I grew up in Houston without air conditioning at home, or at school, and a junky old refrigerator that barely worked and was tiny with no freezer space except maybe an 8X10 (?) little place that would freeze two ice trays that one could barely get any usable ice from since the ice stuck to the trays and cracked when one lifted the leverage handle to break the ‘cubes’ loose, and it was too little ice to ever make a difference for 3 boys anyway, and also took forever to freeze which meant it amounted to nothing usable (once a day?), it was just a maddening tease of what was ‘almost’ within one’s grasp.
I remember well running into “refrigerated air” on trips and learning about ice makers in later years, it was like the future had arrived.
I remember those times you described. Some of those old refrigerators, however, used to last a lifetime. Then, planned obsolescence occurred.