c. 1820 – 1955 · north america & europe · supplanted by the electric refrigerator
he carried ice on a leather pad over his shoulder. the ice was cut in winter from a frozen lake, packed in sawdust in a stone house, and trucked into cities through summer. the block was 25, 50, or 100 pounds, depending on the card in your window. you put the card up so he could see which block you wanted before he climbed the stairs. green ten, yellow twenty-five, red fifty. there was a discreet etiquette to it.
he came twice a week. you left the chest unlocked and a coin on the table. children watched for him because the small chips that fell off the block were free, and they were the coldest object in the neighbourhood that day. an iceman in chicago in 1922 reported he climbed, by his own count, three hundred and forty flights in a working day. his shoulder had a permanent furrow in it. he could read houses by their cards: the one that always asked for twenty-five was thrifty. the one that asked for fifty was sentimental.
the electric refrigerator came into american homes through the 1930s, and into english ones through the 1950s. the iceboxes were thrown into yards, sold for storage, repurposed as cabinets. the icehouses on the lakes were closed. one of them, in maine, became a restaurant called the icehouse. the tongs hang on the wall. the lake is still there.
field note · the chips melted before they reached the kitchen. the children ate them in the stairwell, quickly, and felt rich.