Yes, we all know I'm a dork so when a tour is offered at the Ice festival I take it. I make sure we all sit down and watch the video about early 1900's ice harvesting. And you know what? It was so intriguing. You forget or you don't even know what went into keeping life the way it was back then. We've always had a refrigerator to open up with chilled air and food that was safe. We don't know the days of ice deliveries. They showed a picture of an icebox with a chunk of ice and a chicken and some fruit. So they had to work hard to get the stuff to put into the fridge and then there wasn't much in it. Hmmmm, and we wonder why the world is obese. Anyway, the lake region in the Poconos was full of life as the harvesting season would come each year. Men worked hard hours and horrible conditions for almost no money to get ice from a lake to a series of machines and then to either an ice house or a train. This ice traveled to major cities around this area and was a lucrative business for the men who owned the facilities. In the tour we watched the how of it all and saw the tools of the whole process. But eventually, ice was no longer needed and the communities suffered the same fate as the little towns once known for railroads, logging and coal mining.
The next room was the glory of the ice itself. The theme this year was the dinosaur. Huge pieces of clear crystal filled the room. There were slides and a bar and several places to pose for pictures. It was wondrous and magical...and cold. It made me appreciate winter a bit more than I did before I got there as well as reminded me to be grateful for the things we take for granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment