Over the weekend we cleaned out all of our freezers. Even though I hate to admit it, sometimes things get left in there beyond the should eat date and have to be discarded.
Both our stand up freezers are old, but one is quite old. It still needs to be defrosted at least once a year to get rid of ice build up.
After the ice begins to thaw we usually try to speed up the process by trying to gently knock it out.
As I worked on the freezer an old memory came sliding back into my brain.
When I was a child and stayed with Mamaw Wilson she would sometimes let us eat ice build up from her freezer.
Mamaw Marie and Papaw Wade had an upright freezer in one of their back bedrooms. I remember Mamaw using a spoon to scrape ice out of the freezer for me to eat in a cup as a treat.
Looking back I can’t imagine the ice was especially tasty, but the sudden memory of Mamaw scraping it off for me sure made me feel good!
Tipper
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15 Comments
Becky
February 24, 2021 at 9:36 pmyep…once we got electricity…or when i went to granny’s…
Judy
February 24, 2021 at 6:56 pmI did once when I was a young girl on a very hot day and I recall it not tasting very good but it did cool us kids down a bit.
Gina Smith
February 24, 2021 at 2:03 pmTo us kids it was like making a snow cone which was a rare treat.
Ed Ammons
February 24, 2021 at 9:47 amNo! Yuck! I always thought the inside of a freezer smelled disgusting. Especially when you’re cleaning it out. Of course I would probably have eaten it as a child. Little kids will eat anything. Especially something that’s not good for them. But I was a teenager when we got a freezer. We got a refrigerator when I was 8 or 9 but the freezer part wasn’t big enough to hold much more that the aluminum ice cube trays that came with it. It had to be thawed about once a week I think.
Shirl
February 24, 2021 at 9:13 amMy parents didn’t have a freezer when I was a child. The top of the fridge had a small freezer that held metal ice trays and not much else. I didn’t eat the ice scrapings but I loved to crush a cube of ice and eat it until my mouth got numb.
Margie Goldstein
February 24, 2021 at 8:34 amI took mommy’s hand crank wall mounted ice shaver and shoved soap in there while no one was around. (Yep I junked it.) I ate ice from the freezer’s ice buildup and snow and whatever else I fancied to be eaten or tasted and here you and me are alive after all the ice eating from freezers!!! I think kids need a few weird dietary “supplements” just to be “normal!” Who wudda thunk it?????
Randy
February 24, 2021 at 7:58 amYes, I have done this, also reminds me that we have a freezer that we need to defrost. Before automatic ice makers, we would stick our tongues to the metal ice trays if we could without mama seeing us. One of my neighbors boy did this and his tongue stuck to the tray causing him to loose some skin on his tongue.
Do you ever wonder how we survived childhood. I’m sure some of these expert health officials would tells us this is another one of the things that is dangerous and will cause us to have health problems in the future.
Gene Smith
February 24, 2021 at 9:26 amI stuck my tongue to a frosty railroad rail once, on the way to school. Yes, the other kids laughed and kept walking. I knew I had to pull free, no matter what, so I did. It hurt like the devil, as I knew it would, and bled a good bit, but I went on to school. You can bet I never did it again.
Miss Cindy
February 24, 2021 at 7:23 amI can’t say that I have eaten the frost out of the refrigerators but I can remember when freezers had to be defrosted regularly. It was just part of life and it was a really big deal when they started making frost free refrigerators!
Rose Ann Burgess
February 24, 2021 at 7:18 amNo, I never got to eat freezer ice. For some reason momma and granny sullens both would tell us “No.. you can’t eat it cause it will make you real sick.” So I grew up thinking that if I ate it I would get sick and die!! I reckon I thought it was poisoned or something.
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Wanda Devers
February 24, 2021 at 11:29 amYes! They said we would get polio!
Doug Bishop
February 24, 2021 at 7:12 amOn a hot summer day freezer ice was a treat !
Melinda
February 24, 2021 at 6:37 amStaci, you are the first person outside of my husband that I’ve heard using the term, ‘dippy eggs’! His home was west central Illinois. His ancestors were from York Co. PA. Didn’t get to the breakfast post yesterday so I’ll comment on that one late.
He loved gravy, especially made with PA Bologna (sold as Lebanon Bologna sometimes). I thought it smelled strongly like medicine – maybe from the curing ?
Fried mush & once in a while souse were on his yummy list but the other favorite was Scrapple.
When my kids were young & we visited their grandparents in their ‘snowbird’ home in Florida we learned to like grits…sometimes with butter or syrup or honey.
Staci
February 25, 2021 at 8:14 amMelinda, I’m originally from SWPA, on the West Virginia line. I thought dippy eggs might have been a term of food endearment used for children as I’ve heard “sunny side up” regularly between adults. I use the term at home but not when ordering in a restaurant.
Scrapple and souse often graced table but not Lebanon bologna.
Researched “dippy eggs”, seems to have originated from the PA Dutch.
Staci
February 24, 2021 at 6:04 amYes, as a child, and what a treat I thought it was back then. Since then I’ve tried it again as a young adult and it was disgusting! The dogs never seem to mind though, they always come a running when they hear scraping the frost.