A Little Ice...

This is a story about an Ice Machine.  An ice machine you say, what could possibly be interesting about an ice machine?    Well, this little maker of ice lives in the basement of the old Connolly’s, soon to be the Birdsall house.  The first my attention was drawn to the machine was during an early inspection of the space with our then soon to be landlords.  One of the Connolly’s pointed in the direction of what appeared to be the oldest and dirtiest looking machine I had ever seen and announced that everything in the space works except that.  The ice machine had panels missing, parts hanging off and dirt that seemed to have been built up since the space was an A&P back in the early 1900’s.  I was already calculating how hard it would be to carry it up the stairs and heave in the trash pile in the back yard.  Enter Tim Reinke, my business partner and mechanical engineer extraordinaire.   When Tim said he could fix the old ice relic every nerve in my body screamed NO!!!! TRASH!!!!  But I have seen Tim take an old Mercedes that probably shouldn’t have even been on the road in the first place and take it apart, put back together and drive for several years.

So against my better judgment I shut-up and let Tim do his thing.  Or I should say I shut up a little bit and let Tim do his thing.  I am happy to say that our little ice maker that could is almost up and running.  Our little ice factory is no longer an eye sore.  It is no longer a cause for stress.  Instead it has become a symbol of what we can do with what we have.  And In a way I think of Peekskill when I ponder the ice machine.  Peekskill is old and it has 100 years of dirt and grime still stuck to it in places.  But just like the Birdsall boys and their little ice maker I see people all over Peekskill washing the dirt away and making something old new again. 

-Johnny