do any of you remember....

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-19-2003
do any of you remember....
38
Wed, 12-10-2008 - 2:00pm
yeah im reminiscing this morning. we had lots of snow and ice here and walking has become very dangerous,although i did go out for my morning walk today,i kind of waddled walked and not powered walk as sidewalks were not clean. where the snow was removed it was ice and other walks were snow and ice covered. most were not salted.so this is where the reminising comes in,my sister who is pushing 80 ok she is 76, reminded me,after i came home complaining about the unsalted sidewalks,that when we were kids,our grandparents and parents would take out the ashes aka klinkers, from the old coal furnace and sprinkle that onto the sidwalks for traction. now that was recycling long before the word "green" even came into being.stick that in your pipe al gore!! LOL i wish we had that kind of heat back,it mite have been a little diry,but it sure was warm. hope your all enjoying the day. hugs mindy

                                             


                                            


                                     


                                  


                             

    

                      

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2008
Wed, 12-10-2008 - 2:18pm

My family lived in apartments, but the building "super" did sprinkled them regularly.

DH and I were watching an old movie and caught glimpse of an iceman. We reminisced about the differences in families. Each apartment in my building had an icebox on the outer wall of the kitchen, facing the back porch. There were metal doors on the inside to reach shelves of food, and one big door on the outside for a huge block of ice which was delivered periodically. I can remember DGrM buying meat and produce fresh every day, only kept dairy goods in the ice box. In the summer we chipped pieces for drinks, but had to ration the ice to last between deliveries. DH's family had a stand alone icebox right in the kitchen. The iceman would ride down the alley on his wagon and holler ICE to see who needed some. DMIL would run out and wave from the porch to signal they needed some. The icemen were usually huge, with a heavy leather cape on their back, and carried the block of ice on their backs with tongs. Oh yes, some lucky family member got to drain the water pan every day.

Jacquie

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-19-2003
Wed, 12-10-2008 - 8:33pm
jacquie you brought a smile to my face.i sure do remember "jack the iceman" he would offer us a piece of ice on hot summer days,chipping if off with a tool he had. i remember too how fresh and clean that ice tasted,not like the ice today.there was a definate purer taste to it.we also had an ice box...coming from an italian family,i would tell my friends that i could say ice box in italian,and i would repeat icea boxa..LOL..thats how my nonno said it in broken english..LOL i think my sister use to drain the waterpan,i never had too,i was too little then. years later though,i found out my fil was an ice man as well as a coal man and had made deliveries to our home. that was ironic...who knew that i would grow up to marry his son. mindy

    

                      

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 10:00am
While my parents worked I stayed with a great-aunt in the city.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2008
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 3:18pm

So that's how my DGrM got the ice delivered so regularly -LOL. Oh yes, the curtain stretchers with the pins. My German DGrM washed and starched the curtains every Spring and I was thrilled when I was finally old enough to help put them on the rack. They were huge, but she said then she didn't need to iron them before putting back. Now my other DGrM was high tech - she didn't use curtain stretchers because she had a "Mangle" ironing machine. I actually had pants stretchers when we first married because I we could only afford a ringer washer and I hung clothes either outside or in the basement. DH needed to look nice for the office and the stretchers allowed me to do just touchup ironing.

BTW - landlords were a lot different back then. My DGrMs big apartment building had painters on a rotating schedule. Every year, one room in an apartment would be repainted. Nothing fancy, either off-white or institution green, but the place always looked good. What a flurry it was to get ready for the painters to come! Everything had to be moved and the room thoroughly cleaned.

Jacquie

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2006
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 3:54pm

I do remember ashes being sprinkled on snow..but I don't remember where it was!


could have been at my grandparents


what a mess!


but don't remember an ice man


a milk man, yes, ice man, no


the house I sold last year still had the remains of a coal bin and a bit of coal in the basement when we bought it in 1975


and the outlines in walls where the holes of the coal stove pipes had been filled in

Dutch


Dutch

 

Avatar for lottie77
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 7:22pm

Walking in the South during Winter was an experience!

lottie77~~~

Avatar for lottie77
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 7:27pm

I remember our coal and ice men too.

lottie77~~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2006
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 7:41pm
and now we have Schwan's ..delivering frozen food every 2 weeks

Dutch


Dutch

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-19-2003
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 8:21pm
LOL cal i totally forgot about those curtain stretchers..everyone had them in our neighborhood..do you remember in the fifties those fiberglass curtains..i would have to help my aunt take them down and i was

    

                      

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 12-11-2008 - 8:21pm

I don't remember the ice man.

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