Iceman

The man who delivered ice (in large blocks) to houses and stores during pre-refrigerator days:

As a fifteen year old, I worked during the summer in the early fifties helping deliver ice to homes in the Carrollton neighborhood. A gentleman named Bonnie Loup was a city Fireman and delivered ice on his days off. We used to just walk into unlocked kitchens and drop 25 or 50 pound blocks of ice into the tops of those old time iceboxes. We picked up 300 pound slabs of ice around 3:00 AM at a ice house off Oleander St and Carrollton Ave. We'd chop those slabs up into 25 and 50 pound blocks, wrap newspaper around the block and carry the ice on our shoulder into people's homes. If they had to go to work before we got there they would leave the door unlocked for us. Bonnie paid me $21 every Saturday and my Mom had her hand out for $20 of that when I got home from work. Bonnie was a chain smoker and I had just started smoking. Bonnie left 5 packs of Luckies just laying on the front seat of the ice truck and I would sneak one every now and then. Bonnie knew it but said nothing until one day he layed 5 packs of Picayune cigarettes on the seat. I slid one out and lit up only to choke on the nasty hemp tasting smoke. Bonnie just laughed because he knew I would never steal another one of his smokes after that day.