HOME DELIVERIES

The ice truck came by daily, and all of us children would run to the truck when it stopped to get slivers of ice to suck. We, and most other families, kept our food from spoiling in an icebox. This icebox was a wooden chest with two compartments. Ice was placed in one compartment and perishable food in the other. As the ice melted, the water dripped into a pan under the cabinet. This pan had to be emptied every so often. Usually one would start with a fifty pound block of ice which filled the ice compartment. As this block melted, one might need only twenty-five pounds the next time. Each ice customer had a card which could be turned so that the desired amount would show through a hole in the front of the card. This card was placed i n a front wi ndow so it could be read from the street. The ice man drove down the street delivering ice to each house according to the card in the window. The ice was in one hundred pound blocks. To deliver only twenty-five pounds, he would score off one fourth of the block and then chip it off with an ice pick. That was where those desirable ice chips came from. The ice man would pick up the ice with large tongs, sling it over his shoulder, and deliver it right to the icebox and put it in. This was good door-to-door service.

We also had a milk man. The dairyman had a regular route which he followed. Milk was sold in heavy glass quart bottles. There was a small cardboard disc which fitted the top of the bottle which we called the bottle cap. If Mother wanted one quart of milk, she placed one empty bottle on the front porch; if she wanted two quarts, she put out two bottles. If she had any special instruction for the dairyman, she wrote him a note, rolled it up, and placed it in the neck of the bottle. This milk was neither pasteurized nor homogenized. We drank raw milk with no dire results. The cream would rise to the top, filling the whole neck of the bottle. If we wanted whole milk, we simply turned the bottle over and mixed the cream back in. Mother always removed some of the cream because she liked cream in her coffee.

I   befriended the daughter of the dairyman and visited the dairy once. The clean bottles which he picked up on his route were re-washed and sterilized before they were refilled. Since apparently his cows were healthy and care was taken in handling the milk, no one ever seemed to gel sick from using it. I do appreciate the safeguards which we enjoy today, but the milk today is not as delicious as that raw milk coming icy cold from the icebox. Progress usually has its small disadvantages. That day at the dairy provided me with another experience I've not forgotten. The dairyman let me ride on the running board of his delivery truck, a very daring maneuver for me since my parents had forbidden me to do this. It was very exciting.

Childhood Memories of a Girl Called Ellen Louise
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