Pre
1950s Life in Cleveland
There aren't too many people who remember the
paper and rag man. He would sit on the bench of his wagon, yelling "Paper
rags " usually in the poor neighborhoods. It sounded like paypa dape to
me. I was only five or six back then.
People would come out with bundled paper, rags,
pots and pans, bottles and anything else he might buy. He would pay a few
pennies for these remnants, then probably took them to some junkyard where he
made a few pennies profit.
He was a small, elderly, wrinkled old man and the
strength and range of his voice was surprising as he yelled out, "Paper
rags." His wagon was pulled by a wrinkled old horse as it slowly and with
difficulty made its way down our street.
We boys in the neighborhood had never seen a live
horse. Our only acquaintance with horses was seeing our favorite cowboy heroes in
the movies. Although hard to believe, this was before TV.
The paper and rag man was a kindly soul and he
allowed us to pet the horse when he stopped to pick some paper or rags. I'm a
little ashamed to remember that we often followed the wagon, taunting him by
mimicking his voice and shouting "Paper rags." But he didn't mind. I
think he liked the children and the attention he and the horse were getting
from us. Whenever our parents could spare it, we were allowed to take a carrot
or apple to the seemingly always hungry horse and it nuzzled us in gratitude.
Back then, we also had a guy who walked the
streets with a small cart not unlike a golf bag cart who sharpened knives. Another guy fixed things, mainly umbrellas.
We, like everyone else, had a milk man. Our milk man would put his deliveries in our milk chute which was on the side of our house on the drive way. The other milk man actually had a horse and wagon. This was in the nineteen forties.
We also had an ice man who brought our ice right into the house and placed the block in the icebox.
There was an ice cream truck or motor scooter with a big box in front that sold ice cream bars and sandwiches. They used jingle bells like on Santa's sleigh to announce their presence.
There was a waffle truck much like the ice cream truck. They made the waffles fresh to order and dusted them with powdered sugar.
Some houses had phones with no dials. You picked up the phone and didn't get a dial tone. An operator would come on the line and you would tell her what number that you wanted to call.
Of course, back then, there were no television sets. The first one that I saw had about a 5 inch screen and mostly showed a test pattern. The big entertainment device was the radio. We had a Zenith console that had a record player on the right side which only played 78 RPM records. Back then 45 PM records hadn't been available and 33 1/3s were science fiction.
Going downtown to shop meant going to Higbee's May's. In Ohio, it wasn't May Company or Higbee Company it was May's or Hugbee's. The frosted malteds in the basements were a special treats as there were no McDonalds or Wendie's back then. Going downtown meant taking a streetcar and later a bus.
There was a waffle truck much like the ice cream truck. They made the waffles fresh to order and dusted them with powdered sugar.
Some houses had phones with no dials. You picked up the phone and didn't get a dial tone. An operator would come on the line and you would tell her what number that you wanted to call.
Of course, back then, there were no television sets. The first one that I saw had about a 5 inch screen and mostly showed a test pattern. The big entertainment device was the radio. We had a Zenith console that had a record player on the right side which only played 78 RPM records. Back then 45 PM records hadn't been available and 33 1/3s were science fiction.
Going downtown to shop meant going to Higbee's May's. In Ohio, it wasn't May Company or Higbee Company it was May's or Hugbee's. The frosted malteds in the basements were a special treats as there were no McDonalds or Wendie's back then. Going downtown meant taking a streetcar and later a bus.
