Your name is Smith? Welcome to the club, here is your T-shirt! One of the most common aliases ever used was originally an occupation. In old England, unless you were landed gentry, your occupation often became your surname. Skilled craftsmen handed down their knowledge to their sons. In England, you can often track your bloodline if your family were all blacksmiths. A SMITH was a general term for any metal worker. BLACKSMITHS were a bit more specialized in iron work. A FARRIER was even more specialized in horseshoeing. Although these are old English terms, these professions are still vitally needed, even in our high-tech world today. This week, I thought I might throw out some professional names that have disappeared with time. ICE CUTTERS used to saw ice from frozen rivers and lakes with giant hand saws. The blocks of ice would be stored in ice houses and packed in layers of sawdust for insulation. Think of Olaf in the movie, Frozen, which has songs my granddaughter has memorized. The ICEMAN would then deliver the blocks in urban areas on a regular route. The lady of the house would often display a placard in the window telling the ICEMAN how big a block she needed. Thus, saving a back breaking trip with a 50-pound block when a smaller one would suffice. The ICEMAN would load the block into an icebox to keep perishable items longer. It all worked well until someone forgot to empty the drip pan under the icebox. Imagine sneaking barefoot into a dark kitchen for a snack and stepping in a cold puddle of water! TELEGRAPH OPERATORS Were instrumental in communications across the country. Train operations would have been very dangerous without these Morse code dots and dashes spelling out words. Next came TELEPHONE OPERATORS who were needed to connect wires to complete calls before dial up phones were invented. They, too, are gone too now. I should explain to the iPhone generation, that my generation had to put a finger or pencil into a round wheel with 10 digits and twist the wheel for each number in the phone number, usually six digits: six twists assuming you first checked your party line to see if it was available to use. Each number on the dial was associated with three letters of the alphabet. I still have no clue why! It is even harder to explain party lines. They had nothing to do with party, as in fun gathering. They were a wonderful tool for your nosy neighbors to collect gossip. Thinking back on all this, I now believe Alexander Graham Bell was having a great laugh at our expense. After creating all this chaos, he probably changed his name to SMITH so he could have an unlisted number with a one-party line. But of course, being rich at our expense, he may have used SMYTHE
By ED PECK – Special to the Herald Times
Special to the Herald Times
