I haven't been out of the house since Friday Shopping and errands day but I was thinking of how many people would come knocking at your door in the 1950's or delivered regularly and it wasn't just someone with cookies! I actually bought something from the Fuller Brush man
in the early 1970/s, I was a teen and felt bad for this poor guy that was a blast from the past, even in the 70's. I let him in and let him show me everything in his case...the whole schpeal. I ended up buying a VERY expensive hair brush...way more than my poor paycheck could afford but hey...it was the Fuller Brush Man. Then of course there was....Ding Dong...Avon Calling
And my absolute Favorite..that didn't come to your door but made his presence known... all dressed in white! THE ICE CREAM MAN....or Good Humor Man, which ever, who cares it was what he sold that made you scream...they scream....we all scream for ice cream
I have 2 memories from the milk man...one was that I used our Milk box as a Barbie House, turned on its side using the lid as the door...Barbie had to bend at her waist to get into her home as it wasn't tall enough...That didn't seem like a problem to 5 year old me. And also going out to the Milkman's truck to ask for some ice. This was before refrigerated trucks and the milk crates used to be buried in shaved ice and milk would splash out of the bottles onto the ice. I hated the taste of that ice...but I kept thinking that one of these days it was going to taste like "Ice" Cream...I was young and dopey obviously.
Toasted Almond was my favorite Ice cream unless, of course, Mr. Softee came around
What great times these were...I love Lucy got talked into a Vacuum Cleaner sold door to door
and it seemed like there was always an Encyclopedia salesman along with Childcraft books
How About the Milk Man delivering Dairy products. We only ever got milk but I remember the list of things he COULD bring.
I have 2 memories from the milk man...one was that I used our Milk box as a Barbie House, turned on its side using the lid as the door...Barbie had to bend at her waist to get into her home as it wasn't tall enough...That didn't seem like a problem to 5 year old me. And also going out to the Milkman's truck to ask for some ice. This was before refrigerated trucks and the milk crates used to be buried in shaved ice and milk would splash out of the bottles onto the ice. I hated the taste of that ice...but I kept thinking that one of these days it was going to taste like "Ice" Cream...I was young and dopey obviously.
Am I forgetting any of the door to door or neighborhood sales people? Do you have any memories of these guys?
My 50's life is taking a bit of a turn with spring and a vegetable garden in the planning...I know that there was a lot of chemicals available to do your garden back then, but I grow organically so straying from the 50's in some instances for health reasons.
Okay...so please share if you like this and follow me either on my Greenley Acres Project blog or on Google + as we are coming to an end of this 50's experiment. My blog is basically following me as I plant a vegetable garden, can our produce, take care of chickens and honeybees and basically our homesteading life. I will be posting how to videos with sewing and baking later on also.
We had a milkman and the Fuller Brush man, but also a meat man and the Jewel Tea man. We lived in a small development outside of town, so nothing was close by. The meat truck would come with meat and also fresh produce in season. The Jewel Tea man had a truck with all kinds of stuff that you could order one week and he'd bring it the next. And yes, the Avon lady, and newspapers were delivered by a boy on a bike who came and collected the week's money once a week (my brother had this job for years!). And the ice cream truck! Gosh, it seems everything came to us!
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I think it was the answer to the suburbs and the one car families. My brother also had a paper route. I helped him once and thought it was too much work. Lazy kid that I was. :)
DeleteWe had a milkman, and an ice cream man (of course!), and my widowed mother sold World Book Encyclopedias and Childcraft. I understand that the late Evangelist, Billy Graham was a Fuller Brush Man when he was young : ) Thanks for a lovely post!
ReplyDeleteWorld book and child raft were the best! My kids grew up with both. I didn’t know that Billy Graham was a Fuller Brush Salesman, that is super interesting. I actually wondered if these guys could have made a decent living doing this. And I am glad you enjoyed the post, I still add on occasion and actually miss the simple month I lived during it.
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