My sincere condolences to the Zeiler family on the passing of Lorna
and to the LaRocque family on the loss of their brother, Ronnie, who was
a member of our class of 1968 at DHS. I have a lot of memories of both
of these good people.

In reply to Doreen Larson Moran, I don’t remember the ice house at
Metigoshe Store but do remember the one my grandfather had here at the
farm. It sat in the dense brush north of the house where it was shaded
from the summer sun. It was made of poplar logs and was only about 4
feet tall with a small door to get in to where the ice was stored in
sawdust. They had an old ice box in the house that I vaguely remember
as a very young kid. They hauled it out and put in a propane powered
fridge before electricity came in. The old wooden ice box sat in the
junk for years and finally fell apart. The chrome hinges are the only
remaining parts left now and I put them away just for memories. I do
have the ice tongs Grandpa and Axel used to pull the blocks of ice out
of the lake and also the ice saw they used to cut through the two foot
thick ice to make square blocks of ice. I’m sure it was brutal heavy
work, but that’s how most of their days were spent, doing things by hand
that should have been done with equipment that hadn’t been invented
yet. This type of work made them strong beyond belief but also wore out
their backs before they were old enough to enjoy easier times. Grandpa
Hans would walk sort of bent over from the pain and stiffness in his
back. It still didn’t stop him from putting in a hard days work
though. Thanks Gary!

Dick

Picture of ice tongs attached