Well into the 20th century, “ice men” delivered blocks of ice door-to-door in rural areas and in towns. People placed order cards in the front windows of their houses to indicate the size of block they needed – 5, 10, or 20 pounds. The deliverer placed the block in an “icebox” where it kept perishable food cold (much like in a cooler taken to a ballgame or camping today.) Although by the 1940’s, most iceboxes were replaced by electric refrigerators, many older people today still refer to their refrigerators as  “iceboxes.” The woman pictured playfully holds out a glass to receive her block of ice as the deliverer grips the block with tongs especially designed to carry the heavy, slippery ice. The ice business required four things: a source of clean water (like a pond or lake); workers who knew how to “harvest” the ice; large insulated storage areas to keep it through the hot summer; and a means of delivery to customers, usually by horse-drawn wagons (by the 1930’s more likely to be by motorized trucks). Many ice companies also delivered coal and some eventually became home heating oil delivery companies as the ice business melted away with the widespread use of electric refrigerators.