On Wednesday, December 24, 2014 6:28:40 AM UTC-7, MaryL wrote:
> "Ophelia" wrote in message ...
>
>
>
> "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
> ...
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/di...anted=all&_r=0
>
> So, what did people do before fridges?
>
> --
> http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/
>
> ~~~~~~~~
> My grandfather was a farmer in the early-to-mid part of the last century.
> He had a large ice house, and people would drive by (first in horse and
> buggy, later in automobile) to buy ice for their ice boxes. My
> grandparents, land went to the edge of a large lake, and my grandfather
> would cut large squares of ice from the lake in the winter. These would be
> stored in the ice house. That was before my time, but I think extra
> insulation was provided by covering the ice with sawdust in the ice house..
> They also had an underground root cellar, and that was cool enough to store
> many varieties of food for extended periods of time. They had an electric
> refrigerator by the time I was born, but they still used the root cellar for
> many items. They lived in northeast Ohio.
>
> MaryL

The house where my mother was born (1917) is near a lake. My Grandfather was the lake master for many years. On the property there is a root cellar/ice house. The structure is below ground and has thick walls and a thick roof. They would load it with vegetables in the fall. Mom said they would put in pumpkins, winter squash, melons, and whatever. Grandma raised turkeys and sold turkeys and pumpkins and squash at Thanksgiving time. By January when the lake was frozen over, the produce was gone and they would load the ice house with ice cut from the lake. There is an old photo of a machine that would cut the ice and the men would stack it onto the sled drawn by horses. The crew was like the thrashing crews that would come by and cut ice and move on. The ice would last until about the 4th of July. They put layers of straw between the produce and also the ice.

Granddad lost the job when the depression came and they had to move from the lake. This is in northeastern Colorado.

What simple days.

DaleP