The Birthday Party

I was 71 in December. 

My grandpa didn’t have a ice house behind the tavern that made ice but he had a big room where they kept the big blocks.  I can remember it was all made of big wooden planks inside, walls, ceiling and floor, and not painted, bare wood.  We’d always go and pick up the small chips to suck on.  Also, we’d follow the ice wagon (delivering ice for ice boxes…no, everybody didn’t have a refrigerator yet, even in town) and do the same thing, pick up the chips.

And remember following the mosquito fog machine down the street in the summer time, running through the smoke?  OMG, no wonder I had cancer.