Jane, A pond was less dangerous than the river, and the thickness of its ice was more uniform. The river ice could get worn away on the bottom and thereby make some parts of the ice thinner, sometimes too thin to hold the weight of the horse. However, it looked all the same as you walked on it. I used to live in Selkirk in the '70s. Was your ice house right near the river? Cliff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jane Fiske wrote: >Cliff, > Interesting article about ice. I was a child in the 1930s, growing up on a >farm in Selkirk, about halfway between Albany and New Baltimore, and among >the outbuildings on our place was an ice house, as well as a smoke house and >a wood house, all of which I remember as just storage although when I was >very small we still had a refrigerator with real ice. There was a large >rectangular pond at Kenwood that I understood had been used earlier to cut >ice from, at the end of the city bus line, where my mother used to sometimes >meet me when I was in high school in Albany and missed the regular bus -- or >maybe there had been ice houses there, because why would they use a pond >with the river right there? > Jane > > >

Cliff, That's interesting, because in my mind I can see the shape of the pond in Kenwood, and what you say makes sense. My mother, who was born in 1887, once in her reckless youth drove a horse and buggy across the ice to Castleton and back. Our place wasn't right next to the river, but on River Road across from Peltz Rd. The ice house was just a small building, evidently just for private use, and it like our old barn and the other outbuildings were all lost to the Thruway around 1950 when the road cut the farm into two pieces. My great-grandfather, Jacob J. Soop, built the house around 1848 and it's still there, or was a couple of years ago, but much changed and with the road very close to the back of the house. Where did you live in Selkirk? Jane ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cliff Lamere" <clifflamere@nycap.rr.com> To: <nyalbany@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 12:41 PM Subject: Re: [NYALBANY] Ice Harvesting in the Hudson River in 1915 > Jane, > > A pond was less dangerous than the river, and the thickness of its ice > was more uniform. The river ice could get worn away on the bottom and > thereby make some parts of the ice thinner, sometimes too thin to hold > the weight of the horse. However, it looked all the same as you walked > on it. > > I used to live in Selkirk in the '70s. Was your ice house right near > the river? > > Cliff > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Jane Fiske wrote: > >>Cliff, >> Interesting article about ice. I was a child in the 1930s, growing up on >> a >>farm in Selkirk, about halfway between Albany and New Baltimore, and among >>the outbuildings on our place was an ice house, as well as a smoke house >>and >>a wood house, all of which I remember as just storage although when I was >>very small we still had a refrigerator with real ice. There was a large >>rectangular pond at Kenwood that I understood had been used earlier to cut >>ice from, at the end of the city bus line, where my mother used to >>sometimes >>meet me when I was in high school in Albany and missed the regular bus -- >>or >>maybe there had been ice houses there, because why would they use a pond >>with the river right there? >> Jane >> >> >> > > ====NY-Albany Mailing List==== > Check out the mailing list's website > at:http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/Albany/ > Add/check your Albany surnames on the Surname Registry. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYALBANY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message