When I was a very young child, my parents and I lived with my grandparents. They heated their home with a coal stove. At the end of their backyard, next to an alley, there was a small shed. The shed contained a "bin" where coal was stored. Periodically, a truck would drive through the alley behind our house, and it would stop and unload coal into our coal bin. One of my chores was to go out back periodically and fill our coal scuttle with coal and bring it to the house.
I observed that many lumps of coal had impressions of plant stems and leaves on the surface of the coal. I was four or five years old and too young to know about fossils, but I thought it was interesting. These memories are from about the year 1950, but I remember them still. Though it was long ago, in my mind I can still see those lumps of coal and the fossil leaves imprinted onto them.
Also from that time period is the ice man. Many homes did not have refrigerators – the technology was fairly new and prices were high. So, many families had an "ice box", literally an insulated box into which a block of ice would be placed on a shelf inside the top of the icebox. I can recall the ice delivery man. He drove a yellow truck and he would stop at certain houses and unload a block of ice for that home's icebox. There was a factory nearby that produced blocks of ice. The ice man bought quantities of ice and delivered it to his customers.
Soon, oil heat came into fashion and coal and coal bins disappeared. Refrigerators became affordable and the ice man and his blocks of ice disappeared. How many things we take for granted today. I wonder, what will disappear from tomorrow's world? If anyone knew the answer to that question, they could become a millionaire – or perhaps a billionaire.
1 comment:
Greetings
I love to read about how things used to be. It's a very interesting question you pose about speculating what will change in our own timeframe. I don't think many give it much thought.
I too had a coal bin in the basement. The company would come by and drive up to the house and dump it through the opening. Later I turned it into wood that was stacked in there and used the coal furnace as a wood stove. Used it like that for many years -- then put in a gas forced air. Love it the best but I think it's a dirty/dusty kind of heat. I wonder if electric is the cleanest?
I didn't see the ice truck but I sure see things like that on TV -- it's amazing thinking companies actually made a living wage doing this. Minimum wage is now $12.41 and I can remember my first job in a florist shop making $.50 an hour and feeling rich. I guess we didn't know what we didn't know. Ignorance has its benefits.
Years ago I realized the new generation would not be able to do simple tasks like home repairs, etc. Cutting wood or anything that involves surviving in case "of" this or that. And that sure is proving to be true. Most young people do not want to learn how to build or create. And now we have the 3 D printer -- I can't even phantom how it works. Amazing -- what people can come up with to move humanity forward -- but not much in the way of the true meaning of survival !!
Great thought provoking post!!
Best, LL
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