The Manor Company had a fleet of trucks that did home deliveries in little towns, saving trips to the grocery store. Just as the milkman comes to our house today, he came twice a week to deliver fresh loaves of bread, breakfast pastries, and an extra treat of conversation. Remember this was the time in the 1950’s after World War II that held the difficult shortages and food rationing. We do not look upon white sliced bread as anything good nutritionally today, but then it was a time that women began to want to do things more easily. Some were beginning to give up rising early (no pun intended) to bake bread, plus other time savers were appearing like wringer washers and electric ranges.
When our bread man appeared, he brought the regular order, and stepped into the house with a giant tray of goodies: brown ‘n serve rolls, Danish pastries, tiny powdered donuts and more. He and my grandmother had a friendly chat, and I was given permission to choose something special. I suspect we gained absolutely no value for our bodies from these gluten-filled baked goods, but a visit from a deliveryman on a sunny morning surely sustained the lonely housewives’ souls.
This decade after the war was a transitional era for women with new time on their hands when husbands went off to work. The fifties hold more important ideas to ponder when thinking about housewives, but this time, I’m just remembering the bread man as an exciting visitor at my grandparents’ home when I was a little girl.
photo credit: Big Grey Mare ~ Back--But Barely via photopin cc
Postscript: The first round words in Ed DeCaria's Madness! 2012 (Kids' Poetry. Under Pressure.) have been sent out and 64 Poets are busily writing poems. It's very exciting!
Postscript: The first round words in Ed DeCaria's Madness! 2012 (Kids' Poetry. Under Pressure.) have been sent out and 64 Poets are busily writing poems. It's very exciting!