 
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 2747
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 9:39 am: |    |
I woke up this morning thinking about the rag man. That made me remember him and the other vendors/collectors that used to roam our neighborhoods. They would go through the neighborhoods, calling out their trade as they passed. Does anyone else remember?
We had the rag man, who collected old clothes and rags. In my grandma's neighborhood, there was the scrap man. He had a horsedrawn cart that he would fill up with scrap metal and lumber and newspapers. We had a tinker, too, who pushed a handcart with a big grinding wheel. He would sharpen knives, lawn mower blades and tools, and fix pots and pans. |
Scs_scooter
Member
Username: Scs_scooter
Post Number: 118
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:23 am: | |
I remember the guy walking down the street, ringing a bell announcing that he sharpened knives. My Mom would always take out her favorite paring knife for him to sharpen. Funny how you remember crazy things like that. For crying out loud, that had to be over 40 years ago and I can't remember what I had for dinner last night! |
Slipkid
Member
Username: Slipkid
Post Number: 3
Registered: 11-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:29 am: | |
Not quite as arcane, but the milkman (we had a milkchute and got the milk in glass half gallons....until I dropped one) and the Good Humor man, he used to be outside Cooke Elementary in Rosedale Park.
I got yelled at for erasing parts of the chalk-like lettering he put on the side of his truck (cottage cheese on sale, etc.). |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 4802
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:53 am: | |
Don't forget the Awrey man, the fruit guy and Mr. Softee, the ice cream man.
We used to climb in the milkman's truck and 'steal' ice when it was hot out. We really thought we were getting away with something |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 2749
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 11:48 am: | |
Yes, I really miss the Awrey man, and the fruit guy, "Nice fresh strawberries, three quarts for a dollar!"
I just remembered another collection guy, the Parke-Davis man. He would go down the street in his Parke-Davis truck and pick up jugs of urine saved by pregnant ladies. I think they used it in some test or other. You could find out which ladies in the neighborhood were pregnant before it became obvious. I think they paid something like 50 cents for a quart jug. Of course, back then, 50 cents would buy a couple of quarts of milk, or loaves of bread, maybe a pound of butter. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 4806
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 11:53 am: | |
The thought of the Awrey's Long John Coffee Cake still makes my mouth water |
Zitro
Member
Username: Zitro
Post Number: 2426
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 11:59 am: | |
Our John Hancock insurance agent used to stop by every couple of weeks to pick up their premiums. I think policies back then were sold on a weekly premium basis. |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 969
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 11:59 am: | |
In our neighborhood was the knife sharpening man, the Twin Pines Dairy man, and Sam, the egg man. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 4807
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 12:01 pm: | |
'I am the eggman, I am the Walrus, coo coo catchu' |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 970
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 12:01 pm: | |
Speaking of Awreys, I remember a cake they used to make with nuts up the side and yellow butter cream frosting... Yummy. Not as good as Heinrich's Bakery, but it was a treat! |
Maof2
Member
Username: Maof2
Post Number: 1122
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 5:14 pm: | |
My dad was a fruit truck man. This was before I was born. Always worked hard to support his wife and four girls. Love and miss him.
I remember the knife man too. He always scared me.
Heard Awrey's is going out of business. Our Kroger store is selling Awrey products 1/2 off right now. My kids love the "windmill" cookies so i bought a boat load of 'em. |
Jams
Member
Username: Jams
Post Number: 9688
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 5:55 pm: | |
Odd, you brought this up.
Walking home the other day, I noticed the Calder Dairy milkman making his delivery to a home and started thinking about about all of those old-time door-to-door "professions" of my youth.
With today's job market, we might see those guys again.
Personally, I'd like to get a pony and go door-to-door photographing kids on its back for a couple of bucks. |
Girlygirl
Member
Username: Girlygirl
Post Number: 11
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 6:02 pm: | |
OMG, what memories.........The Long John Coffee cake. The nuts and the thick white icing....umm. My grandmother always had one of those, and the Almond Tea Ring on hand for the weekly family get togethers. And, my grandfather was out in the converted chicken coop serving up homemade wine to all the guys. Wonderful childhood memories. |
Dannyv
Member
Username: Dannyv
Post Number: 487
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 6:50 pm: | |
My life was saved by a passing milkman who noticed smoke pouring out a bedroom window of the house I was in. It was in all three newspapers. July 4, 1952, I was 6 months old. |
Flanders_field
Member
Username: Flanders_field
Post Number: 1324
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 7:03 pm: | |
My father bought those Long John Coffee Cakes that us kids would have with milk, yummm!!
Another Awreys? treat that I remember was called Spanish Bar Cake (or something similar) it had white icing and was two layers with chocolate and raisins in it.
