Montlake - 2021 and Way Beyond by William Goodrich Bellman Chapter 24 - Home Deliveries

The homemaker of the 1920's depended a great deal on home delivery to keep the house running. Grocery deliveries were almost a daily occurrence, sometimes even twice a day. The milkman cometh every morning, the ice man twice a week, the garbage man weekly, the Japanese vegetable man Tuesdays and Saturdays. Yamamoto, the vegetable man, came to the neighborhood in his horse drawn wagon all the way from his garden in Rainier Valley. He stopped on the way on Western Avenues' produce row where he bought items from California and Florida that couldn't be grown in our climate. Every Christmas he gave mother a porcelain gift, made in Nippon. In mid-1920 he graduated to a motor truck with hard rubber tires. I remember that truck well, because while trying to steal something off the truck, my left foot got run over by the rear wheel.

Before converting to gas or oil furnaces, most everyone burned coal or wood. We used coal for years, which had to be carried by the delivery man from the back alley to the coal chute window. I always felt sorry for him as it was back breaking work, lugging that coal -in a 50 gallon metal container - on his back, usually in rain or snow. However, I always hoped that Dad would stick to using coal instead of wood, as once when he decided to give wood a try, he ordered two cords, which were dumped on the rear edge of our property. It was up to George and I to get it into the basement. That took all the fun out of an afternoon.

I was always intrigued, watching the garbage men chew and spit their snoose. Several times, at the time they picked up our garbage, it would be lunch time, and the men would put the feed-bags on the horses, then commence eating their own “brown-bag” lunch. After lunch they would replenish the snuff and proceed to spit. I was so curious that I begged for a bite, which I immediately got rid of. It was too much for my tender mouth.

In the area that lies north of the intersection of Madison Street and Lake Washington Blvd., where the Japanese Gardens of the Arboretum are now located, the city had a stable for the horses that were used to pull the garbage trucks for the districts of Madison, Madrona, Capitol Hill and Montlake. My liking for horses drew me to that place and I often walked there just to look and be around them.

In summer time, especially, we used to follow the ice man on his rounds, as there were always ice chips, as he cut the big 100 pound chunks into either 25 or 50 lb. pieces. We never did get an electric refrigerator, so the ice man came to our house for many years.

From June till September the ice cream cart came into the neighborhood, almost daily. You could hear the tinkling of the bell long before the cart came into sight. My mother was not alone in getting exasperated with the man and his cart, as we wouldn't let-up till she gave us enough money to buy a cone.

Einer and Sig Haugen delivered the Seattle Daily and Sunday Times in our neighborhood. They had the route for many years until they both were out of high school and needed more income than the delivery route would pay. I remember that they each had nearly 300 customers, many more than the newspaper route of today. The Haugen boys had two sisters, Agnes, who was my age, and another nameless one, who was severely retarded. I called on Agnes one afternoon, and the retarded one answered the door, but was quickly hustled away. No one tried to explain the situation and I learned later that this girl was usually kept locked in a room upstairs.

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" That was the cry heard up and down our neighborhood streets whenever an event, either local or national, was important enough to warrant the newspapers printing an extra edition. Before radio, this was the only means of getting news to the people quickly. During World War I, there were often, several “extras” a week telling of the victories or defeats of the American troops. The results of prize fights were deemed worthy enough to put out an “extra”. Primary and final election results also warranted the issuance of an “extra”. The Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Seattle Times tried to out-do each other by being the first on the streets with an “extra”. With the advent of tube radios and the quick access to newsworthy items that they provided, the practice of issuing extra papers was gradually fazed out.

Something I haven't seen in many years are quarantine signs which were very prevalent when I was a child. If a member of a household was afflicted with any one of the following diseases: Smallpox, measles, chicken-pox, scarlet fever, mumps, diphtheria or tuberculosis, a sign was placed at the entrance to the house, warning one and all, not to enter. Only the city health authority could remove the sign, but only after full recovery. The signs were of different colors, depending on how serious the disease was thought to be. Chicken-pox and mumps signs were white, smallpox red, the other diseases had yellow signs. As I recall, it was a rare child that didn't contract chicken-pox, measles or mumps sometime during their elementary school years.