Text by Patrick Bell.
Homegrown local businesses used to be prevalent before the corporations took over and today we have a gallery of vehicles from those types of trades. They normally were people who worked hard to earn a good reputation and did what it took to take care of their customers. So let’s have a look at how it was done in the past.
You would think ice cream would be a hard sell on a cold winter day, but apparently not Whitey’s. The Moline, Illinois ice cream parlor first opened in 1933, was sold to an employee in 1953 whose family branched out to the surrounding areas and still operates it today. The ’53 Chevrolet One-Fifty Handyman company car had what likely was a ’57 issue license plate, and the car looked clean and well kept.
Samuel’s Pharmacy was a long time, family run business in Winthrop, Massachusetts, that closed in 2017. The featured delivery vehicle was a ’57 Ford Courier sedan delivery that was likely close to new in this image. Ahead of it was another sedan delivery, a ’49-’52 Chevrolet.
Here was a content looking Cambridge Coffee salesman and his vehicle full of wares. My best guess is that he called on restaurants and hotels to sell and service his line of products. His work truck was a ’51 or ’52 Chevrolet Model 1508 Sedan Delivery.
A florist’s delivery van likely in Hawaii with the sliding door open obscuring part of the sign. It was a Renault Estafette, marketed as a “Petit-Panel” in the U.S. and Canada. It is a model I don’t ever recall seeing in the metal. The sign may say “Hawaii Blooms”, or “Blossoms”. At any rate, Eric703 did a good write up on the van and its taller brother’s short lived North American history here —Ad Classic: 1960 Renault Hi-Boy – High Van, But Low Sales – Curbside Classic.
A Diamond T Tilt-cab hauling for the Herman Miller Furniture Company out of Zeeland, Michigan. Miller is still producing furniture and has been around for 120 years. Diamond T also was founded in 1905, merged with Reo to form Diamond Reo in 1967, and closed shop in ’95. In the background left, was a ’51 Ford Deluxe Business Coupe.
The state of Ohio celebrated its sesquicentennial (150 years) in 1953, and I will venture a guess that was what this parade was about in the city of Coshocton. The street crew spit polished some of their equipment just for the parade. The pickup was a ’42-’47 Ford, and I will leave the other equipment ID to others. It is interesting how the Ford’s bumper was cut so narrow; I wonder what the purpose was, or if there was a purpose. The block in the background was Auto Row, as I see Nash and Buick dealers plus some others.
This one was likely a loaner car as it had regular license plates. There was some additional lettering on top of the deck lid that is unreadable which might have been a clue, so I wasn’t able to narrow down the location, as there are several cities with a Western and 9th corner.
The car was a sharp looking V8 powered ’56 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan, with possibly a dealer representative standing by ready to assist.
Explore The Old Jail in Saint Augustine, Florida. It is now known as Old Jail Museum, and is still open for exploration. The “paddy wagon” was a ’59 Mercury Commuter 4 door Country Cruiser 9-passenger apparently used to transport “guests”. Others in the lot from the left include a white and black ’58 Ford Fairlane 500 Town Sedan, pale green and white ’53 or ’54 Ford Country Sedan, white over green ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air 4 door sedan, and a tan ’60 Dodge Dart Seneca 2 door sedan.
The San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours of Ouray, Colorado, claims to be the”World’s Oldest Jeep Tour Company”. They were established in 1946 and are still in operation. The featured Jeep was a FC-170 with the cab roof and back panel removed and a custom bed with three rows of seats. They were produced from ’57-’65, and this one had a ’64 issue license plate.
This ’65 Dodge D400 or D500 had a ’65 Iowa truck license plate issued in Linn County, where the seat is Cedar Rapids. It looked close to new, and its cargo was Miller Brewing Company products. The driver was very typical looking for the era, and was most likely delivering for a local distributor.
The only information I could find on this image was a date of 1968. The ’59 Ford Custom 300 under the carport looks like it has a Washington state license plate, so I will go with that for the location. And I don’t recognize the sign on the door of the ’64 or ’65 Chevrolet Chevy-Van, nor the color combination. The home had a nice view of the water, and the technician was making his way back to his van.
Yes, children, back in the olden days there really were TV repairman that made house calls. That was a short lived profession. This gentleman looked quite professional and used a ’61 or ’62 Ford Econoline in the Tustin, California area. This one looked like it had a few years on it, with the beat up bumper and the very typical paint wear on the driver’s door window opening lower edge.
