Just remembering old
stuff
Not much happening in the Cranky
home, nothing worth posting. I let my
mind go and I start to wax nostalgia.
Not the good old days, not the bad old days, just days gone by…different
times.
Remember
deliveries? Today we get deliveries of
stuff we buy on-line. Seems like every
day or two there is a package left outside our front door. In the fifties and sixties, I remember other
deliveries.
The milk man
left milk and butter and eggs. Delivery was
regular, every day…we drank a lot of milk.
We would leave a note if the regular order needed changing. The milk was whole or skim. I don’t remember any percent milk. Sometimes whole had the cream on top and you
had to shake it up. In the spring the milk
had a slight onion taste…I guess the cows were eaten onion weed. The milk bottles were left in a metal box
with a lid. Used bottles went in the box
and they were exchanged for new bottles at around four in the morning.
Mom didn’t
go to the dry cleaner, that was picked up and dropped off. Shirts came on a hanger with a cardboard sleeve
on the bottom of the metal hanger. That
cardboard thing and the metal hanger made for great bow and arrow fights, who
needed nerf guns?
Beer and
soda were delivered. We had an old
fridge in the garage, the delivery guy just opened the garage door and left the
order in the fridge.
Doctors
still made house calls in the fifties, but it was rare. I remember a doctor visit when my brothers
and I had the mumps. That was another
thing that was delivered, measles, mumps, rubella (German Measles) and chicken
pocks.
I think
there was a grocery delivery too, at least for some of the fifties. Mom just called it in and paid at the door.
Shoes, do
they still have those foot sizing things and a salesman with that stool where
you put your foot? Seems like today you
just know your size and pull out different shoes to try on without a sales
person.
You made a
car appointment at the local service station to get a lube, change your oil and
filters, a lot of dads knew how to do it themselves. I even remember changing spark plugs and
sizing the gap. Do cars still use those
things?
We did mow
our own lawns, no service for that unless you were really hoity toity. We had a reel push mower and then later a
power mower that you started with a wrap around rope. It took several pulls and you had to know how
to work the choke. Landscaping was
usually just a few bushes that needed an occasional trimming.
We had a
clothes dryer, but mom preferred the outside clothes hanger, outdoor drying
just made the clothes smell better.
No cable TV,
everyone had an antenna on the roof or rabbit ears on the set. Football did not broadcast NFL games if your
local team was playing at home. When the
Giants played Philly, Dad would go up on the roof and turn the antennae toward
Philly. He’d be yelling “Better now?”
until we got maximum reception, always snowy, but we got the game.
Winters were
definitely colder in the fifties and sixties.
Every winter there was ice skating on local ponds for at least one week,
sometimes two weeks. Strangly I remember
the summers being hotter than today, lots of 100-degree days…might just be
because air conditioning was pretty much only in the supermarket or the movie
theater.
That’s
it. Oh I have more memories, this post is
just long enough for now.
What stuff
do you remember?
Charles Chips delivered, too. We really liked that.
ReplyDeleteDang! We didn't get any cool stuff delivered. Except the Sunday paper. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. There was another paper then, the Globe-Democrat, I think, but my grandpa was a Post-Dispatch reader. He'd leave two quarters on the concrete post at the top of his porch steps overnight, and the paper man would leave the paper. We lived next door, and I loved running over to take in Grandpa's paper before church. He peeled the funnies out to let me read them first.
ReplyDeleteWhen we went camping, we stopped to buy a giant block of ice. Dad put money in, and the block slid down a metal chute to us. I still don't know how that worked. It came right out of the wall. Maybe someone inside hoisted it into the chute with those pointy ice tong thingies. Or maybe that's like when I thought actors were inside the TV.
Teeny tiny actors that our dog barked at thinking they were intruders.
DeleteWhere would I be now if there were no deliveries!! Now it's a case of pick up the phone and Voila! Delivered! And thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember the Nickle's Bakery man going door to door with a big tray that he wore with a strap around his neck.
ReplyDeleteWe had the Helm's Bakery truck drive by every day!!
DeleteThank you for this trip down memory lane. How similar we are in the UK and USA.
ReplyDeleteWe too had milk and dairy products delivered every day. We rinsed the empty bottles and the milkman collected them for replenishment. We had fruit and vegetables delivered once a week. And groceries. Also beer and lemonades bottles. Fresh fish. And bread. The bread van came daily and the bread was wrapped in wax paper with the day written on it: Monday ... Tuesday ... etc to show it is fresh.
Doctors used to visit at home also.
I also remember very hot summers too. Sometimes 45*C in the shade. I was clever and did not stay in the shade.
Thanx Joe. God bless.
Oh my goodness all that - milk, dry cleaner plus Dugan's Bakery, the crystalline man (delivered laundry bleach), seltzer guy, and the periodic visits of the 'rag' man and the knife sharpener guy - came through the neighborhood with their trucks and their bells and calling out their services. Knife sharpener guy would also do lawn mowers. And hey, remember when the insurance man would come every month to pick up the premium payments. Yes, definitely doctors did house calls. Now we have Amazon - it's just not the same.
ReplyDeleteQuite a trip. I only remember the milk and an occasional doctor. Look at all those jobs that deliveries created. Of course all those kids that looked a bit like the milk man were maybe an unwelcome byproduct?
ReplyDeleteEverything is so true. That "Better now?" had to happen very frequently especially when a crow sits and takes off from the antenna. If its an eagle you had it.
ReplyDeleteMy mother in law still swears by "that smell of drying in the sun"
I remember milk deliveries, hearing the bottles clinking as they were placed on verandahs, newspaper deliveries, well, that still happens and I remember the baker with his horse and cart and the wonderful fresh bread smell of the loaves and rolls, the currant buns. There used to be a greengrocer too, with his truck of fruits and vegetables, they all disappeared when supermarkets became more popular, then in the 70s while living in a different state, there was the greengrocer truck again, because the supermarkets in that area were so far away, I think and there was a baker but with a van instead of the old horse and cart, he only came around once a week I think, but my baby daughter learned which day and would toddle outside to wait for him because I always bought her a currant bun.
ReplyDeleteI remember no one had a clothes dryer, we all had lines out the back, most of us had the Hills Hoist style while a few still had three or four long lines stretching the length of the back yard, from laundry wall to chook house. I also remember great excitement when televisions arrived and groups of neighbours would gather in the house of the lucky owner to watch important things like the Queen's Message on new Year's Eve and the Christmas pageant.
I do remember the milk man, the bread man, the ice man, the watkins and fuller brush men, grocery delivery, dry cleaner delivery...oh yes...those were the days.
ReplyDeleteMilk delivery was a must since my folks moved to the "sticks" from Chicago city life. I remember a few broken milk bottles when it was cold outside and they accidentally hit together...or they were semi-frozen if not brought in on time. The icecream man was always a fav in the neighborhood. We hardly ever watched TV in the Summer. We were outdoors until after dark but had to be home for dinner when the 6 o'clock whistle went off at the fire station. Yep, many memories and somehow it all seemed easier. Time heals all wounds!
ReplyDeleteI remember beer deliveries (not milk) and the chimney sweep stopping by houses to see if they needed their chimney swept.
ReplyDelete