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Mick, Mike and Lorraine Beal. 

As adults, we all occasionally rivet back to our childhoods, to the memories of those things that at the time were seemingly insignificant but over time really weren’t: the car trips … the holiday traditions … those summertime family picnics at the park with all the relatives … the dog eating the upstairs phone.

Mike Beal — he's a 63-year-old rural LeRoy man — has yet another.

It’s the Sears deep freeze in the home of his parents, Mick and Lorraine Beal, who live in rural Hudson, near Lake Bloomington, where Mike grew up.

“But that’s not the stranger thing,” as Mike, a creative, thinking guy, will tell you.

For an incredible 60-plus years, down there in the basement of the Beals’ home, their ever-faithful Sears freezer — couch-sized but 10 times heavier — toiled on.

Once it even survived a house fire.

“Six firefighters helped carry it out of our basement, loaded down with a whole beef,” says Mike’s dad, now in his 80s. “The only thing damaged was the cord that got ripped from the wall as they hurried to get it out.”

But “that’s not the stranger thing,” as Mike will tell you.

A “before” photo of the Beals’ deep freeze, in its Hudson home for more than 60 years.

This spring, after all those years, the family decided it was time to downsize, to get a smaller freezer, one that could be upstairs and not force the elder Beals to trudge downstairs every time they wanted a hamburger or bowl of ice cream.

They took a few pictures of their old, still-working chest freezer and posted them on Facebook, offering it for free to anyone willing to lug it out of their basement.

Dozens messaged about the appliance.

It inquired about specific design and dimensions, followed by an Atlanta, Georgia, phone number.

Someone from Georgia? Willing to travel 700 miles? Just to lug someone’s 60-plus-year-old freezer out of a home?

As Mike Beal might add here again, “But that’s not the stranger thing.”

The request came from a TV show, from the set designers of a popular streaming series on Netflix, a sci-fi / horror mix called — yes — “Stranger Things,” a series set in a fictional Indiana town back in 1984.

“They’ll go to about any length and any amount of money to get the right prop,” muses one of the show’s staff, later substantiated in the Wall Street Journal.

In a story on the show’s popularity, the Journal reported “Stranger Things” is also one of TV’s most willing to spend — with a budget of $30 million per episode, or $270 million for a season — $100 million more than it cost to even make the summer’s biggest blockbuster movie, “Top Gun: Maverick.”

But as Mike Beal might add just about here, “That’s still not the stranger thing.”

And so one evening a few months ago, traveling from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and bound for Albuquerque, New Mexico (where “Stranger Things” is shot), up pulled a U-Haul and several men took more than an hour to wedge the freezer out of the Beals’ basement.

As the men finished the task and were strapping it down onto the U-Haul bed, all of the Beals stood and watched.

Lorraine snapped a few pictures.

Slowly, unexpectedly, they realized something.

“There it was, the stranger thing!” proclaims Mike.

“That massive steel box with rubber gaskets, tubing and insulation was attached to a lifetime of memories. It was hard to say goodbye. It was a little tough to go back down and look at the void she left after anchoring her spot in our basement and our lives.

“We remember how she served as a buffet table for big family dinners, was colorfully decorated for birthdays, was a worktop for 4-H projects … how much of a steady, reliable servant she was, literally preserving the food that nourished us.”

It was a little like losing a family member, echoed father Mick.

And so a few weeks ago, in the “Stranger Things” season finale, as the Beals also watched, there was — alas! — their freezer.

It being part of the creepy, horror-themed genre of shows so popular today — this one’s even called “Stranger Things” — that freezer isn’t exactly used to store food in the episode.

But there it was, gone from their rural Hudson home but now somehow instead a bit of a worldly TV star, preserved in film, ostensibly forever.

We ask — what other Sears deep freeze can say that?

It is, no question, as Mike Beal might say, truly “a stranger thing” ... and also for one family, a grand lasting memory of its lifetime with them as well.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

Senior Marcus Griffin looks for a receiver during the first day of Bloomington football practice earlier this month. Griffin, who added 20 pounds in the offseason, hopes to take a step in his second year as the Raiders' quarterback.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

First day of practice for Bloomington Area schools.

Normal Community running backs participate in a drill Monday during practice.

University High football coach Brody Walworth talks to his team before the opening practice at Hancock Stadium.

Normal Community coach Jason Drengwitz speaks to his team after its first practice Monday.

Normal West quarterback Jayden Mangruem tosses a pass Monday during practice.

Normal West defenders work on various alignments during practice Monday.

Bill Flick is at bflick@pantagraph.com.

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Mick, Mike and Lorraine Beal. 

A “before” photo of the Beals’ deep freeze, in its Hudson home for more than 60 years.

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