Just in case anybody wants to get fussy, in that neighborhood had iceboxes in use well through the forties, maybe a few in the fifties still. I wasn't in kindergarden until after the 1950's got underway and I can remember lots of iceboxes in service in the neighborhood when I was a wee little guy. They certainly disappeared in short order though once some folks started getting them new fangled refrigerator thingies.

Maybe when Grandpa retired no one else was up to packing the ice around, in our neighborhood - Shed a tear for Third Street!

Rkewen
I have a small box full of five-year diaries kept by an uncle of mine - long dead now - for much of his long life. The volumes that deal with the 30s and 40s all make mention of the ice house in the prairie community where he lived during most of that time. The process - cutting the blocks of ice from the river, hauling them to town and storing them in sawdust and straw in a partly underground bunker where they served the community's needs until - with luck - freeze up, was an important aspect of life for his generation. There was virtually no rural electrification, outside of the major towns, until after the war and the election of the first 'socialist' government in North America. There was a double-underlined entry in his diary on that June day in 1944 when Tommy Douglas came to power. I don’t think he missed the passing of the ice box era. Funnily enough though, long after all the heavy farm work was being done with tractors and all the work horses had been turned to glue, he kept a full set of harness hanging in the porch of his house. I remember its smell even as I type this.

The telling quote:

so those whom prefer not to think shall end up paying the price of repeating the mistakes of the past.

Our family lived in a small railroad town , which was a divisional point on the CNR. The icemen did a lot of cutting on the two biggest section of the lake. How far it was shipped? I have no idea. They used long hand operated saws to do the cutting. The ice there was pretty thick so must have weighed quite a lot. They vanished about the same tine the Diesel trains showed up. Like a lot of occupations modern technology made them redundant.
The fish packing places around town used a great amount of ice as well. BUt ice is stil used for packing fish.

My parents always had a refrigerator, never an icebox. I inherited it and finally tossed it out after 40 some odd years. It was still running.

Now how about the people that delivered coal or wood or for that matter sawdust for home heating. You'd starve working one of those jobs today.

My granddad delivered ice by horse in Vancouver during the 30’s and my mom helped him, horses were better for than kind of thing as the horse would learn the route and slowly move along with much guidance.

There is a story kicking around that when they changed driving from the left to the right, they could not get the horses to change over as most of them had done the work for many years and knew the routes and side of the road to stay on.

My wife’s friend moved into an old house here that still had coal and the coal chute in the basement.

How about putting a picture of Glenn Clark up with the following caption:

Good idea, working man, we'll hang it right beside Gordie Campbell's mug shot!

We can put it next to Glenn's mugshot, too. The was also photographed and printed under the Identification of Criminals Act.

And G West, your party's two plank platform ("You are not included and Gordon is the Anti-Christ") has been a complete failure. Like I have said many times, Muffy the Poodle could have beat Campbell last time around with a remotely decent campaign.

What did we hear from the NDP during the BCTF negoiations? Silence.All I hear from the NDP is silence. This site doesn't even run stories on them anymore and it is bankrolled by the unions they claim to represent. Hell, the most successful union in Canada (the CAW) has distanced themselves from the federal NDP which is verging on the lunatic recently.

Campbell and the Liberals have never been more popular. They are sailing to a third majority practically uncontested. It is time to move on and present a platform that can actually appeal to voters and gather votes.

How many times do you have to be told that it's not 'my party'. Fact of the matter is, I think it's yours and you're apoplectic about it for some reason.

The idiot in the United States was popular enough to win a second term as president. Did that mean he was competent or capable of running the US properly?

As to this site, if you actually read what people around here think you'd understand that the editing is extremely selective and favours right wing commentators; almost never editing their nonsense and their bad language and ad hominem attacks. If this site is a left-wing instrument, it's doing a really bad job of it.

