Elly and the Refrigerator: No Longer Best Friends

Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse actually falls into the category of something I have done with my children on more than one occasion in my life -- the toy under the refrigerator, or its very popular alternate, the toy under the stove. In my house, the stove and the refrigerator are nestled between wall and cabinets, so the only access underneath is through the front, unless you want to move the appliance away from the back wall (which no one wants to do). If a toy goes under there, we usually reach with a broom handle under the appliance and that almost always works. The exception is if the toy goes behind the leg of the refrigerator or stove, which will block the broom handle. On those occasions, I have to pull the appliance away from the wall.

As far as the strip goes, I can agree with the premise of it. However, Lynn Johnston shows a thin refrigerator with both a side access and a front access. Comparing it to my experiences, Elly Patterson comes off as a light weight. She has a side access on that refrigerator. That would be easy-peasy to get Michael’s car. The other thing that Elly does which I would not do is stick my hand under the refrigerator. My fridge is too low to the ground to do that. Plus, sometimes there are sharp things under there. I go straight for the broom handle.

In fact, after working the broom handle in front of my children, they learned that trick immediately. Whenever they lose something under the refrigerator or stove, they go to the broom handle before they go for me. I only get called in if the broom handle does not work and things have to be moved.

One of my favourite stories about these things has to do with a time several years ago when my kids were very little. We had a brief infestation of mice in the house, and the exterminator put sticky traps throughout the house. Some weeks later, after the mice were gone, my kids lost a toy under the stove and ran a broom handle under it to retrieve the toy. In addition to the toy, they got a sticky trap with a mouse still attached.

My wife was at home at the time. My children came up to her with their hands behind their back, looking very forlorn. They told my wife they found something under the stove, and no matter how many times they petted it, it wasn’t moving. Then they produced the trap and mouse from behind their back to my wife. My wife, it should be mentioned, is very afraid of mice. Needless to say, after my children’s presentation, there was much shrieking and hand-washing. Just the thought of that moment brings a smile to my face, even though I was not there to see it happen.