I saw the meme at right online today, and it reminded me of our ugly old refrigerator.

It was 1991 when we moved into my former house. It had a 1960 model refrigerator, older than me and way older than the refrigerator in the image. Ours was chocolate brown, faded in some spots, and exceptionally ugly. But it worked, so we could not justify replacing it. At one point we did paint the ugly refrigerator white. It was still ugly, but not quite as ugly as when it was brown.

We used that thing until 2014, and it worked just fine --until it suddenly died, all at once, and finally had to be replaced. It lasted 54 years! The average lifespan for today's refrigerators is 13 years, according to the National Association of Home Builders. So yes, the 2 years cited in the image is hyperbole when it comes to refrigerators, and our ugly refrigerator did not prove to be eternal. But the fact remains: They just don't build them like they used to.