Unfortunately, many people vote as though politics were nothing but a popularity contest. You may think everything’s fine working man – but I’ve lived here since 1978 and never seen more homelessness and panhandling on the streets as I do today. And it’s not all kids – a significant portion (way more than a third) of the people I see on the streets of Victoria these days with their hands out are more than 40 years old, many are handicapped and none of them are addicts.

We'll see what happens come election time. I see a lot of young people in my work and they are not happy either - not all the kids are driving bimmers and eating at Lumiere.

It's valiant for G West to again, try to paint a negative view of the lives of ordinary BC residents, in general, really!
With 100% employment and everyone slated for prosperity, I fail to accept your negative spin.
Things are lookin up buddy when the professional panhandlers show up on our doorstep. They left Calgary, it's gettin too cold.
We are stuck with these con artists for the winter.

IAMC (Ron Erwin). Did you actually read my post? These aren't your friends from Calgary. Why don't you walk from the corner of Johnson and Cook (note the handicapped guy who can barely walk on the corner each morning) south down Cook and then back up town along Fort (North side of the street) all the way to Douglas. Then turn right and go North on Douglas as far as City Hall. Turn left, cross Douglas and go west until you hit Government. Then turn left again and continue till you get to Wharf. It'll open your eyes and I didn't even send you down Yates Street, which is the worst.

You'll meet quite a few new friends I wish were slated for prosperity. Remember to walk, don’t drive – the feeling is completely different. And, if you care at all about your fellow men and women, take a pocket full of change with you and make sure it’s empty by the time you get back to your car.

I never spin, ever.

G West; I am not a stranger to downtown Victoria. And yes, I am often surprised by what I see.
I agree with you that not all people are functional, and I don't have a problem with that. But I have to point out that we are not doing a good job helping those that deserve help, in part, because we waste time and money on some con artists hiding as disabled.

Ron, you're a piker if you think the folks you'll apprehend if you follow my little circuit tomorrow are anything but legitimate and unfortunate flotsam and jetsam from the very system you were only just crowing loudly about a few posts back up the line here.

Nothing is being 'wasted' on these poor souls and you should be well ashamed of yourself to imply that it is.

By the way, your little walking tour should start at the corner of Cook and Pandora, not Johnson - sorry if you were disappointed when you missed the tall gangly 40 year old who can barely walk.

What is this?
Gowest & clueless have discovered that we have poor people?
Must be good for several more posts as to how legimate they are?
Now try walking anywhere in this prosperous province, and you will face similar "unfortunate" people, who for some reason did not land a cushy job and drive a bimmer!
Probably they did not have the "right" friends/connections or attend the correct church/golfclub?
There is nothing fair in life, we all know that, but it would be decent if "we" would do something beside noticing them!

alive
You need to read a little more carefully. The one needing the education about poverty was IAMC (Ron Erwim). I was just trying to take him by the hand through the mean streets of his own town to point out the fact that his rose-coloured glasses are long past due a new prescription.

We are rapidly approaching the state of those in the US who have the misfortune to be among the NON-ELITE. The way I see it, about 80% of Americans are one doctor's diagnosis from homelessness!

Hell, there are lots of homeless people in Nelson now and I saw my first transient "binner" in a Slocan Valley village just the other day. I can't wait until we can compete with places like India for the most pathetic beggars littering the streets.

I would of course be especially delighted to see some one with IAMClueless's attitude and wisdom learning how to adjust to a newly down-sized life style. Hopefully, if he made me feel intimidated, he would be arrested thanks to Timmy Stevenson's law protecting those with change in their pockets from those trying to make their bimmer payments by panhandling!

rkewen
I'm on another's computer today or I'd find another way to do this.
Drop me a line at

my friend

G west
The Tyee is right wing oriented????

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I suppose that make the Communist party centre left?

I lost count of the personal attacks that have been directed at me since posting here, all of them by self-proclaimed leftwing/socialists/humanists. If some of them have been banned, it because they were making personal attacks which most sites regardless of their bias will ban you for doing.

Colin
WHat are you talking about. Where did I ever say that the Tyee was right wing?

