What are these little hooks for?

The man who delivered our ice back in 1945-1948 used those to pull the ice chunks towards the end of the truck so that he could size the blocks before taking them in and putting them in the ice box. He had big closed handled tongs to carry the pieces. All of us kids rode on the back of his truck down the alleys and ate the chips of ice. It was really great fun in St. Pete, Florida in those hot summers.

 

The curved handles were so that the pick fit easily between the iceman's gloved fingers. Granddaddy forged him several of his picks. I even got to turn the handle on the forge's blower. Boy, did I think I was something to be big enough to do that!

 

were they not more stout....and larger than these little guys.....

like dis...

 

Lots of ice hooks and tongs in the northeast!

 

Fantastic stories! Must have been fun riding on the back of his truck. I’ve always wanted to do that but grew up in the country. Any truck you jumped on was bound to take off at 35-50mph and not stop for quite a while. Not ideal for hitching a quick ride on the back of an unknowing drivers rig.

 

That truck in the alleys never went more than 10-15 mph. They were made of oyster shells as were our neighborhood streets. These hooks were not very big and did not need to be big. Just needed to be able to slap them into a piece of ice and pull it towards you over the wooden length-of-the-truck-bed slats. The slats would get all splintered up from pulling the blocks of ice and had to be replaced because people did not want wood splinters in their ice. We kids would run ahead of the truck and call back how much ice the next house wanted by reading the signs posted in the window or on the door. The top reading was the amount of pounds of ice wanted. We even got pretty good at using an ice pick, too. When school started again, we missed all the fun because the iceman came while we were in school. Just a little of this 81 yo's childhood history that was so much fun.