100 years ago, New Hampshire farmers cut ice from our ponds, packed it in sawdust and sent it as far away as the Philippines. A museum in Old Manila exhibits an old icebox and tells us that it was filled with ice from New Hampshire.
This morning at the La Carlota Market, huge slabs of ice were dragged out of their sawdust storage onto the street to be cut up to keep food and drinks cool for tonight’s celebrations. The ice was made in a local ice plant, rather than cut from a New Hampshire pond, and most houses here have a refrigerator rather than an icebox. Still, a reminder of years gone by as we prepare to enter a new year.
Journeys 