Donald Coffin
We interviewed Donald Coffin. He was
born in Brunswick, Maine. He lived on Bailey Island
for forty years. He had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. He
was the oldest of all the siblings. Their home
didn't have refrigeration, but they had electricity.
They refrigerated food with ice.
They kept the ice in the icehouse in the summer. Mr.
Coffin's profession was being an iceman. His father
and uncle were also icemen. He started this job as a
12 year old, working with his uncle, It was a fun
job, he said. They cut the ice in three foot by
two-foot blocks. They pulled the ice up with ropes
onto trucks. They then stacked up the ice in the
icehouse. They put ten inches of sawdust on the ice
to keep them cold. During the summer they would hose
down the ice to get them apart from each other,
After they were cleaned of sawdust they would take
them from house to house to sell them. They charged
customers either $.25 or $ .50 cents depending on
the size. If anyone needed ice they would put a sign
in the window for it. Mr. Coffin worked 2 -‑3 days a
week at $2.00 per day. He saved his money to buy a
bike. They used ice tongs to move the ice around.
They cut the ice with a handsaw. Sometimes they had
to lug the ice up to the 3rd floor.
Mr. Coffin had a garden and he grew
lots of vegetables. His dad also had a big garden.
They bought most of their food at the I.G.A. and A &
P store.
The groceries cost about $20.00 a
month. They did not have as much variety in their
food and not much fruit in the winter.
He went to school in Brunswick,
Maine. He went to a one-room school house. All the
grades, K‑6 were in one classroom. There were
between 15‑20 kids in the whole school. The good
thing was that if you were in 2nd grade you could do
3rd grade work if you were ready. He said his
teacher was very nice. He walked 3/4 of a mile to
school everyday.
His job, after being an iceman, was
being a truck driver. Truck driving could be
dangerous, because of blizzards. Once the snowdrifts
were as high as the telephone poles. Back then
trucks and cars could not go as fast. Going 15
M.P.H. was considered fast.
For fun, Mr. Coffin and his family
would do a lot of camping. They also did lots of
skating. There were NO TV’s! Living back then
sounded like it was very different.
