Looking through some old photos reminded me of four things from my childhood that have vanished.

[Binkie The Clown]

1. The morning visit from the milkman.
2. The Good Humor man riding his three-wheel bicycle with ice cream and popsicles in the cold chest.
3. The Helms Bakery truck that would cruise slowly down the street as moms came running out to buy fresh bread.
4. The iceman, for the dwindling number of homes that didn't yet have electric refrigeration. He used to chip us off big chunks of ice and give them to us kids wrapped in those coarse brown paper towels they used to make.

[Chipper Chat]

1. I had forgotten about the free ice chunks.

Oh to be 4 again.

[BamaRefugee]

2. We used to run in the fog behind mosquito control trucks in Florida that were spraying straight DDT!

I remember my parents out on the front deck, drinking gin and tonics, and laughing their heads off as we passed by

[Sneederbunk]

5. Our town was sprayed by a crop duster.

[MuseRider]

9. We did too.

Makes me nervous but I am closing in on 70, a few years to go and so far so good. I so remember the foggy streets.

[tblue37]

21. So did we!

[Laffy Kat]

34. OMG, we did, too!

I grew up in Memphis not too far from the Wolf River, so they would fog for "skeeters" several times a summer. We lived on a cul-de-sac up on a hill and all the neighbor kids would run behind the DDT fogger every damn time. Nowadays I don't wonder if I'll get breast cancer, but when.

[icwlmuscyia]

3. What size town did you live in and what area of the country?

I lived in a college town of about 25,000i the midwest muring the 50s.

We had the milkman, an occasional ice cream truck but no bread truck (all in the store by then) and ice deliveries were pretty much done by then.

One really odd thing. I could take my wagon to the corner tavern and pick up cigarettes and beer for my parents with a note.

[BamaRefugee]

6. I'm not the OP but I see "Helms Bakery" and that means Los Angeles I think ;-)

The HUGE Helms Bakery building in Culver City is still in great shape and used as a giant collection of shops, furniture stores, etc, , or at least it was last time I was in that area.

[Binkie The Clown]

11. The iceman, Good Humor and milk man were from...

Grand Rapids, MI c. 1950 Then my dad was transferred to Los Angles (San Fernando Valley, actually) in the late 50s and that's where the Helms bakery truck hung out.

[BamaRefugee]

4. and speaking of the milkman, as someone who looks almost NOTHING like my 3 brothers, we never hear

"Your father must have been the milkman" jokes anymore either....

[BamaRefugee]

7. Does anybody remember the "Charles Chips" man? Damn those were good. My go-to after school snack.

[3catwoman3]

12. I most surely do. The delivery guy...

...who serviced our neighborhood was a really skinny old dude. He’s knock on the door and yell out “Charlie Chips!” I loved their barbecue flavor.

I still have a little mini-can. Can’t make myself throw it out.

[BamaRefugee]

13. I totally understand. I still have an unopened bottle of sauce from Ollie's Barbecue in Birmingham,

Alabama from at least 30 years ago, I can't toss it, it's ICONIC!

[moonscape]

14. Yes! Only we didn't get them, my best friend up the

street did. They got the chips and then the cookies delivered in those big tins. I was at their house all the time, nearly daily, so it was almost as good as my folks getting delivery of them

[Floyd R. Turbo]

8. Those and the coalman in the fall and winter. It was my good fortune to be responsible for keeping

the furnace stoked!

[LakeArenal]

10. Drug store and dry cleaners delivered.

Had an egg man and a different milk man.

Girls scouts came to the door sans parents.

Political signs were placed in your hoard no charge.

School attire was no jeans and tucked in shirts for boys.

Skirts or dresses only for girls.

A&W served root beer floats in the big glass mug.

Dairy Queen sold Dilly Bars with sticks that sometimes have you one free

Burgers were ten for a dollar.

[Demovictory9]

17. Could only wear dresses to school

[Laffy Kat]

35. Yes, and on very cold and snowy mornings they let us wear pants UNDER our dresses.

We thought that was so neat.

[Archae]

23. Local drug store still delivers for free.

Glanders.

Sure did come in handy when I was down with the flu a couple years ago.

[Backseat Driver]

15. Ah yes, we had a milkman. The attached garage even had

an outdoor access door for delivery,(Hillside Dairy) but it was too small for delivery of all the milk three kids could consume once, maybe twice a week; the "kids and friends"mostly used it for communication, when we got "grounded" indoors, and for passing small toys.

We had a (Star) bakery man, Joe, who would often quite literally talk and gossip for hours with Mom, and a vegetable guy with a wood-floored converted panel van/truck with counters on both sides filled with fresh unbagged leafy and brightly colored veggies before the Lawson's chalk water and "roll-on-Big O," privately owned pharmacy, and small independent grocery stores were built along the strip next door.

