How many of you remember the old ice boxes??
dreher
Member Posts: 8,886 ✭✭✭✭
Nope, I'm packing some age but I'm not that old! My great grandmother ran a boarding house when she was young. I remember being 8/10 years old and being fascinated by grandma's ice box. Even at that age I could appreciate that craftmanship of those metal lined oak cabinets. When I was a kid she used her old ice box for storage. When they were used as ice boxes the iceman had to get in your house to leave the ice. That meant the ice boxes had to be close to an exterior door.
I still remember the door on the side of her house. You opened the door and stepped onto a landing. To your left was the ice box. To your right were the steps down to the basement. Straight ahead and up two steps and you were in grandma's kitchen.
My parents were both teaching school and going to college part time finishing their degrees. As a result my brother and I were pretty much raised by our two grandmothers and 1 of our great grandmothers.
We spent a lot of at their houses. We got raised by three special women!! We were blessed!!
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My grandmother (dad's side) described the ice box the same way that you did. To make ice delivery easy, my grandfather cut an opening in the kitchen wall, installed an exterior door (insulated), and then butted the ice box up against the opening in the wall. For ice delivery the ice man need only open the exterior door, slide in the block, and then close the exterior door.
Within a month my grandfather had installed ice doors in several neighbor's houses.
I'm 83 and I can remember them.
Lady who lived a few houses down still had one around 1950. Warm summer days when the ice man showed up, he drew a crowd of boys begging for a small piece. His equipment was an ice pick, tongs and a leather shield strapped on top of his shoulder where he carried the ice.
im 72 but i grew up in Wva. we were several years behind a lot of the country in modern conveniences. i even remember an ice house in Richwood where we would go and buy blocks of ice. you would tell them what size piece you wanted and they would cut it out for you.
Sure, we had one in the early 40's in Detroit. Other neighbors must have had one too because I remember the ice wagon truck making stops on the street. We did have a refrigerator. I don't remember if the ice box had a special use or just extra cold space. I also remember the coal bin in the basement for the coal furnace. That was fun to feed the furnace.
And taking the "clinkers" out😲
Never used one
Yes, I am 79 and still remember the old ice box. Like West Virginia some of us were a little behind in rural Central Virginia. Walked in shotgun breezeway and box was on left.
One day Grandpa had had enough. Hitched up Maggie to the wagon and off we went to Fredricks Hall to get a used fridge from Granny's brother. This dam fridge must have weighed a ton. It was a nightmare getting it on the wagon and we almost turned wagon over from a rut in red clay road to the house. We had to build a ramp to get fridge to spot where ice box sat, an even worse nightmare. Grandpa got down on his knees and put kerosene in bottom and lit the wicks on three burners. There was a huge tank on the top that had glycol in it. Never will forget when Granny looked in there at ice cubes and started to cry and then wipe her eyes with her apron.-----------------------Ray
It is possible I am mistaken about the 2cycle. I honestly don't remember mixing the gas. I do remember after putting in the new piston and rings it smoked a little. I also remember a large flywheel being on the left side of the kick starter. I think there was a red knob in the front that you pulled out to engage the agitator. A lot of women were seriously injured when their hair got caught in the wringers when feeding clothes thru. That was a long time ago, probably '51 or '52.-------------Ray
PS: On the far side of the shotgun breezeway sat a Maytag washing machine with a two cycle gas engine and a flexible exhaust line running out a crack past open door. It stayed broken down for months and Granny used a tub and wash board. One day Uncle Ollie brought me new rings and piston and I rebuilt the motor. Think I was only around 10. One kick and she fired right up. That was another time Granny cried and wiped her eyes with her apron.
4205raymond, My late dad opened an appliance store after he got home from the war. Years later, in the early '50's I would hang out in the store and found a Maytag engine. Dad let me bring it home. Mine had the flex exhaust, kick starter, but was a 4 cycle. Maybe a newer model.
I’m currently looking at the one I grew up with.
Yea but yours had a TV and a VCR! Don
My uncle had an icebox on his farm when I was a wee lad.
I remember in the 50s getting milk delivered to our front door in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.
before my time. I really do not recal seeing one in ones house we knew
I do remember the 1st refrigerator I paid any attention to I was maybe 6 or 7 yrs old it was very small and had a "freezer" section hanging in the top middle of it about the size of two 1/2 gallon box of ice cream containers if that .
also mom " defrosting " it with hot water and a butter knife to chip off the ice to speed up the process
I do remember the milk man stopping by each day 🤨
I only go back as far as the fridges with the compressor sitting on top.
My grandparents only decided to get their house wired for electricity after the ice man stopped making deliveries. Before him, they would cut blocks of ice at the pond in January and store them under sawdust in the ice house all summer.
We have had this one for over 50 years. Never put ice in it but just love antiques.
Also have an old Hoosier/Kitchen queen. Both are used for storing the wife’s goodies!
Probably more than a few people got their tit in the wringer!
Way before my time, but have seen many. We have several sets of ice tongs around here.
They were great for keeping beer cold in your garage or shop.
I have one in my garage that I bought off a customer. Never found a place for it in the house. I will probably take it with us to the new house when we move. Wife won't let me sell it. My grandmothers had them in their houses when we were kids, but I don't ever remember them using it. I think they were more of a decoration piece.
I remember the ice man coming to our house, as well as the milkman just popping in the back door to deliver milk with the cardboard stoppers when I was about 3 years old. At that time we lived just outside the city limits, which are now almost 2 miles North. Dang, I am OLD!
I too remember the milk boxes at the back door. We lived in Burien, Washington and the milk, Vitamilk, was delivered by “The world’s fastest milkman”, Bill Brow. He drove an unlimited hydroplane named “Miss Burien”. The slogan was written on the side of his truck.
I divorced one in 1989, does that count?
In my childhood home town, We had a working ice house, still making deliveries into the early 1960s.
They used horse drawn wagons till about 1950
Ice boxes were frequently kept in basements ... close to the coal chute ! ... 😁
Grand Mother had one like this -