The Ice Box

[JoePa]

Most of you people had refrigerators to keep your food cold all your life - but for a good portion of my life we had ice boxes to do that - it was a two door insulated wooden box about 5 ft high - in one door went the ice that you purchased from the ice man - he would come by every couple days and deliver the block of ice you wanted - we put a sign in the front window with the size we wanted so he didn't have to make a extra trip into the house - in the summer time the big treat for us kids was to get a small piece of ice to suck on - every day you had to empty the water pan that was under the ice box - if you forgot you would see water crawling over the floor of the kitchen -

In the winter we would put the ice box outside on the back porch - sometimes it would get too cold and freeze things inside - besides the ice man there were a lot of other things that were delivered - a bread man - a egg man - beer man - produce - milk - coal - you rarely had to go to the store because so many things were delivered right to your door - in those days even the doctor would come to your house if you was sick -

The other thing I remember was when someone died - the body was usually kept in the parlor and friends would come to visit - that lasted for about 3 days - the poor family was wore out after that time from all the people showing up at anytime - this whole thing made things harder on the family - as a kid I always felt that it was creepy having a dead body in you house -

The other thing that I remember was the coal miners walking up hill near my house - a lot of them had such bad black lung disease that they would have to stop half way up and take a breather - the dust in the mines usually was so bad that few of them escaped from getting this disease - yes things were sure different in those days - I kinda think we are somewhat spoiled now

[Tigboy 304]

Another good post as always Joe! As far as being kinda spoiled now Joe that for sure is putting it mildly. Alot of people nowadays if they couldn't pick up there smart phone and Google what they desire would be totally lost. Thinking and doing things for yourself is totally foreign to alot of people these days.

[FishHog]

Thinking and doing things for yourself is totally foreign to alot of people these days.

Along with actually having to work hard to earn a living and accepting that life isn’t always fair

Good memories Joe. Before my time but interesting to hear. Might just put some perspective in some of the younger generations lives.

[greatwhite]

My father was born in 1946 and he remembers the ice truck coming by with the ice.

I remember when the milkman use to deliver milk to the house and I remember when milk was in glass bottles.

[rick_iles]

My father was born in 1946 and he remembers the ice truck coming by with the ice.

I remember when the milkman use to deliver milk to the house and I remember when milk was in glass bottles.

And us kids used to fight over who got to lick the cream off the inside of the cardboard milk bottle stopper !!! The good old days !!!

[fishfood]

Thanks for the great read Joe . That's well before my time I'm an 80's baby lol.

Always love hearing of how it was in the past .

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk

[longpointer]

I was 5 years old back in 1962 in what was called North Toronto(Yonge and Davisville area) and remember a lot of those things. The Breadman was a favourite because sometimes Mom would splurge and get us kids a treat ! I also remember a vegetable truck and the knife sharpener guy, the rag man and a scrap metal guy. I guess that's why I like doing business face to face, something about the interaction.

[GloHole]

My uncle had an icebox at his cabin until just recently, coincidently my neighbour is looking for one.