[PRCo] Re: Streetcar Plans Plow Ahead in Cities - WSJ.com

[Derrick Brashear]

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 12:03 PM, Fred Schneider
<fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
> Major depending on how we define major.
>
> Here in Lancaster, PA, the source of the ice was originally cutting it off the ponds and primarily the Susquehanna River in the winter and then hoping it would last long enough to get us through the summer.   The was a story in Feb. 7, 1901 in the local paper that said the ice on the Susquehanna was 15 inches thick and that was the first time in several years that the ice industry felt there would be no summer shortage.
>
> Some things never change … in March 15, 1901 the papers carried a story about collusion between the different ice dealers dividing up Lancaster city to make sure the prices stayed high.
>
> There were also problems with the blue laws in 1901.   In June the ice dealers were being sued for violating the 1794 blue laws by delivering ice on Sundays.   The physicians were supporting the ice dealers.
>
> On February 15, 1902 the Lancaster New Era questioned if ice cutting was over.  A new ice factory was being built at Shawnee and Mill Streets in the boro of Columbia, PA.   The huge Herr's Ice plant next to their pond west of Lancaster city was not long after that. And now we had ice all year for our ice boxes.
>
> Practical commercial refrigerators for the home probably came with the GE monitor top about 1930.   I recall that my father had a friend who worked in the Nella Park, Ohio plant where they were built who was told dad that GE never made a money selling those fridges but they made money selling service contracts to the unsuspecting who thought they might break down.  My grandmother's 1930 GE refrigerator was still working when she died in 1964.   My parents bought one when they moved into their house in Penn Hills in 1937 and used it until they inherited a newer one.   My 1973 unit failed about 1983 … I went next door and plugged in the 1937 GE to keep my food cool until I could get a new one delivered the next day.   It was finally scrapped by the new owner of the house who thought it was "too old" to keep.
>

I sold my 1948ish Westinghouse to someone who was outfitting a house
in vintage style. Still worked. in 2004.

-- 
Derrick