www.sandypondny.net

STORY PAGE

The picture below was taken 10/16/2008. It is what

 evolved from the Ice House mentioned below.

The Ice House
 

In the 40’s and 50’s many still depended on ice to keep their food cool. We had a refrigerator at home, but in the early years at Sandy Pond we still had an icebox. (An icebox was a container that was insulated with a place for food to be kept cool by ice and usually a drain to remove the water as the ice melted.)  Ice was easily accessible however, as Mr. Bartlett had an Ice House.

As an inquisitive child I had asked Mr. Bartlett about where the ice came from and why it did not melt. He explained about sawing chunks from the Pond & bringing it to the Ice House by the shore. It was then piled and layered with sawdust and burlap to insulate it. There were Ice Tongs to carry the ice blocks and Ice Picks to resize or remove smaller chunks from ice blocks. 

I remember when Mr. Bartlett raised his price for ice. I am not sure of the price, only that my great uncle was not satisfied. My grandfather explained to my uncle that the price had not been raised since we had started to purchase it. In addition, there were no other Ice Houses close by. 

I will not say my great uncle was tight with his money, but he was one of those influenced by the Great Depression, and a “Penny saved was a Penny earned.” He was also a railroad man. His new plan was to take the ice remaining in the caboose at the end of a run and transfer it to the trunk of his car. After returning home and packing (some now in the back seat as the trunk held the ice insulated w/newspapers),  he and my aunt would drive from Syracuse to Sandy Pond.

My grandfather was surprised to find that my uncle was one of the first to get an electric refrigerator at camp. It was years later that we found that too little ice in the caboose on warm nights was the cause of food spoilage at my uncle’s camp on more than a few occasions. The last straw was when the frequently melting ice created a rusty hole in my uncle’s trunk.

If you wish a response, my email is sandypond1@yahoo.com NOTE: I will not open your email If you do not  start your subject line with "BLC".  I am receiving many emails at this address, and without BLC, if I do not recognize them, I will not open them.