When I was working on stripping and repainting my ice delivery door, I ran across this ad for a McCray icebox. I was trying to picture how the little exterior door worked with the interior icebox. Like my delivery door, the advertised icebox opened from inside the kitchen, as well as, via a little outside door.
The ad boasts a special "outside icing feature." Back in the early 1900's, housewives would normally have had to sit around and wait for the ice man to make his ice delivery (some things never change). The advertisement reminds prospective customers that even when the ice delivery man arrived, he would probably track mud and sludge through the house. A nice selling point for the "outside icing feature."
One other little fact made me chuckle. This door on the back of the icebox that allowed ice delivery from the outside of the house was nicknamed "the jealous husband door," because it kept the ice man outside. The 1920's husband had a lot to deal with.....the milkman, the postman, traveling salesmen, the electric meter reader, the gas man and the ice man.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Ice Box Advertising
Posted by StuccoHouse at 11:38 AM
Labels: History, Ice Delivery Door
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5 comments:
Have you ever seen an old ice box with a back door on it?
I wonder if neighbor kids ever swiped food out of the fridge. They could come along and help themselves from the outside.
ha! that's fantastic...for some reason i often think about your ice delivery door...it just seems like such a neat detail
Greg - I'm not sure I totally understand how they worked, but I think there was a zinc plated box for just the ice.....then the food was kept in enameled boxes below or on the side of the ice section. Although stealing just made pies out of the neighbor's ice box seems like the thing dreams are made of...
Meredith - I also find myself thinking of house things from my blog favorites. The Talavera tiles you showed on your blog are oh-so-cool....they also struck a chord with me because I met some of my oldest friends on a street in Talavera (de la Reina), Spain (tiny town know for it's ceramics - no doubt some kind of sister city to the Mexican Talavera).
The jealous husband door! That's PRICELESS.
Talking about ice delivery men, what was that leather thing called that they had on their backs to protect them from the ice when they carried it with tongs over their shoulders?
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