And the very best thing about it ... magnets won't stick to the front.

For more than a couple of decades, ever since the kids were old enough to put crayons to paper and draw pictures for Daddy and Mommy, our refrigerator had become more of an easel than a cold storage box for food and beverages.

So when the oldest tried to stick a magnetized Oakland A's schedule to the refrigerator door over the weekend, it hit the floor with a thud—it was music to my ears. Because I can remember all too well what it was like ... it seems like only yesterday.

All I wanted was a can of Pepsi. Or a glass of iced tea, or a little Sunny Delight, or maybe just a few gulps of milk straight from the carton. But when I wandered into the kitchen in search of the refrigerator, it was gone—replaced by a $1,200 metal bulletin board.

"Hey, where's the refrigerator," I squawked to no one in particular, "and when did it stop being a kitchen appliance and turn into a message center?"

It was unbelievable what had happened to the front door of the frig. It was covered with class pictures, newspaper clippings, school papers, phone messages, meeting notices, and appointment reminders!

You know, Whirlpool is really missing out on a great marketing bonanza—they should be manufacturing refrigerators with doors made out of cork so that people could easily pin items of importance to the front. Because I'm not exactly sure why, but it seems that everyone these days is using the front of the frig to display family artifacts.

Our family was no different. We used to use the biggest appliance in the kitchen to chronicle our family life. And when we ordered the new side-by-side, it was my job to clean off the doors of the old one.

I remember when we got it. My wife and I must have argued for 25 minutes trying to decide between the eggshell white and the avocado green. Turns out that it could have been fluorescent orange and we'd have never known the difference!

It was amazing what we had squished under magnets on that old frig—a Chinese food menu for a restaurant that went out of business at least three years ago, a Little League roster from 1994, a picture of a fat guy on the freezer door (my wife's subliminal trick to keep me out of the ice cream ... it didn't work), and a recipe for Chicken Casserole Surprise that completely covered the cold water dispenser on the front door.

There was an appointment card for a doctor's appointment I missed three and a half months ago under a dinosaur magnet, a reminder card for last year's July Fourth block party under Donald Duck, and a notice that we're overdue for an oil change under a magnetized picture of our insurance agent.

There was a baseball schedule from a season too long ago to remember with the wins and losses marked with big W's and L's (until mid May when they stopped after too many L's in a row); there was a PTA phone list, and class pictures of the boys when they were in about the third or fourth grade; and there was an ice cream cone magnet holding up a card for a free birthday cone at Baskin-Robbins for the youngest on his 12th birthday ... he's now 21.

I took it all down so they could cart the old frig away to make way for the new state-of-the-art stainless steel model. It's sleek, it's impressive, it's shiny.

And it was going to stay that way, too ... at least until Kaitlyn, my fiancée's adorable 2-year-old granddaughter, gave me a picture she'd drawn just for me and signed it, "To Poppy Dick, Love Kaitlyn."

Hmm, a magnet won't work—but maybe just a little piece of Scotch Tape ...

Want to talk? Call me at 408.354.3110, ext. 31, or drop me a note at dsparrer@svcn.com.