TRAILS BECOME ROADS

 “Next to Mel Baker’s drug store was Tom Ruppelt’s meat market. Mel and Tom were friends of all the children in town and both had kids of their own. If you were lucky enough to have a nickel, Mel made a dandy big ice cream cone. He used to call me “Dimples”, and even though I failed to find any dimples when looking in the mirror, I was pleased he thought I had some. Tom called me “Happy” or “Hap”. We liked the time when he filled his big ice house out behind the meat market. Several men would cut ice where it was thick on the river, and load it into their big bob sleds pulled by horses. They hauled the loads of ice blocks to the ice house, which had a lot of sawdust in it. There they would pack the sawdust all around the blocks of ice. Finally the house was full to the top.” 

“Mr. Ruppelt needed this ice to keep the meat from spoiling. There were no such things as electric refrigerators or freezers then. He had a tight room, called a cooler, where the meat was kept, and each block of ice must have the sawdust cleaned off before bringing it into the cooler room. It was from Tom that people bought ice for their own refrigerators, called ice boxes then, and my mother bought some for a big ice chest she kept soda pop in to sell in the hot summer. I can not remember that folks ever thought of drinking pop or lemonade except in the hot summer time. I once drank some strawberry pop that made me sick, and to this day pop of any kind does not tempt me. The drink you know as “Kool Aid” came much later, but to really quench the thirst, water is best.”