<< If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. :-) My original post
specified non-rural living. People have been clumping up in cities for
millennia, far from root cellars. >>

I beg to differ, the house my father grew up in, located in Queens county, part
of New York City, had a root cellar. At the base of the cellar stairs was a
wooden door that opened into a chest high, sand floored area about three cubic
yards in volume. This area remained cool in the hottest of summers and was for
storeing vegetables, etc. Many other old houses I have been in in cities of
New Jersey have also had such root cellars in them. You couldn't get
everything into an ice box and root cellars are not just for country folk.