I remind you of such as Elliot, Tax Cutter and IAMC, not to mention woody. So far as I know no one has been banned - it's selective editing that I'm talking about.

If you want more details you should look up the 'nerve wracking to be Jewish' comments in 'Life'. The story is off the main site now but still there in the archives.

This, Colin, is what I actually wrote:

Q.E.D.

I think the 'editing' is extremely selective. You haven't been edited:
a) because you don't post left-wing views, and
b) like nightbloom, you'd probably be just as happy if certain posters did drop out, but
c) that has nothing to do with 'free speech', and
d) even less with what I was saying.

Sorry, but I haven’t been edited because I take the responsibility for free speech seriously, free speech does not mean attacking anyone who does not share your views, observing the concept of libel. Every society has rules, including an internet forum, the rules here are fairly lax compared to many. I also have noticed on sites of every flavour, people who would normally be nice and fairly easy to get along with, lose it on forums, I think the fact that we can hide behind our keyboards causes them to let go the rules of social behaviour that is normally expected.

Has there been people that I would do without here? Absolutely but I have never made such a request. Even the super commando from Vietnam, I only challenged his posting on that subject and did not carry that over to his other comments that were relevant to the subject being discussed.

As for posting Left wing views, this site is clearly left wing, both the articles and the tone of the discussions show it is clearly designed to be left wing.

I should add that you are certainly implying that it is.

Colin:
You've totally missed it. Perhaps because you haven't been around much lately - but the point is this:
All kinds of things have been said about posters left, right and centre. But, virtually the only people who've been edited are people of the left. Why?

Good question. And if you'll take the time to read back over two recent threads you'll soon get the picture yourself. As for your remarks about yourself, they're irrelevant in the current context. I don't call people nasty names either and I took a hell of a broadside from Shannon Rupp on one of those threads I mentioned.

Check for yourself---ïƒ*
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/08/17/SixLessons/
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2006/08/28/BeingJewish/

It's important to read them in the listed order because the events in thread one come up again in thread two.

I thought it was an unembarrassed left wing site too; but, given the above - I'm not all that sure what's going on. It would appear that there's an effort to get rid of certain posters.

Gwest
Well I skimmed through the two links you sent me, glad I missed them actually.

I am not surprised by Coyotes demise. I found him entertaining in the beginning, I noticed that the tone of his posting had increasing become more bitter and personal, also I found that he really didn’t say anything new, and with the personal comments, I found myself basically ignoring his posts for the most part, although once and awhile the older style of his stuff would appear. It was clear he was circling the drain for awhile. From my understanding he is not banned and after a hiatus he might appear again. I suspect sometime away will allow him to cool his heels a bit.

It would seem that the Tyee only has one moderator, which I will agree is not the best situation as it is hard for any one person to present a completely neutral point of view. That is why most internet forums have a number of moderators who can discuss when warnings and bans of members become necessary. On one site I am allowed to see the frank discussion of the various moderators, it’s quite interesting to see how people try to balance out free speech with rules designed to provide some decorum. In the meantime people posting here should realize that site moderator is human being with other demands besides reading every post here and try to stay within the bounds. I think the boundaries here are quite broad and a semi-articulate person can get almost any point across within them.

This issue seems to be of great import to you and I suggest that you volunteer to help the site as a moderator, I am sure the offer alone would be appreciated.

Truth to tell, Colin, back in late January or early February I did send a personal email to David Beers about another situation in which I was peripherally involved - as an attempt to try and act as a go-between in a similar brouhaha. I didn't even get the courtesy of a response. The issue ought to be important to a lot of others besides me, btw.

As I've already said, as clearly and emphatically as I can, the way the 'rules' are being enforced is simply not equitable. It you read both of those threads you'll know that I'm hardly the only one who feels this way. Free speech ought to be everyone’s concern – not just mine.

Something is, in my view, going on behind the scenes here at Tyee that makes me uncomfortable. Of course Coyote wasn't banned - the issue is one of selective one-sided and inconsistent editing.