Cowgirl V: Kool-Aid, The Egg Man & Unmentionables!

 

Kool aid ad with mom

Summers in the late fifties and early sixties were slow paced and hot.  We played outside all day long, coming in only to eat and then back outdoors again to play games and catch lightening bugs til bedtime.  Running barefoot through the sprinkler to cool off, moms made Kool-Aid for us to drink, and we ate watermelon on the backyard picnic table.  Great memories of growing up in the 50’s and 60’s--  except the nights when it was too hot to sleep before air conditioning!

 

Jewel Tea man

 

This was the last generation to see door to door peddlers, as most mothers were working at home instead of the office.  I barely remember the Standard Coffee salesman, and am a little too young to remember the Jewel Tea man, who sold loose tea in vintage tins like this, but this was the day before the large grocery stores.

 

vintage tea tins

 

How well I  remember the milkman (yes, milk tasted SO much better in the glass gallon jugs from Prickett Dairy), who delivered milk to our door several days a week.  We also had an Avon lady, and the old farmer who sold eggs and vegetables door to door in the summer.

dozen_eggs

 

My dad worked nights at the town newspaper, so he was always home during the day.  This was great for my sister and I to spend more time with him during the summer, but the evenings were pretty lonely and my mother never felt safe at night.  I remember her always hearing sounds in the night and looking out the window.

 

woman peeping out the window

 

The egg man would come to our house once a week with his offerings of eggs and whatever happened to be producing in his garden that week. I remember him as an older man with grey hair. The quintessential farmer, he always wore overalls and a straw hat!  My parents always visited with him and regularly bought eggs  and whatever vegetables he had out in his truck.  Sometimes it would be corn, tomatoes, green beans or peas; we ate from the bounty of his garden.

 

0511-0903-2002-4323_Old_Farmer_Holding_a_Hoe_clipart_image

Then one year when summer was almost over, my mom received what she called an “obscene phone call!”  She was convinced that it was the egg man!  Apparently the anonymous caller inquired as to whether she was missing any “unmentionables” from the clothesline!  Yes, she was certain that she was missing some bras and panties, she told my dad. Perhaps the voice was familiar, but she was sure that it had to be someone who knew my dad’s unusual work schedule. The caller never called again, and there was no evidence it was the genial old farmer, but……we never saw him again.  It was the last summer he ever came to our house.  So I wonder to this day, WAS  the lingerie thief the familiar egg man who visited our home for several years?

 

mother and kathy & the clothesline

Yes, this is my mother and sister standing in our backyard in front of THE clothesline that probably had some unmentionables hanging on it for all to see!  I can barely see C’s swing set in the background!  This was before a fence separated our backyards.  I forgot to ask C if her mom ever bought anything from the egg man!

Comments

KathySue said…
Oh, I had almost forgotten the dreadful "obscene phone call" and you certainly recall more details than I do! It really disturbed mother and we all felt the consequences of what someone probably thought was a harmless prank! I do recall the egg man but the Avon lady was the one I looked forward to. I loved looking over her samples and getting to select a tiny lipstick or packet of lotion! That was such a treat! And summers filled with Kool-Aid and hours and hours of imaginative play interrupted by beckoning parents to come home to eat or bathe! Boy has life changed!
Anonymous said…
Aunt V,
It's such a treat to read your posts. I really enjoy your stories. Happy summer!
J
Suzanne said…
Oh the memories! We didn't have an egg man but we had milk delivery and a bread man. The families only had one car in those days and the women were stuck at home during the day, unable to run out to the grocery store, so they delivered!

We still have a dairy that does home delivery in GLASS BOTTLES. Unfortunately, the cost comes out to $7.50 per gallon. We might just do that if we didn't go through so much milk.

When we moved closer to the city we had a man who walked the streets sharpening knives. In the summertime we could hear the DING-DONG-DING of the bell attached to his cart. The women would come out of their houses to have their knives and scissors sharpened. It was an integeral part of summer - that knife sharpening man!
You brought back memories, from start to finish. I've a lot of those tea tins but had forgotten how they were sold. As to the obscene phone call... didn't every woman receive one or two of those? Seemed like it was some geezer's job to get their jollies frightening some poor woman to death. An iron frying pan and tire iron would have worked wonders! -smile-
It was the egg man!!!!!!
I remember the Fuller Brush man, and door to door portraits. The photographer would come to your home to take family photos.
I remember eating Cheerios and then heading outside for the days adventures. We wore cut off pants and bare feet, explored all the live long day. We would make it back by dark, wolf down some dinner and maybe have a bath, before collapsing into our bunkbeds.
And the heat!
Good times, thanks for the memories :)
kath001 said…
I don't remember any home deliveries, but then my mother was ahead of her time and had a career. I do remember going to a turkey farm and ordering our Thanksgiving bird, and going directly to the farm to buy bushels of cucumbers for her to make pickles and tomatoes for her to can and preserve. I cannot figure out how she found the time to do the daily from-scratch cooking much less all the extras she did for us.
Vee said…
Oh funny story! I hope that it wasn't the egg man, but it certainly could've been.

As for milk bottles, I've got an order in for some right now. Yes, I'm switching back to glass for both milk and cream. I don't know if it will taste better.

We had a milk man, a bread man, a Fuller brush man, an Avon lady, and a vegetable man. No eggs. We traveled to the chicken farm for them.
Jody Blue said…
Being creeped on like that is so unsettling, that had to behard for your Mom. I hang our clotes out in the summer, but never anyones unmentionables. When I hang out my pajama's I hang them on the middle lines so they are a bit hidden. I took my que from our dog who growls at a neighbor and walks a perimeter around around me when I'm out side and the only one home when said neighbor is out and about.

We drank gallons of kool-aid every summer, and even the middle of MN is hot as can be mid summer with no air. Hot summer days, oh so fun...hot summer nights...not so much.
remember those metal tumblers from which we drank our Kool Aid - or tupperware tumblers? C
oldgreymare said…
my childhood summers exactly the same.
Our neighbor still had a fridge that required blocks of ice so we had an Ice man also and he would give us small chunks to suck on.

I try to convey to my kids the glory of those summers, something they missed and will never know. Sad isn't it? My kids never climbed a tree or had a tire swing or walked a mile to the gas station to pay a dime for an icey cold pop out of the machine out front, only to walk the mile back home again.

what we have gained in technology and science we have lost in innocence and simplicity...and in so many other ways..sigh..
xx
z

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