old ice truck
But for today:
This morning over breakfast Sherry and I were talking about a local family she remembered, the Abee’s. She said all she could remember about them was that old Ms. Abee drove an A-Model Ford. When I was searching for land once, I learned the Abees were large land holders in Belmont and also owned the local Ice and Coal Company.
Once I found some Abee land for sale, I told my son if he did not want it, I did. He bought it. I had walked the acreage and found an old 1912 junk truck, I wanted it. However once the survey was completed the truck was 20 feet into to the neighboring Abee property. OUCH!
I had never thought of the odd combination of Ice and Coal. As I sat there I told Sherry I bet the reason was the Ice plant used huge amounts of coal to heat some type of machine that made ice. I do know it takes HEAT to refrigerate. I am not sure how the process was years ago.
The Iceman was a big part of Sherry’s and my life. Those big 200 lb blocks of ice on the ice truck, were mind boggling to kids.
To be honest I did a quick search on ‘artificial ice’ (how it was originally ID’d). Because the first 'ice' preserved was natural winter ice, cut from lakes and rivers and preserved with sawdust into the summer.
One story I read was of a preacher in Mississippi that had actually seen the new artificial ice being made and told his congregation of the wonderful process and they fired him. He was of the devil, no man could make ice, only God.
You think of it, it was a wonderful thing, now we take it for granted. LOL
If you know how they produced the heat to make ice, tell me. I could not find it on a quick search.
Nite Shipslog
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7 comments:
Heat to refrigerate? Whoa … that's giving my mind something to chew on! My Tom recalls the ice truck coming around (coal, too) south Chicago … all the neighborhood kids yammering for icy shavings.
Pity 'someone' couldn't slip that junk truck into neutral and give it a shove. Say 20 feet?
Have a beautiful day!
Hi Jack. Tom again.Don't know how the ice was made or if it was cut from the lake,,I do remember that it, the same as the coal was delivered in a horse drawn wagon. Mom used to put a sign in the window and the man would cut / chip it to size to fit the Ice Box. The coal was bagged and hand carried to a basement window and dumped into the coal storage bin.
Wow, this brought back memories of Mom cooking on our kitchen coal stove. We hated filling and dragging in the coal bucket and it did create a lot of soot, but we sure loved the biscuits!!! Interest question, if you find an answer please let us know. Hugs from Chobee, Glenda
Im just thinking Ice was sold in the Summer and coal was sold in the Winter.
I had a teacher Mr. Abee at South Point. Wonder if there is a relation.
Nite
Lisa
Mom mentioned getting ice delivered growing up. I remember coal being delivered. Both served great purposes.
Betty
So great to see you are still blogging. I will try once again to get my blog up and running
Blessings
John
We have an old ice house in our fair city that is still standing but not used anymore. Of course, Ice cubes are now for sale at most any gas station or grocery store. And coal was delivered to many homes as a source of fuel to heat their home. I have lived in homes where the old coal shoot to the basement was still there, but no longer used. How they made the ice is beyond me but it is something that makes us wonder. I think they sold both coal and ice due to the fact that both were needed at the time. For years refrigerators were known as Ice boxes Some still call them that. My how times have changed....
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