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joedooley
13 posts
Aug 18, 2013
6:56 PM
Lived at 319 South Brown and had an alley next to our house. This was in the 30's and early 40's. We had our milk delivered by a horse drawn wagon from Bordens and Whites Bakery delivered bread and pastry the same way. The tracks were in the middle of the street in those days.
I remember the Iceman delivering ice, had a sign which we hung up to let him know how much. But, most of all, I remember what we called, the "Ragpicker." He had a cart large steel spoked wheels, made of wood, high slats, and he had a big wooden handle at the back that he used to push the cart. He would go through trash and find "treasurers" of all sorts which he would put in his cart. As a little kid, he was rather scary to me, spooky and mysterious, but he was always friendly. Don't know what he did with all the rags he collected. That alley next to our house was a world all its own. People would dress up and sit on their front porches in those days, but when they leaned over that back fence and talked with those in the alley, they were themselve. Some were or had been converted from stables. On that alley I remember the Wolfs, Dick and Bobby, who later played Bball at UD. We had a basketball hoop up in the back where an old garage foundation was, many games played there. The Guilds, the Eilermans and the Schmidts, the Burians. I forget her name, always had a Coke bottle in her hand. The Wogamans lived between our house and Jones Street. I remember a well known family lived on Chestnut. He was the richest man in the world. Beggars night, he gave away pennies. Earl Heyer had a grocery store across the street and a block down was Millettes deli and store. They had a slot machine in the old days, and we got our Pepsi's there, and candy. Great neighborhood, anyone remember that. Most of it is all gone now. 319 S. Brown, is a freeway. Brown used to be a main North South artery, no more. The bus "barn" was in the Rubicon area....... I can't be the only one left, would love to hear from anyone ........ Oh, Mr. Gilbert, a few blocks south, was my barber. And, the Shooks lived a few blocks South .... Bob was in the Navy in WWII, he was on the Yorktown when it went down ...............
Syxpack
122 posts
Aug 19, 2013
6:08 PM
Joe, at 83, I'm close to your age and I remember most of the things that you remember, but in a different neighborhood. I grew up in the east end and we moved often. I went to Ruskin School, McKinley School and Huffman School, then on to Stivers High School. We called the man a Junk Man and I even remember his name. Bill Stubbs. He found a lot of treasures and he would share them with my mother to fix up for our Christmas. A very nice man! The ice man would always chip some ice for all the kids in the neighborhood who would climb on the back of his truck while he delivered the ice to all those who had their signs hanging in their windows. We couldn't afford to have a milkman and bakery man. They must have been more expensive than the corner store where Mom ran a bill. I do remember my dad getting mad when the White's Bakery horse would poop in the street in front of our house and he would have to clean it up when he came home. LOL Nice to read your memories. There's very few of us oldies on this site who remember what we do. My mom took me on one of the first trolleys that came down the old Richard St. and when I was in high school, we would go down to Rikes on a Saturday afternoon to eat lunch and we would dress up in our Sunday best and we didn't dare forget our white gloves. My first job was a paid aide at St. Elizabeth Hospital in the Pediatrics Dept., then onto Schiffs Shoe Store (remember them?) During my senior year at Stivers, I became a long distance operator at Ohio Bell, back when you had to route through 2 or 3 cities, just to reach a number in California. Good memories!
Tbone
6 posts
Aug 20, 2013
7:56 AM
Wow! Please share as many stories as you both can....very interesting.
joedooley
17 posts
Aug 21, 2013
4:17 PM
Syxpack and Tbone - Wow is right. Do you remember Dr. Dooley at St. E's, he was there often. I spent a lot of my early life sitting in the Packard Clipper out in front, waiting for him to make his "quick" rounds. I would have graduated from Stivers in '50, had I stayed. I remembered the "Coke" ladies name, Mrs. Craig, had a son, Jack, who went to Stivers.
People today are not aware of the "world of the alley." Much went on in that alley. My Dad made me a car, Maytag washing machine engine, I went up and down that alley many times. I forget the street at the end, but in those days it was a different world, I was "away from home." We all spent many hours "on the front porch." I imagine the old "rag picker" made a fortune during the war selling scarce materials. I remember during the war one of the smaller stores downtown started a "Junior Commando" club or something, I remember walking down there and joining. I got a membership card and I think a badge of some kind. I was so proud. I remember too, we went around neighborhoods collecting some kind of a "pod" growing wild, supposed then opened them and used the "silk" inside to make parachutes or something. One many don't know, I remember seeing the Waves march from Sugar Camp to NCR, I forget the building, where they were working on secret decoding stuff did not know that at the time. Also many don't know, some of the first work on the Atom Bomb started out in Oakwood ... I lived not to far from there, a few blocks and we had no idea it was going on. I forget the family name that owned the whole property, but someone promised they could have it back after the war ..... as I recall, it was radioactive and had to be torn down... I have not lived in Dayton for MANY years, but still consider it home, even though my old neighborhood and past is primarily gone ... Oakwood High School is about the only thing that has not changed. I could do hours on the old Brown Street area where I lived ...............
rdebross
76 posts
Aug 24, 2013
12:30 PM
JoeDooley - I'm of a younger generation (b.1947) and from a neighborhood closer to Syxpacks - 1100 block of Xenia Avenue. I really loved your description of alleys and how they had a life and a feeling different than the streets. Indeed I've often thought that I'd like to compose a longer post about alley life for a kid in east Dayton in the 1950's. Story of "the World of the Alleys" as you put it needs to be told. You've got me thinking.
davew
19 posts
Nov 09, 2013
5:05 AM
I was born in 1946 and life in the alley in North Riverdale was no different than the alleys you speak of on the east side of Dayton, where I now live. We played kick the can, hide and seek, and played war. In the winter we would ride sleds down the alley. It seemed in those days that the quickest way to get anywhere was through the alley's. Great times
donm
16 posts
Nov 14, 2013
12:47 PM
I remember the alley behind my grandparent's home in North Dayton. There was a building behind the duplex that had been where the horse and buggy stayed years ago. Still had a cistern in the yard, with a heavy iron cover, and a coal chute out front going down into the basement by the furnace. It was always an adventure to go there. The alley always seemed nysterious to me because we didn't have alleys in our neighborhood. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
luv my dayton
505 posts
Dec 31, 2013
8:33 AM
Really have enjoyed your stories and also glad that for your mature ages you still have the ability to recall as though it was yesterday.I myself cant remember what I had for lunch. My grandparents lived in the 200 block of Findlay st in the east end. When us kids would go visit the alley was our playground plus the large parking lot behind grandmothers which was Monarch Marking .We even learned to ride our bikes there. As for the front porches we all have the same memory of sitting out and us kids would run up and down the stoop falling on ocassion and scraping our knees and elbows and using the ledge across the front of porch to color in our books or have our lunch. Grandma would acknowledge any neighbors who would be sitting on there porches and update one another the happenings in their lives. Childhood for us was a wonderful way of life. That area now is in disrepair and all the little stores we were allowed to walk to have been long gone and sitting empty. Seems as time marched on being neighborly was lost.

Last Edited by luv my dayton on Dec 31, 2013 8:37 AM


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