Kim Gaskill reflects on refrigerator magnets as memory holders, tracing their history from Sam Hardcastle's early invention through the Zimmerman patent. She shares personal observations from a family member's house and asks what single item you'd keep on your fridge.
It's a new day. I'm Kim Gaskill, and this is the Daily Spark. Do you have refrigerator magnets on your refrigerator right now? Go look. I'm sitting here staring at the refrigerator at my little brother's house, and I notice a sticker on the very bottom, and it's for academic achievement from when one of the kids was in grade school. I'm thinking to myself, wow, this refrigerator is old. They've had this a long time. If that sticker was put on when one of their kids was in grade school, it had to be over 10 years ago. And then I look around the other things that refrigerator magnets are holding up on the refrigerator, and there's pictures and other stickers and papers and drawings, and it's like a walk down memory lane. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, now I understand why somebody invented refrigerator magnets, because it is where we keep our prize memories right in front of us. Now we also keep to-do lists and important paperwork that you want people to see, and it's like, where can you put it where they're not going to miss it? Of course, they're probably going to get in the refrigerator at least once a day, so that's a great place to put it. And I'm taking a walk down memory lane looking at all the pictures and stuff on the refrigerator, and man, there's some stuff on there that really brought back some great memories and smiles. So I looked up who invented the refrigerator magnet because I kind of wanted to do a silent little thank you, dude, that was a pretty good idea. And when I looked it up, it says that Zimmerman invented the refrigerator magnet in the '70s. I'm like, man, I remember when I was a kid over 50 years ago in the '60s having refrigerator magnets. So I did a little digger, deeper dive, and dug a little deeper. And actually, Zimmerman was the first person to patent the refrigerator magnet, but he didn't invent it. That was in the '60s, and that was Sam Hardcastle. So thank you, Mr. Hardcastle, for that wonderful invention of the concept of the refrigerator magnet to hold our most prized possessions right there every day in front of us. Now, of course, it became a huge industry, and refrigerator magnets can be in every shape and size and color right now. And we also have other things that they've come up with where you can actually get lettering and put magnetic messages right there and have kids play games. It's become quite, quite the thing. But my question to you is, if you had to remove all of the things on your refrigerator now, today, and leave only one, what would that one thing be? What would that one memory or posting on your refrigerator which one would remain? Would it be the one that brings you the most joy, the one that's the most important for you to not forget, or the one that sparks that memory that makes you smile? Take a look at that today. Which one would you keep? And shoot me a message and let me know. Ecotec, E-C-O-T-E-K, everywhere on the socials. And I'll catch you again tomorrow for another Daily Spark.
