Keeping the town on ice
Family business kept customers on ice.
My father, Richard Mammoser, was the local iceman in Hamburg from the late 1940s through the 1960s. The ice business was a family affair for our mom, Laura, and us five kids. Dad worked with several employees, his lifelong friends.
When I was 8 or 9, I went with Dad on his regular deliveries. Customers placed an ice card in their windows indicating how much they wanted: They could order 25, 50 or 75 pounds of ice. Dad stopped the truck at each house and placed their order in an oak ice box, then collected payment.
Dad delivered to local taverns, where, on a hot day, he’d order a draft beer and I’d get an orange soda. They were a dime apiece. He also filled ice machines, and every Sunday around the kitchen table, the whole family counted quarters from the vending machines. We checked the date of each coin to see if it should be added to Dad’s coin collection.
If the fire horn sounded during deliveries, the ice business came to a halt: Dad was also a volunteer fireman in Hamburg. Sometimes my mom had to fill in for Dad and drive the ice truck for the day.
In summer, there were additional deliveries. Every year Dad supplied concession ice for the Buffalo Raceway and the Erie County Fair, where the live fish tanks at the Conservation Building needed to be kept cool.
Dad’s base of operation was the icehouse at Prospect and Hawkins avenues, where the ice was made. Tools of the trade were ice picks, holsters, shoulder pads and ice tongs. The temperature inside the icehouse was between 15 and 20 degrees and even on the hottest days we wore heavy jackets, red wool shirts and gloves. In later years, the ice was made elsewhere and the building was used to store the ice before delivery.
The building is now used by the Hamburg Recreation Department, and my greatgrandchildren attend summer programs there. In one way or another, the building has been a part of our family for five generations.
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