"THE ICEBOX"

When I was three
We had one!
Made of wood,
Nice wood!
Door at the top,
Door at the bottom.
Top lined with tin
Was for the ice.

A BIG event---
Twice a week
a funny-looking
(to a little boy)...
Long wagon,
Pulled by a horse
comes down that
sandy West Texas street---
It had no curbs;
It was sunken, blown-out
by years of wind.

The Iceman stops his horse,
Gets off his wagon...
"Hello boys," to seven or eight
Wide-eyed kids!
(This is  a happening!)
All the kids watch

his every move.

Wearing a strange rubber
cape thing, over his
right shoulder, and grabbing
His Ice Tongs,
He looks at the card in
the window: "fifty pounds."

The kids cluster around
the back of the wagon...
almost in his way.
He throws the several tarps
Back, and there's the ice!
As the cool air from underneath
hits the kids in the face!
Ooo-oh! Feels Good!

He grabs a fifty pound block
of ice, with those awful-looking TONGS,
hefts it onto the rubber thing
on his shoulder, and away he goes
and into the back door of the house.

Bored little kids...
(Seems like nuthn' ever happens, anyway...)
Hang  around watchin' with wide eyes;
He's back, and guess what?
He takes his ice pick
and chips nice little blocks
of that cold, delicious, wet ice---
from a big block---
and gives a chunk to every kid!
Oh, life is good!

Frigidaires came
A year or two later;
But they never were
as much fun for the kids...
As seeing that horse and wagon,
And the friendly Iceman...
And feeling that cold air coming out
from under that tarp---

And having a thirst-quenching
Chunk of ice,
Handed to you---by the Iceman Himself

 In that little sandy West Texas town

In the hot summer,

 in 1937.

*******30********
BY MIL
9/6/12








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