The Good Old Days?

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Since it's a rather hot day here in Boston, my thoughts have turned to other hot summers of my life, most of which have been spent in Chicago while growing up.

Ha, the "good old days"! Do you remember them?

As I mentioned on a previous thread, I remember when my old car didn't have air conditioning. But I remember other things as well .

For example, do you remember the "Ice Man"? This was the guy, who carried hugh blocks of ice on his bag during the summer. He would wear a leather vest, and jab an ice pick into the ice cube, swing the thing over his shoulder and off he would go, to either a restaurant or a tavern. I don't know what the weight of the ice blocks was, but it could easily have been 35-50 pounds.

Do these guys still exist? I wonder.

What do you remember about the "good old days"?

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Another person I remember was the "Coal Man". I remember this guy, especially when I'm hot and feeling mean and tired.

The Coal Man's job was to deliver coal to homes, businesses, etc.
He came to our apartment building about once/month. At that time, the coal dump truck would dump a hugh load of coal in the alley near the coal shoot of the building. I remember many a summer, when the temp in Chicago was well in the 90s and the coal man would spend hours, in the alley, shoveling the coal into a cart. He would then wheel the cart to the window of the coal shoot and dump the coal through the shoot.

Over, and over again he performed this ritual. Sweat pouring down his face, neck,back, legs,etc.

Do coal men still exist or are we all using oil, gas, wind, sun ,etc instead?

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Don't remember the ice man (except Jerry Butler) but I do remember the oil man, the coal mans' successor, when homes switched from coal to oil heating. But what I remember most fondly, other than milk and juice home delivery (papaya juice was the yummiest!!), is when a summer storm would knock the lights out and everyone would come out on their front porches to hang out until the lights came back on. As kids, to be out at night like that, free to leave the front porch, just like during the daytime, while parents sat out and visited one another, was such a odd treat.

I think we've had this discussion before New Haven but, what part of Chicago were you on? I was on the South Side. 69th & Stony Island, 54th & Ingleside, 71st & Loomis. We moved alot.

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EOE:

You weren't that far from me. I remember the Ice Man, when I lived on 78th and Constance. THere was a big nightclub/tavern there at the time and the ice man hauled tons of ice into the club for drinks.

I lived in WestPullman/Rosland after we left South Shore.

If you lived on Stony Island, do you remember the "Kickapoo Inn" on 79th and Stony Island? Don't know if it's still there or what happened to it.

Likwise, on 79th street there were a bunch of Warner Brother's movie theaters. Do you remember them: The Avalon, The Rhodes, and then there was one down on 79th and Halstead.

Was EngleWood High School at 63rd and Stony Island? I remember that Steve Allen graduated, ( before my time!) from that high school.

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Also, as I told another member on another thread, Ernie Banks owned a Ford Dealership down on Stony Island ave.

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I think we had oil when we moved to Rosland/West Pullman.

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the old days ? All stops to Nostalgia City via Retro Land.
Yeah I was there, I worked as a milkman for a few months some years ago. What a boring job. Still when I was a kid there were all manner of things delivered door to door. I can remember my mother blacking the oven, coal fires, vegetable plots for many a family. Saturday kids shows at the movies, when you could play outside till it was dark and not have your parents going ape with worry. Innocent times when your dad smoked ciggies without filters and ate meat with fat in it and drank strong coffee with sugar

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There are just too many fond memories to list, NH. I remember both the Rhodes and the Avalon theatres in Chicago. Also, the Tivoli. My mom took me to see "Mary Poppins" at the Rhodes. We mostly went to the Stony Island theatre, just down the street from where we lived. The matinee was a quarter and we got three full movies, cartoons of course, and hung out there all day while our parents shopped and cleaned house and took care of their weekend business without children underfoot. I remember a theatre full of nothing but wall-to-wall screaming kids. What a blast!

I remember Ernie Banks' Ford dealership. Was he the first black man to own a car dealership in Chicago?

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I remember having milk delivered! (Does that count?)

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I remember guys coming into my neighborhood to sell stuff in trucks...........the fruit man, the scissors grinder, the Krugs and Dugan's Bakery, and the ever popular Good Humor Man. Then there was this guy who seemed to be selling only toilet paper. Maybe he sold other stuff, but I was a kid, and that is all I can remember that we bought!

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"I got corn, I got peas, I got black-eyed potatoes
I gotta bald-headed duck in the back of my truck!"
My brother swears that the vegetable man used to sing this song when he rolled through the neighborhood.

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Yeah. I remember when the ice box really had ice in it to keep food cool. I remember the Edsels and the Studebakers. I remember going to the movies to see two features, cartoons, and the newsreels, and it used to cost us two pepsi pop tops to go see the Saturday matinees. c.i.

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c.i.- Yup. I used to spend an entire Saturday afternoon in the movies. Do you remember the "children's section"? All the under 12s would be seated in one section, usually in the left front of the theatre. There was a "matron" who walked around with a flashlight, ans dealt with improper behavior. She usually had marcelled white hair, and had a face like a stevedore!

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EOE:

Yes, Ernie Banks was the first Black man to own a Ford dealership in chicago. Those were the days before the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jackson.

The theatre on 79th and Halstead was THe Capital.

I remember the Tivoli very well. WOW...what a theatre in old days. Nothing like it now outside the loop except for the Regal theatre, which is still in operation with live shows on stage.

One summer, Jerry Lewis was on stage at the Avalon. Only about 100 people in a 2000+ seat theatre!!

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Phoenix:

I remember the "WaterMelon" man. He traveled through the alleys of Chicago with a wagon and a horse. He sold watermelons, fruits and vegetables.

As he went, very slowly through the alleys, he would yell out
"Watermelon man, watermelon man"!

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Do you remember when you saw 2 movies for the price of one?

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Every holiday, in Chicago, we'd have kids cartoons for 3 hours, straight. ABout 2000 yelling kids jamed into one room, eating popcorn, throwing spit balls and drinking coke from the coke machine.

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EOE:

I can remember looking out my bathroom window at the WaterMelon man, in July in Chicago, when the temp was 90F+.
Sooooooo slow, he , the horse and wagon moved down those alleys. On occassion, a dog would run behind yipping at the horse.

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Routine deliveries in the Old Days:

milk, butter, laundry delivered straight to your door.

City buses were not air conditioned.

The one place, always air condtioned was the movie theatre.

Delinger went to a movie to cool off , the night he was shot dead.

The Good Old Days?

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