Keeping It Cool Before Westinghouse !

 

Today's epilogue about pre - refrigeration days is an afterthought to yesterday's ruminations on Carnation milk. Keeping perishable foods safe for human consumption has always been one of mankind's main concerns...... and we were no exception to that Golden Rule back in the 30s and 40s when I was a lad in Pokiok .

First of all my Dad dug a giant hole in our backyard not far from the house , brought home two huge oaken hogs - head barrels from the docks and sunk them there ....... making sure that at least three quarters of both were well below the frost line. Into one he would put his dahlia tubers , rosebushes and various bulbs in late Fall so as to keep them safe from the harsh winter and ready for early budding  the following Spring  The other hogs - head would serve as kind of a root cellar for vegetables  from his garden.... potatos , squash , beets , onions , turnips , etc and he always kept the snow shovelled away from the cover for easy access during the cold months. I can still see the big scoop he had made from a long stick wih an old coffee can nailed to the end.... like a soup ladel... he used to retrieve vegetables from the sunken barrel. Finally there was this massive earthenware container..... an enormous crock with a heavy lid that Dad had lain hands on somewhere and managed to drag home. He sank it also into the earth right beside the other two ......but would use it for other foodstuffs mainly during the more clement seasons as a kind of "cool spot ". 

During the winter months we kept a rather impressive galvanized tub in the back porch which was boarded in where my folks kept smaller , frequently used items such as eggs , butter , milk , meats, etc.This was our version of an icebox. My Dad would leave metal pails outdoors half full of water overnight so they could feeze solid...... then bring them inside , set them on the stove for ten minutes or so to permit  the ice to  loosen up a bit around the sides ... then pop them into the tub in the back porch... throw a thick blanket over it and we were in business. In late Winter ..... maybe towards the end of March.... the men from our community would saw up 18 - square - inch hunks of ice from the Twin Ponds... our skating rinks.... and store them in a nearby  shack ... covered with sawdust and wood shavings. In this way we had ice well into the month of July..

In closing I would like to add that I have been blessed with two healthy sons.... now in their early 40s. Both pay very close attention to what's written on food labels as to the expiry dates and if it says "better before March 5th ", they will not eat it on March 6th ! They are a bit "persnickety " in that respect I guess !  I keep telling thm about my youth ... and before me ..... when folks simply used their common or horse sense to tell them whether  something was  edible or not. My counsels seem to fall on deaf ears.