Iceman (occupation)
An iceman is someone who sells or delivers ice from a wagon, cart, or motor-truck.
The profession was formerly much more common. From the late 19th century to mid 20th century, in cities and towns icemen would commonly make daily rounds delivering ice for iceboxes before the electric domestic refrigerator became ubiquitous.
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[edit] United States
Many icemen in the Northeastern United States long had their origins from Southern Italy. Arriving in the United States with little or no education or trade skills, many of these immigrants began ice routes, especially in New York City, where various ice routes were and are still a common sight. Modern day icemen no longer use a wagon or cart to deliver their ice, instead use freezer trucks which contains pallets stacked with bags of ice cubes as well as large blocks (known as cakes) of ice. Many of the old fashioned small time routes were bought out in the 1980s and 1990s to big corporate ice corporations that both sell and produce ice as well as ice machines to restaurants and bars.
The tools of the iceman were wires, to tie the bags of cubes, hooks, tongs, and ice picks. Being an iceman was a very arduous and straining lifestyle. Icemen usually began their day at 4:00 am and finished late in the evening, depending on both the season and day of the week. Many icemen worked seven days a week and through holidays.
As Arthur Miller recalls in his autobiography Timebends, "icemen had leather vests and a wet piece of sackcloth slung over the right shoulder, and once they had slid the ice into the box, they invariably slipped the sacking off and stood there waiting, dripping, for their money."[1]
The occupation of ice delivery lives on through Amish communities, where ice is commonly delivered by truck and used to refrigerate foods and other perishables.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Arthur Miller, Timebends: A Life (New York, Harper & Row, 1987), 64.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Icemen |
- (English) Ice Box Memories
- (English) A Nairobi based ice delivery company
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