Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If you do you are very old. Back in the 1930s 40s and before people had ice boxes since refrigeration had not been invented then. So ice-men would come into a persons neighborhood and if he saw a sign in the window with the word 'ice' he would bring a chunk of ice into your house and put it into the ice-box and on the way out he would take the money left on the kitchen table for him and leave. Of course people didn't lock their doors back then because there was no need to. People left their house in the morning with the door unlocked and didn't come home until supper time and didn't have one worry that anyone would come into their house. And that was in cities like Chicago, N.Y., LA and every town and city in the U.S.A. After the ice-man came the milk man would come into your house and put milk in your refrigerature and on the way out take what money you owed him off the table. Can you imagine what those days must have been like? That isn't to say that there weren't some disadvantages compared to now, I know there were. Brick layers made a dollar a day back then and they could get fired in a minute. If a guy got sick and couldn't come to work he was done as far as that job was concerned. Women didn't have rights back then like they do now etc. Blacks and homosexuals didn't have rights like now either. So it was two sided. People didn't have rights like they do now. There is a documentary that is shown on channel 11 Chicago once a year titled 'Remembering Chicago' where they interview people who grew up in the 1930s. This one lady interviewed said on a hot summer night she would walk down to the nearest park in her pajamas with a pillow and blanket and sleep in the park without one thought that someone would do her harm. And a person could do that in any park in Chicago. Hard to imagine now. I am wondering how many people would trade the rights that we have today for the safety etc. of the 1930s.
I do remember the "Alpenrose" man. Fresh milk, cheese and other items. But that's an old PNW bygone era...
On Long Island in the mid 60s, we had the milk man who picked up used bottles and left fresh ones. We also had the diaper man who came and picked up the dirty diapers and returned them clean. Must have been a stinky job. Not sure how either of these services got paid.
On Long Island in the mid 60s, we had the milk man who picked up used bottles and left fresh ones. We also had the diaper man who came and picked up the dirty diapers and returned them clean. Must have been a stinky job. Not sure how either of these services got paid.
Diaper service was a luxury that we only had on vacation where there was no washing machine. They came in a little squarish truck like the milkman and the breadman. I have no idea how they got paid either.
As a small boy I remember looking out my window and seeing a man plowing a field with two horses...I also remember an old man named George who rode around in a wagon pulled by a horse selling vegetables...plus when I went to the city ...I saw horses with rubber shoes that pulled milk wagons.
The milk man would get out and deliver the milk...the horse was smart and moved on to the next house on his own. Lastly...My father back in old Russia was one of the last people to train with a sword on horse back...He showed me the basic moves...it was swing slash swing slash pierce...it was a rhythm.
Oh before I forget. When I was small there were the Grimleys who had the cottage next door...Mister Grimley was in his 90s...he actually fought in the Boer war in Africa...I am only 66- but I actually got to see part of the last century...or the last traces of it.
Remember the garbage trucks...All garbage went into those tin garbage cans. One man would stand in the truck on top of the heap of trash and the guy on the ground would toss the can up. Talk about being strong and dealing with intense labour.
The other faint memory I have was going into the black smiths shop with my dad. I remember the forge burning and a big arm with a hammer pounding hot metal.
Years later as a teenager I would make a few extra dollars collecting semi-precious scrap metal. I remembered approximately where the black smith use to be. All that was there was a thicket of trees and bushes....I dug around and came up with a couple of hundred dollars in scrap copper and brass.
I don't think our diaper service was considered luxury. We didn't have much money
. Our ranch style house in 1965 cost $17,000. We also had a knife sharpening truck that used to come. All the kids would be disappointed that it wasn't an ice cream truck when we ran out to the ringing bells. Lastly, we used to have carnival rides that used to come down our street on huge trucks.
Those of you who lived in the NYC metro area in the '50s & '60s will probably remember the Dugan's Bakery trucks that drove along residential streets. The driver would come to people's back doors with a large basket of that day's wares from which to select, and the convenience of having decent-quality baked goods delivered to your door was very nice. I'm sure that my taste preferences were influenced by my young age at the time, but I thought of Dugan's Jelly Roll as being a little bit of heaven.
Toward the end of their existence, the Dugan's company even tried radio advertising, and I think that their slogan was pretty good. Their slogan was... Thomas' promises, but Dugan's delivers!
Ice delivery went away around here in the mid 50's. We didn't have it as we had the "modern" gas refrigerator. Looked like a futuristic satellite on top of the frig. The freezer was about 12" wide, maybe 14" tall and had it's own door inside the frig. Looked just like the electric model we got later on. The electric was a Coldspot and lasted until just a couple of years ago. That's when they made things to last. At that time, nobody had ever heard of frost free and a couple of times a year you had to defrost the thing by hand. Mom would place pots of boiling water in the freezer section with the unit off to soften it up. Then she would use a screw driver to pry the chunks of ice off of the freezer unit which also cooled the frig section. Was a major pain in the ..... Some folks would use an ice pick to break up the ice....until they managed to stab a coolant line and then get to buy a new frig.
We had milk delivery until 1960. It was by Carnation Milk Company. Prior to that was a local dairy called Knowltons. The Knowltons was the absolute sweetest and best milk ever but then Bordens bought them out and it was Bordens crap. We had the milk carton box on the front porch and mom would put her order in the box. The delivery guy would leave whatever she wanted and pickup the old bottles. Got pure cream that way too. It was a hit as homemade whipped cream on top of strawberry shortcake. It was always a major treat when mom would order a quart of store bought chocolate milk. The Bosco or Ovaltine just wasn't as good. Still have 2 of the Carnation Milk boxes. They make a great step stool.
Brings back memories... we had a very similar refrigerator that had to be manually defrosted and had a small freezer inside. It was from the late 1950s and definitely had that "Cadillac" look. When I was about 10 or so, mom decided to replace it with a modern design. It would likely still work to this day if she kept it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