Some "vendors" I remember was groups of us kids singing Christmas carols after Thanksgiving going door to door in the neighborhoods on snowy evenings, hoping for pop and candy money donations or perhaps a cup of hot chocolate in return for our "singing" talents. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3907
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 7:15 pm: | |
I remember 'em all. And how about the Jewel Tea Man? Besides tea, I think he sold kitchen wares and stuff.
And Grandma had an ice box. A REAL ice box. The ice man came every (other?) day and put a block of ice in it, and Grandma constantly dumped the melted result from a tray on the bottom. Me 'n the gang always raided the back of the ice truck for chips of ice in the summer. No treat was better! |
Detroitej72
Member
Username: Detroitej72
Post Number: 714
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 7:19 pm: | |
We had the knife sharpening guy come around 7 Mile and Gratiot as late as the mid-80's. He seemed ancient at the time and my parents said he looked the same as when they were kids.
There were a few older women on our street who still had the Twin Pines Man come by every morning. |
Flanders_field
Member
Username: Flanders_field
Post Number: 1325
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 7:32 pm: | |
quote:And Grandma had an ice box. A REAL ice box
I still have my late grandmother's old wooden icebox that my late father stripped the paint from and refinished. I use it as a liquor cabinet, and also store shot glasses, tumblers, and champagne/wine glasses in it. The icebox is very heavy, it must weigh around 150 lbs. |
Maof2
Member
Username: Maof2
Post Number: 1123
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 8:07 pm: | |
flanders - that is so cool. what a treasure. |
Stinger4me
Member
Username: Stinger4me
Post Number: 340
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 8:09 pm: | |
Does anyone else remember when Sander's had delivery men? |
Girlygirl
Member
Username: Girlygirl
Post Number: 12
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 8:31 pm: | |
Yes, I remember Sanders had delivery men too. I use to wait for my mother to get those date and nut bars, yummm, with a cold glass of milk. I was 6 or so at the time, born in 1954, so I remember them from back in the 60's. I also remember my mother hiding those date and nut bars as I would have rather ate one of those than my dinner at times. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 4076
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 8:38 pm: | |
Oh yeah Ray - the Jewel Tea Man. Now he came to my grandma's house in Virginia. That's where she got her complete set of dishes from. Jewel Tea did sell all kinds of housewares.
The knife sharpening guy would come to grandma's regular. She would not only pay him to sharpen her knives, but he'd get one of her homemade biscuits with homemade strawberry jam if he agreed to sharpen the scissors at no charge.
One of my uncles used to sell life insurance policies and go door to door picking up the premiums.
I remember the sheeny man in our Detroit neighborhood. He had a horse drawn wooden buggy and he'd go down the alley picking up whatever broken appliances or stuff that was there.
We had a Borden's milkman, and in nice weather there was the produce truck that would come around. Mom would give me 50 cents to get some of the fruits he was selling.
Anyone ever sell boxes of Christmas cards in order to make some cash for buying your own Christmas presents? I remember going around door to door with a sampler folder of all the cards the company sold. You could order the cards engraved. Our neighbors always ordered their cards from me. That was a lot of fun - like running my own business.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot - while we're on the Awrey's subject - anyone remember their German Chocolate Cake? That was their BEST cake - IMO The 2 layer one, not that little 8 inch flat cake. Wish I had their recipe for it.
(Message edited by eriedearie on November 25, 2008) |
Detroit_uke
Member
Username: Detroit_uke
Post Number: 34
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 9:18 pm: | |
Wow - talk about a blast to the past. I remember the Fuller Brush Man, the Sealtest milk man, the sheeny man - knife sharpening - collecting aluminum, string, etc. Would sharpen the lawnmower blades. The little Good Humor bicycles with their bells, the fruit truck and at least once every summer - the truck loaded with chairs and benches. For school fundraisers we would sell door to door - candy, jewelry, religious statues...arghhhhhhhhhhh. |
Luckycar
Member
Username: Luckycar
Post Number: 124
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 9:18 pm: | |
My grandfather was an Eastside sheeny man.Complete with horse and wagon.Dad was a scrap peddler,east and west side.Sold his "stuff",on the southwest side.No horses by then,trucks going down the alley. |
Huggybear
Member
Username: Huggybear
Post Number: 345
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 9:47 pm: | |
A "sheeny man" is a derogatory term for a Jewish person - maybe you already knew that, but if you didn't, verb. sap. sat. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 2753
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 9:59 pm: | |
We always called him the Scrap man. I never heard the other term. Maybe it depended on the neighborhood. Come to think of it, my grandparents lived just north of Boston-Edison in a substantially Jewish area at the time, so maybe that's why their guy was a scrap man. |
Flanders_field
Member
Username: Flanders_field
Post Number: 1326
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:36 pm: | |
On the NE side in Detroit during the winter in the 70s, there was a seasonal sidewalk snow clearing service available, their clients' were IDed with a 5' gray metal post in the ground with a piece of red reflective tape wrapped around the top. Their sidewalks were cleared by a jeep with a snowbrush roller attached to the front.
