Truck Ice

Before electric refrigerators were invented, in the early thirties, housewives kept their perishable foods in an icebox. Just as the name implies, it was a box, made of wood, about four feet high, for ice. It had two doors, on one side the door opened where the ice was placed, and on the other side, the door opened to several shelves to accommodate different articles of food. On the bottom of the icebox a pan was placed to catch the water dripping from the ice as it slowly melted. Every day the pan had to be emptied of water, and each day the ice had to be replaced, by either a twenty-five pound piece of ice, or a fifty pound piece.

In the summer a truck would drive down the street, in the morning, to deliver ice to the different homes. Housewives would place a card in the window, designating the amount of ice they wanted that day, twenty-five or fifty pounds. If the card was not in the window, the driver of the ice truck knew the lady of the house did not want any ice.

Usually there was a group of boys gathered around the ice truck, for as the driver broke off the different amounts of ice, chips of ice would fall on the truck, or off the truck, and the boys would fight to get those pieces.

Our iceman was Greek. He was a friendly man, about thirty-five to forty years old. He also had a farm, somewhere in Illinois, not too far from St. Louis.

Several times, our friend invited the Greek people living on Aubert Avenue to go to his farm for a picnic. However, since none of the families had a car, he volunteered to take us on his truck. There were about four families, with children, about fifteen people altogether. Each family brought a picnic basket. I believe the picnic was on a Sunday. Everyone had to climb up on the bed of the truck, including my mother, my sister Olympia, my brothers Platon and Johnny and I. We all had to sit in chairs or on boxes.

Our Greek friend drove us to his farm. We stayed all day. We had a good time. Then in the evening he would drive us all back home to Aubert Avenue.

© 2003 by Jennie Constantinides Vlanton

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