"Remember when the iceman delivered ice for your ice-box. This is what people
used before they had refrigerators.
The lady of the house or shop keeper placed a large enough card in the
front window visible from the street with the number of pounds of ice they needed in the up position. The down position
indecated no ice today. The iceman (Art & Louie Bastien) drove slowly down the street, looking for the card display,
in a truck with a huge slab of ice covered by a heavy tarpaulin. When they spotted a card they stopped, uncovered a part of
the ice and chiseled the size that was needed with a hammer and ice pick, picked it up with ice tongs and carried it to the
back entrance and into the house or shop to place it within the top of the icebox.
While they were doing that, the kids who would follow behind their truck made
a mad dash to grab chunks of ice that flew when they chiseled it out. It was a great summer treat on those hot days. I
believe that Art and Louie let good chunks fly on purpose because the kids always landed a good size piece.
All winter
long they would cut huge chunks of ice weighing many pounds from rivers and lakes and amazingly were able to store it
all summer by keeping it covered with sawdust in warehouses on Dunlop Island.
Of course the ice in the ice box melted.
The tin-lined area of ones ice box that held the ice had a rubber tube that was attached to the bottom at a drain hole to
relay the water to a pan under the icebox. There was always a puddle of water on the floor to remind us that it needed to
be emptied.
And Yes! I remember when my dad (the iceman) delivered ice to Jake's (aka lost tavern). Jake or
one of the customers always made sure I got a candy bar.
Check out the phone number on door panel of truck
Submitted by Charlie Bastien