We kids in the neighborhoods would hitch or "shag" rides behind them, jumping on the bumper when the drivers lowered the brush to clear snow. Sometimes the drivers would stop and chase us away, but many let us have our fun, although there was a danger of one or more of us getting injured, especially on the sidewalk slabs that were lifted and/or broken by tree roots. |
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 488
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:44 pm: | |
"Georgia Peaches, get yer tasty tasty Georgia Peaches here!" ten second pause "STRAWberries! Made in Michigan sweet, succulent STRAWberries! 45 cents a grab, get 'em while you can." ten second pause "Ladies... I got Blueberries! Blueberries so blue they'll make ya wish ya was back home in the blueberry patch." ten second pause "Peaches! Peaches peaches peaches! Get yer..." yep. |
Luckycar
Member
Username: Luckycar
Post Number: 125
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 7:53 am: | |
Yes I know the the history of the term sheeny man,Huggybear.We're talking the the non-PC 1920s,so today he would have been the rag man or scrap dealer. |
Turkeycall
Member
Username: Turkeycall
Post Number: 82
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 8:22 am: | |
Those were the days. On Farmbrook we had milk delivered by Scweitzer's [which became Wilson's], Bulletmagnet's milk was delivered by Borden's, another neighbor down toward Chandler Park Drive has Twin Pines. Our neighbor two doors down had Rosebud.
Someone mentioned the photographer with the pony. I've got a picture stashed away someplace of my sister and me on a pony in front of our house. It was taken sometime between 1955 and 1957.
There was also a Stanley Home Products guy who used to come around the neighborhood. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 2754
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 9:46 am: | |
Oh, the pony man! I think he went everywhere. We all got our pictures taken in little western outfits on the pony in Brightmoor. I look terrified. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 4814
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 10:12 am: | |
Was it Stanley or Fuller Brush? We had the Fuller Brush man. |
Maof2
Member
Username: Maof2
Post Number: 1125
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 11:31 am: | |
sorry, it's not awrey's going out of business, it's archway.
j - we had the fuller brush man too. hear their still in business |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 4817
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 11:32 am: | |
Mao, they have an Outlet up in Maine that I was at a few years ago. They still make the best hairbrushes in the world. |
Detroitbred
Member
Username: Detroitbred
Post Number: 171
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 12:23 pm: | |
Growing up in the D, my neighbor drove an Awrey's truck and delivered to other neighborhoods. He eventually worked his way up through the ranks at Awrey's to become the first president of the company that was not a family member. He is gone now but those were goods ol' days. I make a stop at the Awrey's thrift store a couple times a month. My husband loves Long John coffee cakes, and we both love the date nut bars! I also remember the knife man, the pony / picture man, milk man, etc. |
Detroitbred
Member
Username: Detroitbred
Post Number: 172
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 12:25 pm: | |
Remember the Fuller Brush Man? And my elementary gym teacher use to sell vacuum cleaners door to door in the summer. |
Detroitbred
Member
Username: Detroitbred
Post Number: 173
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 12:27 pm: | |
Sorry, just read you already mentioned the brush guy! |
Melody
Member
Username: Melody
Post Number: 321
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 1:13 pm: | |
This is interesting, I've never seen any of this stuff (I'm 29). It kind of reminds me of a guy in my neighborhood who gathers the unclaimed pizzas and salads at Jet's about 20 minutes before they close and sells them to all the drunks in the nearby bars. He provides a great service to the community. |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 972
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 1:37 pm: | |
I have to dig up the photo of my Mom and her siblings. The youngest is seated on a pony, with the other kids standing around. There were 18 children in my mother's family. But only five or so in the photo... |
Bigb23
Member
Username: Bigb23
Post Number: 3008
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 1:53 pm: | |
18 kids ? Must have been an Irish Catholic family. |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 975
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 1:58 pm: | |
Catholic, but not Irish... ;-) |
Ct_alum
Member
Username: Ct_alum
Post Number: 30
Registered: 10-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 10:02 pm: | |
Remember Sealtest milk trucks and Mr. Softee on Ashland in the 60's, also the fruit vendors. Side note: One of my drafting teachers at Cass Tech (69-71) was E Ross Awrey. |