.  1964 saw the Tappen got and the wonderful Frigidare double oven Flair on its own base and a Frigidaire fridge with bottom freezer also in utility the wringer was replaced with Maytag A700 and Matching auto dryer.  I got married in 1966 and the next year  dad bought my mother a Whirlpool TOL portable diswasher that instead of tearing up the cabinet he want it.  My older brother and I did place it at the end next to the fridge and pumbed it in for water and for draining.  The kitchen sink was the big Crane with the large curved back and the built in faucets.  Up until 64 when the kitchen was redone our countertop was solid varnished oad and so was the back splash.  That year mother had the gold fleck formica put in.  Our kitchen table was an oval green cracked ice formica table with 6 chairs with the yellow cracked ice vinyl..  It was used lots with preping for canning and freeze  things for use.  Had double windows that looked out toward the small town a mile away and also to the mountain range 6 miles east of us.
 
went like this to the best of my knowledge.

An 1889 wood cook stove ( a vision of my parents trying to live 187os in the 1970s) thank God that went away.

Next a counter top roper range and wall oven and big Sears frezzer on the bottom fridge in copper brown Range was gas

Remodle in 74 brought on green cross top GE fridge and a green Tappan gas stove.

remodle in 1981 mom went all white and all Kalvinator and those appliances left the house when we left. The house was never lived in again and later torn down
 
"Little boxes...made of ticky-tacky"

I grew up in a 1950s ranch house out in the burbs.  We were among the first residents in a development that literally sprang up overnight out in a corn field.  The kitchens were all very simple galley-style affairs.  We had a free standing 30" GE electic range and a Coldspot fridge.  Mom's first washer down in the basement was a small FL Westinghouse purchased secondhand.  None of the houses had the option of a dishwasher, or even a garage for that matter.   There were no lawns, not even paved streets for the first year, just sand (or mud) as far as the eye could see.  The only upgrade options were a fireplace (in the two larger models) or an "appliance package" which consisted of a builder's model GE electric built in range or separate cooktop and oven in your choice of the current colors....that medium brown, pink, yellow or turquoise.  Probably about a third of the houses I remember had the built-ins and most were the brown color.

 

In the early 70s we got a portable dishwasher from Ward's and a year or two later a new Kenmore range with a self-cleaning oven.  I remember the heat shield in the oven door you had to raise before putting it in cleaning mode.  The fridge didn't get replaced until the mid 80s and I think that was a Kenmore too.  Mom got a new TL washer at some point around the time my sister was born in 1962 and a dryer around that time too but they weren't a matched set and I can't remember what brands they were.  I think one was from Ward's or Sears and the other might have been purchased at Gambles.

 

In about 1976 I altered the cabinet by the sink and converted the portable dishwasher to built-in.  In the mid 80s that was replaced by a Whirlpool.

[this post was last edited: 2/28/2012-20:52]
 
1973 modular ranch house

Pretty modest house, so modest appliances:

SS Magic Chef gas cooktop
SS Magic Chef gas wall oven
Avocado Frigidaire fridge, 21 cf?
Avocado Frigidaire washer/dryer pair

The washer was the first to bite the dust. All I remember is that it was noisy, shook the house, and the agitator went up and down. A Maytag replaced it, which has since been replaced by a DD Kenmore. The dryer hung on a few more years, then was replaced by Whirlpool which is still in service. House did not come with a DW. Added one in the early 80's, a 18" Kenmore/D&M unit because that fit in without redoing the cabinets. It was crap, noisy, leaked a lot, didn't clean very well.

Kitchen appliances were all replaced around 1995 when mom & dad remodeled. The cooktop was pretty good.
 
Picture It: 1960

My parents looked for a long time to get us out of the 'hood. Finally, the day came, my OM came home and said "Ann, I found a place where you can pull the car in right next to the kitchen and bring the groceries right in!!!"  That sold my OL right there!  After years of parking the car outside our tenement (or down the block), hauling bags through the alley and up the stairs and through the back porch into the kitchen, this was nirvana!

