I Remember when....

Chapter 1 "THE ICE MAN COMMETH"

I'm not sure how old I was when our family acquired our first electric refrigerator, or just when THE ICE MAN disappeared from the scene. As a small child, I recall him as a very important adjunct to our lives, as well as being essential to the well-being of our food. As I recall, the ice man would come around twice a week in his truck. Each household had an ice card, perhaps 12 to 15 inches square, and if you wanted ice delivered you hung the card in the window. Each of the 4 corners of the card had a number which, I believe was 5, 10, 15, and 20; so if you wanted 10 lbs of ice, you hung the card with that number on top. When the ice truck stopped at your house, or any of the neighbor's, all of the kids came running, because the good natured ice man never seemed to busy to chip off chunks of ice to pass out to each outstretched hand. Then, too, pieces most always fell away as he wielded the ice pick to cut the desired size for the householder's ice box. Having a piece of ice to suck on, especially during the hot days of summer, wouldn't seem much of a treat to today's child, but to us, in the days before the ice cube producing refrigerator, it was the highlight of many days.