Subzero temperatures are predicted for this weekend for much of New England where lakes and ponds are icing up and thank your stars you don’t live in yesteryear when this would mean it’s time to harvest the ice. (In 1880, ice was our nation’s second largest export, behind cotton.) When I was researching The Latecomers, I was kind of appalled to discover that this time of year, if you lived in this part of the country, you (or someone you hired) would have to pull on rubber boots, buckle on your crampons, take up your ice saw and spend a day or week cutting out blocks that might weigh up to 100 lbs.  Then, you and your horse would have to haul them to an ice house to be stored until summer when you’d cut them to fill ice boxes, before refrigerators were a thing. My second article for the Lakeville Journal is about ice-harvesting and how apt that it’s running today.

Coupon book from the John Hannon & Son ice company whose ice house was bought by Stew Jones and now used as a site for the restoration of antique Jaquar cars.

Ice coupon book and tickets from the collection of Stew Jones.