Ralph’s Truck Rental – U Drive It – Chicago. An apparent local business located with a Cities Service station, or at least this particular branch. The moving truck was a ’59 Ford, likely a F-500, with a ’63 issue license plate. On the left edge may have been another rental, a ’53-’56 Ford Cab Forward. Also on the left a ’55 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan, with a ’56 Chevrolet Bel Air on the other side of it. On the right a ’56 Buick Super 4 door sedan, and two ’61 Ford’s; a 2 door Ranch Wagon, and a Fairlane sedan.
A Gulf Oil Special Events truck at a special event. It was a ’60 Chevrolet Apache Model C3605 Panel modified with a platform on top, wired for a PA system and/or broadcasting, and an air intake grille, maybe for a generator. The license plate looks like a Texas issue of either ’61 or ’63, with perhaps a radio call number beneath it. In the background a ’61 Cadillac coupe, and a Chevrolet Corvan was whizzing on by.
A ’68 or ’69 Volkswagen Type 1 with a Nabers Cadillac sign on the door and a towbar mounted on the front. I could not find much on this one, just a caption calling it a “funny little service truck”. The dealership was located in Costa Mesa, California.
Thanks for looking in and have a great day!
Love these! Commercial hand lettering, used to be a busy, in-demand occupation.
Before Fedex and UPS, Sears delivery step vans, used to be a common sight in US and Canadian cities.
Before 5-mph bumpers, the back bumper on a car was (after a fashion) a bolted-on frame crossmember. You could buy – or rent from U-Haul – a temporary tow hitch that was attached to the rear bumper with chains.
I suspect that’s what the towbar on the VW in the last photo is about. A Cadillac technician would drive the Bug to a Cadillac owner’s house, attach a hitch to the Caddy’s bumper, and use it to tow the VW back to the shop. There, the Caddy would be serviced and the procedure reversed to bring the car back to it’s owner’s home. Cheaper by far than sending a wrecker.
I’m very surprised that this was cheaper than having a tow truck. Very interesting!
cheaper than sending a wrecker
Why would you send a wrecker to bring in a car that drove? Obviously it had to in order to tow the VW back to the shop. But yes, it was cheaper than sending two guys; one to drive the VW and one to drive the Caddy.
That Ford F-500 must have been a real brute to drive.
Reminds me a bit of the 4-speed F-350s that were common U-haul trucks in the 80s and 90s. I helped several friends move because they couldn’t drive standard transmission.
I love these pictures and greatly miss the many old Sedan Delivery vehicles that dotted America, through the 1970’s many had second lives as hippes transportation and were summarily ran into the ground .
The “dragger” VW is a 1968 #113 DeLuxe sedan, the L.A.D.W.P. bought three (IIRC) 1971 VW #137 Deluxe sun roof Super Beetles in powder blue and crudely added a folding lunette typ tow bar inside the trunk, at night the city Mechanics would drive them out to the job site, took them to the back of a dump truck or whatever and drag it back to the shop, repeat to deliver the servcied truck the next day .
I bouht the very last one of them, it only had 26,000 miles and apart from the nasty respray in white and a few dents was essentially new . I resprayed it the factory color, re trimmed the interior and fixed the sun roof, it was a great car I made a killing on when I flipped it after a year for $2,500 , more than it cost new I think .
I encourage all here to seriously consider going into the trades, a plumber may often work literally in excrement but few make less than 110,000 annually, meaning raising a family and buying a home is possible even in these trying times .
-Nate
My father had a pharmacy with a delivery car, unfortunately nothing colorful or interesting. In my time it was a green Vega and then a blue escort. Also my 10 speed bike on occasion.
Fun photos. Thanks for putting this together.
Some nifty pics here. The big ((then contemporary)), house with the “59 Ford” in the carport is a good memory.
That first pic is what our “ole”, car would have looked like when it was close to new.
We got it in “56”, I’m told. (believe it was ’54”)
I came home from the maternity ward in it in “60”.
The truck rental photo in Chicago out of the Cities Service station, Cities Service became Citgo two years later in 1965.
Here’s the location – on Elston Ave. in the Avondale section of Chicago:
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cGNT78qzxhARj6UB8
Nice work (as always), Eric703—-bravo!
These really are great pics Rich. You are doing stellar work, tracking and retrieving all of this nostalgia. Every photo has so much nuance, and detail, to appreciate. Thank you!