The ice-cream man preferred to sell along the smaller side streets in the plat across the street, but we were forbidden to cross our 2/2 lanes of main road; hence we could hear the come-on tune, but it was always "no ice-cream for you!" I don't recall even once trading coin for a popsicle or ice cream cones, bars, or sandwiches.

Back then, the life insurance guy also stopped by to receive the premium(s). He was a concentration camp survivor; his tattooed number would sometimes peak out from behind his white shirt cuff.

The house was also built with a trash "incinerator" a Mid-century suburban amenity that was later mandated for removal when air quality became an issue. The phone was on a party-line before a "private" line. To this day, I believe 91-year-old Mom may still use the iconic wired black rotary wall phone.

I know, TMI...

[Binkie The Clown]

16. Our trash incinerator was gas-fired and in the basement.

Until they were outlawed for air quality issues.

I remember that you could call up anyone in your same "exchange" by just dialing the last four digits. That was when the first three digits of a phone number actually referred to which physical telephone company building house the operators that were hard wired to your house.

[Harker]

18. The ice man hasn't cometh in a long time...

even if you're thinking of George Gervin.

Or Albert Collins.

[NNadir]

26. But we are on a long night's journal into day.

[Harker]

28. I've always known you are a poet at heart. n/t

[madamesilverspurs]

19. Fuller Brush salesman was a regular.

During the winter, our milkman would come in and have a cup of coffee at our breakfast table; during the summer, he'd come back through the neighborhood after he'd finished his deliveries so that we kids could grab chunks of ice from the back of his truck.

Our encyclopedia set was purchased from a salesman who came to our front door.

And we kids could run to the store with a quarter to buy cigarettes for our parents.


.

[Binkie The Clown]

20. Oh, that's right. I remember him coming around from time to time. And the Tupper Ware parties.

On edit: Oh, and S&H Green Stamps, and Blue Chip Stamps. and Raleigh cigarette coupons.

[tblue37]

22. Remember the Fuller Brush man? Door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen? Vacuum cleaner

salesmen?

S&H Green Stamps?

[Binkie The Clown]

25. I have a set of candlesticks that my mom got with S&H Green stamps back in the 1940s. nt

[Harker]

32. Sperry & Hutchinson. n/t

[Wicked Blue]

24. The Avon Lady who came to your door

and gave out tiny lipsticks and perfume samples

[NNadir]

27. Even I - and I'm old - am too young to remember the ice man, although the dry iceman...

...used to come to at least one lab in which I worked.

[tblue37]

29. Grandma used to have milk, ice, and coal delivered.

[bedazzled]

30. In NJ It was Mr. SOFTEE!

Good humor man too. Remember Howard Johnsons? Great fried clams...

[hunter]

31. I lived in Helms Bakery country as a kid. We also had a milk man.

Whenever my mom had an extra dollar we'd enjoy bacon and eggs from the milk man.

Otherwise we had hot oatmeal or rice, with raisins and milk, for breakfast every weekday. No box cereal.

The only time I had box cereal as a kid was when me and my siblings were staying with our grandparents.

Tony the Tiger's Sugar Frosted Flakes were my favorite.

I got some Marineland stories as well...

[rgbecker]

33. How about the scissors and knives sharpener?

Our milkman would come in a truck. He would let us kids join him, standing in the open doorway, on the drive to the next stop...the next door neighbor, about 500 feet up the road. Would give us a chuck of ice to suck on along the way. Sealtest milk.

[Archae]

36. Springtime white soda when we had upset stomachs.

Basically is was sort of like 7-Up.

And I really miss the A & W root beer floats, we'd get in the middle of summer.
Ambrosia of the Gods.

[smirkymonkey]

37. I grew up in the 70's but even I remember the milkman.

However that is because I grew up in a small village and we had a milk farm just up the street from us that would deliver.

Not only would they deliver, but he would come into the house and put the milk right in our refrigerator (I know this because I saw it when I was home sick - he scared me one day). Nobody ever locked their doors in our town and everyone left their keys in their car. Crime was non-existent.

We would also get eggs, cheese and other fresh grown farm items from local farms that my parents would pick up from local farms, other than what we didn't grow in our garden. I really miss all of that fresh, organic produce and farm fresh food. It was so much more flavorful than anything you can buy in the grocery stores today.

[Binkie The Clown]

38. Even today, my neighbor gets egg deliveries from a local small chicken ranch.

A little old lady in a red compact car of some kind brings her a dozen eggs once a week. Other neighbors donate our egg cartons to her, so it's not really a big-time operation by any stretch.

[smirkymonkey]

39. I so miss those little family farms and ranches.

They were so great and you could be sure that you were getting something wholesome. The farm we got our milk from was just beautiful and so clean and lovely.

There was never any doubt that we were getting an inferior product. I really kind of miss my little village in a way, even though I have been a big city girl ever since I graduated from college. It was an ideal place to grow up.

There is something about that simple life that is appealing, until I realize that many of those people are probably republicans and then I snap back out of it. Kind of sad.