RAMBLINGS
By Pat (Koziuk) Driscoll, '56
With the price of gas well over $4.00 a gallon, my memory goes back to my childhood days. Not every family had a car and it was very unusual to have 2 cars in a family. So the merchants came to the customers.
Many of the milkmen also delivered bread, eggs and sometimes cakes and donuts.
The Good Humor man was around every afternoon with ice cream.
The produce man drove a flat bed truck outfitted to carry his products and sang a song as he drove along the streets, chanting the things he had on the truck that evening.
The insurance man came to the house to collect the premiums and also write new policies.
There was a man who peddled notions door-to-door. He always wore a suit and a bow tie and a hat to tip to the ladies, no matter how hot it was. My grandmother always bought something from him, even though she really didn't need any more needles or shoe laces because there was a drawer full of them in the house.
Bleach was delivered by the gallon right to your door. But it was called something else Givelle Water or something sounding like that.
Of course there was the Fuller Brush Man and the Avon Lady and many vacuum salesmen.
Then there was the chicken truck delivering Chicken Delight. It really did look like a chicken. Remember the jingle on the radio - "Don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight?"
There were no pizza deliveries in those days because pizza hadn't caught on yet. Only the Italian families knew about pizza.
I remember the cookware salesman preparing a complete dinner for my mother and her friends to demonstrate the latest pots and pans. He cooked a beef roast and Spanish rice and side dishes right on Mom's stove. She did buy a set and they lasted until her death. My sister and I looked for them after her death, but they disappeared.
Ah, yes, the good old days when gas was 25 cents a gallon. When it rained, the rain was pure - no acid rains in those days. Father knew best and Madison Ave. hadn't turned him into a whimp in all the commercials! Manners were in fashion and boys never swore in front of girls.
Pat...
Your memory lane article...how about the guy that sharpened your knives and scissors?
And I remember getting seltzer delivered each week and we used to make different flavored seltzer by mixing in syrups. And mixing in ice cream, too!!
And how about the doctors that used to make house calls.
I can remember my dad calling me when he worked at a drug store in Bayside to pick up a prescription or two and deliver them to customers in Springfield Gardens. I did that on my bike.
And you're correct about the swearing...girls never did. Now their favorite word begins with an "F."
Bob Casale
Pictures of Broadway in Hicksville
1909
1909
1930s
1966
