Mom is in the store, buying a Maytag, 1947

[blackstone]

Saw this picture on Facebook today. Baby in a carriage on a New York sidewalk, 1947. Zoom in on the picture and you can see the Maytag name, along with radios and TVs.

Just a cool sidewalk photo to share.

 

[polkanut]

I wondering why that block of ice is sitting on the sidewalk next to the baby carriage.

 

[goatfarmer]

Perhaps she's at the cigar store.

 

Looks like a fellow American, down on his luck, in the background....

 

[ken]

I think the guy in the background is a shoe shiner waiting for a customer. That's what the box in front of him looks like to me. I would think the block of ice would be for an icebox but why its sitting on the sidewalk like that I don't know. It was there long enough for that trail of melt water. I wonder if the picture could be earlier than 1947? Unfortunately no cars are shown.

*Just noticed that televisions are also listed on the window so 1947 would be about the earliest for them.

 

[ea56]

The block of ice is just like the ones that the ice man used to delivery to a babysitter my parents used in Richmond, CA in 1958. I remember this very well. Her refrigerator, an old GE I believe had stopped working. She couldn't afford to have it repaired so she had her grandson bring in her old icebox from an out building. The iceman came by more than a few times when I was at her home. He carried the block of ice with ice tongs just like you will sometimes see in an old movie. She was always yelling at us to shut the icebox door or she'd break our necks for making her ice melt!

Now why the block of ice is sitting on the sidewalk is a mystery. I'm pretty sure thats a 50 lb. block and if it was left for a customer that wasn't home they'd sure have a difficult time hefting the cold, wet 50 lb. block of ice up to their icebox., unless they had some tongs too.

And I'm pretty sure Ken is right about the shoe shine man. Back in those times they were ubiquitous in every downtown. When I would be downtown with my Dad in the early 50's he took delight in treating his son's to a shoe shine. I remember how good it felt to have my shoes shined while I was still wearing them.
Eddie

 

[polkanut]

About the block of ice.....

This is the explanation I received from a friend in a PM.

 

<span class="_5yl5">"The ice is on the sidewalk because it just got delivered and the store's help hasn't brought it in yet. Commercial ice deliveries in big cities were usually "to the door," not inside, because it would have taken forever to park, deliver, park, deliver, park, deliver...."</span>

 

 

[toploader55]

The Horrors of Mother leaving the child unattended.

Child services today would throw her in jail. (And the child kidnapped or sold...something to that effect)

That picture sure does show how times have changed. Ah the days of when you didn't have to lock the doors.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

I wonder how long that 50lb block of ice would last if one made an ice box using today's insulation technology.

I do remember those 'gumball' dispensers. The ones holding nuts and chocolate were my favorites.

 

[gyrafoam]

Tim is right. That's how it was done. They would drop-off the block and ring the door-bell of give a shout-out. A lot of small businesses (a quite a few farm-houses) kept an ice-box well into the 1950's.

 

[ken]

What changed then? Back before electric refrigeration when an icebox was the norm the ice man carried the block of ice inside and put it in the icebox. He had a thick piece of leather he covered his shoulder and back with and heisted the block of ice on his back. Even up many flights of stairs when necessary. Seems after refrigerators became the norm he would have had even more time available to still take the ice inside rather than leaving it at the door. Just imagine the back breaking work that was. No wonder icemen were big bruisers. They had to be bulls to carry a block of ice up four or five flights of stairs.