Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Los Gatos Weekly-Times file illustration

In the days before refrigerators, people hung signs on their front porches indicating by the number at the top how many pounds of ice they needed for their iceboxes.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Icemen were most popular of many important vendors

Of all the vendors who rolled through Los Gatos' residential streets early in this century, the most popular was the "iceman," who had his eye out for diamond-shaped ice-block indicator signs hanging on nails in front of customers' homes.

The iceman would stop, go to the back of his truck and use tongs to pull out a suitcase-shaped piece of ice. He then used a pick to cut off a hunk of the indicated weight, rest the ice on his leather-covered shoulder, walk it to the back porch of the residence and drop it into the top compartment of the icebox. Under the icebox, there was a deep pan to catch the drippings from the ice.

The iceman was particularly popular with children, who surrounded him at work knowing that he would distribute ice chips to his young admirers.

Icemen grew even taller in stature in the 1920s, when Harold Edward "Red" Grange led the Illinois football team to an undefeated season. The Galloping Ghost, as Grange became known, was also called the Wheaton Iceman because of his summer job in his Illinois hometown.

A few months ago, Los Gatos lost its last iceman, Anthony "Tony" Belillo, who with brother Vince purchased the local Union Ice Delivery company from the Shore family. The Belillo brothers serviced Los Gatos, Saratoga and Campbell. After his brother's death, Tony continued servicing ice machines in various parts of town. His last coin-operated icebox was located on the northeast corner of N. Santa Cruz Avenue, next to the old Lou Sporleder Shell Station.

The busiest of the rolling venders, however, was the milkman, who delivered bottles of fresh milk to many customers early in the morning. Cream by nature rose to the neck of the bottle, making it easy for the housewife to pour into a container of her choice. In cold parts of the nation, metropolitan newspapers saw a photo opportunity when freezing temps forced the milk several inches above the top of the bottle, with the hard paper milk top sitting on top. The tops were cherished by children as "lags" when playing hopscotch. The tops later became collector's items.

Other merchants who worked the neighborhoods were the fruit-and-vegetable man, the bakery-goods man and the Tamale Lady, a woman of Hispanic descent who used a pushcart to serve her customers.

Housewives were particularly pleased that the fruit-and-vegetable man made regular calls, because it gave them a chance to appraise and select their purchases. Home-delivered baked goods were popular with women buyers for the same reason.

Noisiest of the vendors was the man who shouted "Any rags, bottles, sacks?" He was a forerunner of Green Valley Disposal of Los Gatos, the firm that provides colorful recycling containers for paper, plastics and glass. We now wheel these containers to the curbside for weekly pickup by Green Valley personnel.

Of all the vendors who have worked the neighborhoods, there is one who was often despised, at least by mothers of small children. He was the Good Humor Man, with an ice cream truck that emitted jolly music in the early evening. Small children just put to bed for the night would raise the covers and hell to get out of the house. For mothers it was a power struggle that children often won.

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