Ice Box

[Mike Payne]

I am 68 I have never seen one but when I was a kid my mom born in 1913 would tell me about the way they stored ice when she was young. She said they had dugout on a hill side with a sod covered roof on it. In winter months they would cut ice off the ponds and store it in the dugout. The dugout had a layer of straw on the bottom and sides more straw between layers of ice. This was done until dugout was full. She said they had ice the whole summer and fall. She was born and raised in West Virginia. They had an ice chest but no electric.

Mike

 

[BackDraft]

A newer version of these would be great for decoration, as well as during power outages. We keep gallon sized containers in one of our garage freezers for whatever needs kept cold in the cooler in the summers. Power down, grab the food from the fridge, put that into the ice box as well as the ice. 3-4 days of fridge food while moving the frozen stuff into the coolers. Now we have to decide what gets tossed of what we can’t stow in coolers and/or eat.

 

[bigstick6017555]

I have a GE refrigerator made in 1947 still running, have it down stairs for whatever needed for. keeps things real cold and does not dry out food. only had to replace power cord, the old ones outer covering began to deteriorate, Freezer part is only big enough for ice cube trays or very small item to freeze

 

[Pratt]

I grew up in a 1920s house and we used the Ice Box until Dad could afford a new marvel a refrigerator. Wow were we living large in 1950.

 

[FLTaft1948]

I remember the old ice house we had in our small town. Only went inside it once with my Dad when I was young. Had the floor divided into sections with the cooling coils as I remember. And I certainly remember buying block ice into my early teens. Everybody owned ice picks back then. The main holiday I remember for ice was Independent Day, my folks would fill up a wash tub with soft drinks and chipped ice and then more chipped ice for homemade ice cream. Glory days.

Amen, brother, Amen!

 

[FLTaft1948]

I have a GE refrigerator made in 1947 still running, have it down stairs for whatever needed for. keeps things real cold and does not dry out food. only had to replace power cord, the old ones outer covering began to deteriorate, Freezer part is only big enough for ice cube trays or very small item to freeze

I also have a GE refrigerator of the same vintage. It came with my house when I bought it. Except for power outages, it has never stopped running and works like a charm. I can not say the same about the big stainless steel monster in the kitchen now.

 

[LME]

I grew up in a 1920s house and we used the Ice Box until Dad could afford a new marvel a refrigerator. Wow were we living large in 1950.

You sure brought back some old memories of the past. Right after WW2 we moved back home from Norfolk Virginia To N.C. With all the men coming home from the war housing was scarce so we moved into base housing. It had all the modern conviences, Ice box, pop belly coal stove and a shower. LOL! How time has changed every thing.!

 

[JEBMs]

When I went to work at the gas company I took a course called “Fundamentals of Natural Gas “. We learned that some French guy invented a compressorless natural gas/ammonia refrigerator system in the mid 1800’s. In the classroom they had a circa early 1900’s NG refrigerator that had never missed a day of service.
In the 1990’s we had customers that still had NG air conditioners.

 

[Eutycus]

I recall reading an article about ice during the Civil War there was a Col. Blanton Duncan who tried to get a contract with the Confederacy to supply ice. He was one of the printers of money for the C. S. Treasury. I don't know anything about lithography or the printing of money but Ice was used in the process. Something about the plates getting hot and having to be cooled down with ice. His idea was to construct shallow ponds "up in the mountains" and get the ice from the frozen ponds. Frozen ponds were very much present up north but in the South?