Saturday, February 20, 2021

So she asked, ‘Where was the family ice box?”

  Memorable Trucks from The Past:

 The ICE TRUCK was a familiar site up until the mid 1950s. When the ice slid off the truck it peeled some ice slivers. Kids followed the truck and raced to get the shavings to eat or make 'snow balls' in the summer.


For today:

I know my entries are OLD memories, and these last few weeks have generated even more. We started talking about getting groceries. I have been doing that now for weeks. Sherry went to pick up her blood pressure meds yesterday. It was raining and I dropped her at the door and picked her up.

Her family shopped for groceries on Wednesday and mine shopped on Monday. The groceries were delivered by a kid in a pickup truck. He went in the back door without knocking and left them on the table. No one signed for anything.

I remember once during summer shower our grocer used a can of Morton salt to write on the sidewalk under his awning, “When it rains it pours!” That was the ad Morton used. I remember thinking, “How can he waste that much salt?”

The grocery stores were for many years’ just small mom and pop stores that ran a ‘bill’ in an old tablet. Daddy always gave mama’s grocery list to the grocer and paid for last weeks groceries. Sherry remembered when the A & P came to Belmont. She said after that, her mama shopped.



Sherry was remembering their ‘Crosley’ refrigerator. It had a small freezer for 2 trays of ice; we all did.  I remember the small area beside the Ice tray area was the coldest, usually for milk. There was a drip pan under the refer for the water that was not caught during defrosting to drip into.

So she asked, “Where was your mama’s ice box before her Crosley? Ours was on the back porch.”

(I never saw an ice box this fancy.)


(Most ice boxes were simply an insulated box like this one)

“Ours was in the kitchen. Mama would put the card in the window saying how many pounds of ice she wanted, According to how the card was turned the ice man would carry it thru the house and put it in the ice box.

(On Ice days this card was in the window, the amount UP is what the ice man delivered.)

 Daddy made a hole in the kitchen floor for the water to drip out into the area under the house. That kept from having a drip pan to empty.”


She said, “We always had to empty the drip pan, someone was assigned the chore to do that and there were times they forgot and it ran over.”

Sherry pointed to our refrigerator/freezer, “We are so blessed now, huh?”

Yes we are. Forgive the memory trail, we are having fun remembering and counting our blessings.   We fuss about changes today in this electronic age BUT THERE ARE SOME CHANGES THAT ONLY OLD PEOPLE CAN APPRECIATE.

NiteShipslog

PS:

Just got a read on MA, she had internet problems.  Good to hear!

9 comments:

TARYTERRE said...

My hubby remembers those days well. for a while his grandfather sold the ice.

Lisa said...

I’m to young to remember ice or milk deliveries but I do remember Charlie Chip!

Working Job #2 today
Lisa

Dar said...

How ironic you mention an ' icebox.' Bill and I just restored an antique we found on the neighbors rock pile. After asking, he said, " It's yours! " you can't imagine my delight. We have repurposed it and it sits by our dining table as an overflow pantry. It looks like your fancy one except it has 3 doors. The ice compartment on the right would have had the drip pan underneath in the smallest door. We were so amazed as to how beautifully the blackened (with age), brass hinges and latches cleaned up. We Love restoring old pieces. Next is a drop-leaf oak table. Thanks always, for such sweet memories. You and Sherry are gems ! I hope you're healing well.
loven'hugs from up north where the sun shines but once again, it's way below zero..........think Spring, think Spring.

Chatty Crone said...

Are you kidding - I have been watching Dar restore her antique icebox. I love stories like this.
I still call a refrigerator and icebox and people ask me what is an icebox?

Mevely317 said...

What an entertaining read! I couldn't wait to show this to Tom -- who remembers every single thing you've mentioned here! ("Yep, we had that, too.") He said both the produce man and ice man made their rounds with a horse and buggy. I was astonished to hear him concur about the grocery fellow walking right inside without knocking ... especially that being the (notorious) south side of Chicago.

While I love our modern conveniences, there's a big part of me that longs to have experienced that kinder, gentler time.

yaya said...

We had milked delivered weekly and many times I picked up the glass bottles in the winter and if they accidently touched the bottle would break! Not good! The milkman would give us kids chips of ice from the truck...loved that! I really enjoy your memories and folks today really don't know how good they have it but then again, didn't we have fun in the good 'ol days? Now I want some icecream from my freezer! Ha!

jack69 said...

Test 2 did this post

jack69 said...

I tried to comment without using the capcha with the com

boromax said...

Don't apologize for the memory trails. I love it. My memory does not reach back to those kinds of iceboxes. But the 1950s style fridge wife and I had when we first married is certainly a far cry from the majestic side-by-side that graces our kitchen these days. We could not have imagined getting cold water and ice (cubes or crushed?) directly without opening the freezer door. And none of those aluminum ice trays with the levers, which no one remembered to refill.

Was there ever anyone in your family who would habitually leave one cube in the ice tray???