I pulled the refrigerator door open and looked for possible snacks. Mom, energetically kneading a large ball of bread dough at the kitchen counter, asked without pausing, “What are you looking for?”

Reaching for a plastic-covered metal bowl on the middle shelf, I announced, “I want the leftover chocolate tapioca pudding.”

Still kneading, Mom protested, “I thought that could be dessert with our next meal.”

Looking at the contents of the bowl, I said doubtfully, “It doesn’t look like there’s enough for everybody.”

Mom rapidly cut and rolled small balls of dough for buns as she answered, “Someone must have snacked on the pudding last night after supper. Go ahead then, eat the rest of it.”

With the bowl in one hand, I slammed the refrigerator door shut. Until now, I thought that the round-shouldered refrigerator was large. Suddenly, I realized that I had grown taller than it. Dropping down onto a red vinyl and chrome chair at our kitchen table, I commented with mixed emotions, “Mom, I’m getting really tall.”

Turning away from the pans of raising buns, Mom said, “You’ve grown like a weed the last few months. Ever since you started fifth grade. I’ve been sewing new school dresses for you every week, trying to keep up.”

Putting down a spoonful of pudding, I worriedly questioned, “Is that normal? How tall am I going to get?”

Mom reassured me that I’d grow as tall as the other girls in the family. Daddy walked into the kitchen then, and announced, “I’m going into town to grind oats for cow feed. Do you need me to get you anything?”

“Yes,” Mom said, “Bring meat home from the locker. I want a roast and two packages of hamburger.” Daddy nodded agreeably as he turned to leave.

Frowning, I asked, “What is a locker, and where is it? Why do we have meat there?”

Mom stepped over to the refrigerator and opened its door. Pointing to the small freezer box in the top center of the appliance, she explained, “This freezer is too small for all the meat we get from butchering a cow.” Taking a package of butter from one of the shelves, she shut the door.

While she put the butter in a dish, Mom continued. “Diermeier’s grocery store has large lockers in the back. We rent space there and when I need meat, Daddy brings home a few packages to tide us over for a few days.”

One autumn day three years later, Mom and Daddy announced that they’d bought a large chest freezer. They explained, “Now that big freezers are affordable, it doesn’t make sense for us to rent a locker for our beef anymore.” With an ice chest, the meat would be at home where Mom could take out what she wanted whenever she wanted.

A truck from the appliance store delivered the freezer. When it pulled into our farmyard, I was frantic with excitement. Several men carried the huge ice box down the farmhouse basement steps.

Once it was plugged in, the ice box quickly became cold. It was large and empty, but Mom took care of that by freezing vegetables and fruit from our garden. Reaching for one of the packages at the bottom of the chest freezer put me in imminent danger of falling in.

When we butchered a cow, the packages of roasts, steaks, and hamburger did a better job of filling in the bottom half of the large ice box. There was still plenty of room left.

Curious to know how freezing affected different things, I started to slip into the basement to place oranges, whole apples, and bananas in the freezer. The next day I’d go down to retrieve the item to eat.

One day while conducting a freezing experiment, I noticed Mom’s cookie tin in the freezer. I opened it and discovered that it contained a batch of rock-hard chocolate chip cookies. I took a cookie, shut the tin, shut the freezer, and ran up the basement steps. Slipping out the back door of the house, I giggled because I felt like a bank robber.

Walking around in the backyard, I wondered how long it would take for the cookie to thaw. I took an experimental bite. It was dietary heaven! Delicious cookie crumbs melted in my mouth while the hard chocolate chips needed to be chewed. Each bite ended with a wonderful burst of chocolate.

I climbed an apple tree and finished eating the cookie, happily contemplating all the changes in my world. Mom was right, I eventually stopped growing and ended up as tall as my big sisters. But the world around me was continuing to grow and transform.

Can you imagine making meals every day for nine people and having a refrigerator with a freezer as small as this one?