Making Ice Without a Freezer

I sold back some CDs and had $287 to spend in my store. It's fun to shop when it isn't really costing anything! Woohooo!

I found that the framily really enjoys old TV series on DVD. Justin is addicted to M*A*S*H and Tiffany enjoys Little House on the Prairie. For the fun of it I also purchased Emergency!, The Brady Bunch, and the Partridge Family and got a great deal on a used season three of Star Trek Voyager for $40!!!! For the most part, we can all watch these together although Justin isn't much into Little House and Tif doesn't really care for Voyager.

The point of this post is based on an observation during a recent episode on Little House. Laura became ill with heatstroke and had a high fever. Dr. Baker cooled her down by covering her in ice.

They didn't have electricity or freezers. Katie asked "so how did they make ice in those days?"

I didn't know the answer. The episode showed Mr. Oleson collecting some ice for Laura out of an out building. That building wasn't a freezer, yet throughout the entire episode, he was fetching ice to put in a foot soaking tub for his wife, so she could keep cool in the summer heatwave.

??????????

I was stumped, I had no idea how they made ice. I Googled for an answer.

It turns out that they didn't make ice, they stored it. In those days one had to collect ice, either from a snowy mountain or ice that had formed over lakes and/or rivers during the winter. The ice was "stored in special insulated buildings until needed. In America, the Shakers were well-known for their excellent ice-houses; these were double-walled and triple-roofed, with sawdust packed between, and more sawdust laid thickly on the floor." (Source = MadSci Network)

I bet in those days only the really financially well-off had access to ice and an ice house. Then I got to thinking what that would mean...no cold lemonade or iced tea. And what about that bump on your head or a sprained ankle? And NO popsicles! Ugh! Summers had to be a drag!

It bloggles the mind!