Today my altared space is having enough ice cubes to stand in. In this photo I’m at the county fair in a contest: who can stand there the longest. Today I’m pining for just one of these little confections of cold. Our ice maker broke.
For years I made ice in trays that I cracked open and filled into my glass one by one. Then I got a fridge that did that for me. I kept those trays for a LONG time just in case. But when years went by and just in case never came, I parted with those blue plastic dividers that turned water solid.
Now I need ice.
I’m thinking about Laura Ingalls Wilder. How she must have wanted some ice. The summers must have been so hot and sticky. Not a shower to be had and no cool faucet for her wrists. (Do you know this trick for cooling down in the summer?)
Almonzo, the boy that grows up to be Laura’s husband, had a different childhood. During the winter his family cut ice from the lake and put it in the ice house to have during the summer. They even made ice cream! I think about how he must have told his young wife these stories on hot evenings when the two of them couldn’t cool down and he’d tell her about the ice house of his youth.
I take for granted that the water that comes out of my well is icy cold. Frigid. It’s beauty confetti pouring straight out my sink after a walk down a dusty road. I drink it down and I’m refreshed. Almonzo worked in fields all day plowing slow with a horse and then came in to drink down a tepid glass of semi muddy water.
Some day soon my ice maker will be fixed. Even now I can have ice any time I want it by purchasing it for $2 down the road. I’m rich. Ice is all I want today.
How about you? Are there simple things you take for granted until they break or get lost? What everyday things enrich your life the most?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Last summer my dishwasher literally exploded, and man, did it suck.
Love that you immediately thought of Laura Ingall’s Wilder; I cut my teeth on those books and love them to this day.
and just how long did you stand in those little confections of cold? makes my feet hurt just thinking about it. i am completely spoiled by having an icemaker. completely. computer and cell phone, those things totally disrupt my pleasant nature when they go wonky. i wish they didn’t, but hey.
wholly jeanne ,
I have to admit…I didn’t win. Close, but no blue ribbon for me. It came down to two of us and an itty bitty buddy beat me out. How long? Long. But it was a hot day and, once the initial ouch wears off it takes a while for the real throbbing to set in.
On the bright side, it did keep me cool for well over an hour.