THE ICE MAN COMETH (to NEW JERSEY)

During my early teen years the month of April was change-over time in our New Jersey home, not exactly a high-tech change, but change nevertheless.

In our kitchen we had an ICE BOX and a WINDOW BOX. The free-standing ice box (about 6'x3'x3') was wooden, well-insulated, and with a space on top for a block of ice. Our metal window box sat outside our kitchen window. It was the width of the window and was nailed to the sill with additional outside support underneath.

From October 1^st until early April we put perishable foods into the window box where it was refrigerated by the cold New Jersey winter. Getting the food from the box onto the kitchen table without chilling the kitchen was an art unto itself. An additional art was scooping snow from the box top and putting it down my mother's back!

In April we changed to the inside ice box. The ice man would appear in his stake-body truck, chip off a block of ice to fit out box and bring it into the kitchen on a padded shoulder while us kids climbed onto the truck and put ice chips into paper cups. Let me tell you that there was nothing, nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than that cup of ice.

So you see, dear readers, how much you have missed by being younger than me? You never had the opportunity to open up that cold box, never had the chance to drain the melted water from the ice box. Instead, you mundanely push buttons to cool the house, grind the coffee beans, make ice cubes and so on.

Today's technology has robbed you of the daily living challenges that I experienced, oh, so long ago.

More, later.