Frankenstein shelves are the best kind.

Got me thinking about how everything seems to have its own sweet spot for temperature. You see it with materials all the time, stuff just works right in a narrow band. That plug was probably fine at 70 degrees, but take it down to freezing or bake it in the sun and all bets are off. It's like the world is held together with stuff that's just barely good enough for normal days. Makes you wonder what else is out there waiting for the exact wrong weather to act up.

Totally possible, but sometimes they're just remembering things wrong. Memory gets fuzzy after a few decades. Either way, you can't really trust the details.