 

We moved into the typical 50s-60s split-level.  Pink-and-grey.  In a development of about 70 houses.  All exactly the same floor plan.  Everyone in the development was from somewhere else, so families bonded immediately.  90% of us were Catholic, so all us kids went to the same schools, had the same doctor, went to the same dentist, etc.

 

Kitchen was a choice of Frigidaire for electric cooktop and wall oven.  Pink, turquoise, charcoal, yellow.  I don't remember white being a choice.  Only one family on the street had the charcoal.  Wall ovens could be french-door or drop-down.  We had the pink.  Everything was BOL.  Blondwood cabinets!!!  With coppertone masks around the knobs.  In the 1970s, most had them refinished into a darker color.  Again, everyone used the same contractor.

 

Floor was linoleum, but was rather "soft", I can't remember what it was called.  Ours had a confetti pattern.  I remember my OL bitched when her GF's from Penna. came to visit and their high heels left "dents" in it.  They eventually replaced it with Armstrong "Solarian" in the 1970s.  Red brick=big mistake!  Showed every crumb or dust mote!

 

My parents brought the 1948 Westinghouse "Two Temp" that they got when they married.  It was replaced by a 1965 General Electric frost-free top freezer.  You can see it in the opening scene of the movie "That Thing You Do!".  They sold it with the house in 1993.

 

We had a laundry room, my OL's 1953 Crosley Rollamatic semi-automatic washer called that home until about 1968.  We had no dryer until 1965 (Kenmore 500 electric), she hung everything on a "spinner" clothesline in the yard and still did until they moved.  The dryer was for inclement weather only.  That, too, was sold with the house in 1993.

 

The washer was replaced with a Kenmore "70" series (just like practically everyone else on the street), and then another Kenmore "penta-swirl" later on.  That, too, was sold with the house.

 

Our kitchen was "eat in", something you don't find anymore.  It faced east, which made it nice and cheerful in the morning.  The houses across the street got the sun in the evening, which made them hot as hell in the summer/fall.

 

Oh, yez.  Pink tile behind the cooktop and sink.  Pink Formica counters in the "boomerang" pattern.  A GE toaster-oven, and later (1990s) GE microwave (NON-rotating glass tray), 500W.  We didn't have a dishwasher until I bought a 1970 GE Mobile-Maid portable.  My OL didn't want to "give up" one of the cabinets to house a DW.  Most of the other homogenized homes adapted a Hotpoint DW to fill the bill.

 

Only other quirk was everyone had a NuTone stove vent that was controlled by a pull-chain.  When you yanked the chain, it would open and start.  Since we had a "Car Porte" and not a garage, it would often freeze shut in the winter.  Someone would have to go outside with a knife or screwdriver and pop the vent door open so the fan would start.

 

Our next-door neighbors had a million kids and were the only ones to have a Hotpoint bottom-freezer fridge.  Everyone else had a TF.

 

Neighbors across the street were a childless couple who had top-of-the-line everything.  Their Maytag washer and dryer (I can't recall the series, but it was center-dial) were always illuminated when guests were visiting.  This used to piss my OL off to no end.

 

And my OL ironed everything with her GE steam iron in front of the TV in the rec room while watching "her stories".  I still do almost the same, except I'm usually watching Mets games!

 

Memories are made of this.

 

[this post was last edited: 2/29/2012-02:23]
 
Ah, memories. We had a good-sized kitchen which I'm sure was intended to be an eat-in, but Mama liked her space. 40 inch Westy Commander range, International Harvester fridge, Westinghouse chrome toaster, and a parade of coffee makers through the years. White boomerang-pattern counters with stainless steel edging, and the deepest double porcelain sink I've ever seen.

Mama changed the colors like she changed clothing, too many times to list.
 

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