Ooooo… this is such a great collection!
I figured I’d try to ID the location of the yellow Ford van from Washington. It looks like the sign on the van’s side says something like “Seattle electric heat rates are down by up to ___%
So I figured it might be Seattle, and in fact Seattle City Light service vehicles were painted that yellow color for decades, and often had signs on the side. I was able to locate the house too – looks like it’s in the Alki Point area of west Seattle.
Then-and-now comparison below. Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tvoh2DrssG8CuQX17
This is a very nice comparison. I admittedly much prefer the look and feel of the earlier home, landscaping, car port, and retaining wall! The rubble rock retaining wall, was quite attractive. The overall colouring of the earlier home, was more natural. And attractive to me.
As always, great work preparing this research!
I do also although the carport was changed into an enclosed garage which is a plus in my mind.
The “tech’s’ , kind a long, blue smock is a real “throwback”!
Nice detective work, Eric. Wish I’d seen your post before taking a guess at “Shoreline” or “Mukilteo.”
Will be going down to West Seattle later this summer, so I’ll have to check it out.
That Coshocton Ford pick up looks to have some crudely repaired damage to the fenders. Maybe the ends of the bumper were so damaged they just cut them off?
I was wondering whether trucks produced during wartime might have had shorter bumpers to save metal, but your idea sounds good.
Bell Canada retained the same livery, for decades. From at least the 1940’s through the 1970’s, their service vehicles were dark green. With bright red steel wheels, and small hub caps. Later ‘Bell Canada’ lettering, was gold.
Back when company vans werent just another Toyota.
Re: In-home TV repair. Those days are gone now, but TV repair coming to one’s house was a necessity as long as there were console TVs. My folks bought a Philco TV-radio-record player combination in the early ’50s; some of my earliest memories are of that thing. More than once a repairman had to come out and service something, often tubes but sometimes more. Finally in the early ’60s Dad took out the TV and its chassis and replaced the innards with a 19-inch Packard Bell set that fit in the space and was much, much more reliable.
The early color sets needed a lot of maintenance. The earliest sets (1954) had over 30 tubes in their chassis, and used an insane amount of electricity. They required careful adjustment and alignment to produce a decent picture, and their equilibrium was easily upset. Eventually the tube count came down, and they became more reliable. Still, I shudder to think of getting a stereo home entertainment center repaired–TV, amplifier, AM/FM and TV tuners, record player all in one unit. I think it wasn’t until the early ’70s that TVs went completely solid-state except for the picture tube.
You are so right about frequent maintenance required. My Dad bought our first color TV on October 9, 1965 from a shop that sold and serviced “electronics” – see receipt for a RCA New Vista console set for $509.95, a lot of money in those days. That TV was serviced (by the same man who sold it) until 1981 when he finally convinced Dad it was no longer worth repairing. All those years he came to the house promptly when called, in a truck like those in this post. Those were the days when all kinds of services came to the home, even doctors made “house calls.”
So in-home TV service isn’t necessary in today’s era of 75″ wall-mounted screens?
RCA’s New Vista was probably the last line of TV sets to use vacuum tubes (other than for the picture tube itself).
The Diamond T was one of the first cabovers that featured a tilting cab, it was introduced a few years after the White 3000. The cab was designed by Diamond T and manufactured by Chicago Cab Manufacturing who also manufactured the International Harvester ‘Comfo-Vision’ cab. International Harvester used the Diamond-T tilt cab on their CO/VCO trucks until 1972. Diamond-T also offered the tilt cab in fiberglass.
Thx for the explanation. I had always thought Diamond T borrowed the IH cab tooling. Interesting that the smaller company paid the tooling capital costs. I can see where Diamond T would have been happy to have IH volume to spread those costs over a wider production base.
Bob, the thing I’ve always wondered about this cab is why they also made a fiberglass version. It’s not like they could use the same tooling, Was weight that critical for some applications. I’ve long wondered about this.
Here something from Sweden based on a Volvo PV 445-chassis. “Linds snickerier” means “Lind’s woodwork”.
A fantastic collection!
Loved to see those sedan deliveries. I had a 55 Chevy. Hot rod. 327 4spd 411, really loved that car.
Wow Rich, great finds!
My favorites are the Chevy Van servicing the view home and the Tustin TV repair van below it.
If that mid-century home is in Washington state, it could be somewhere like Shoreline or Mukilteo on the shores of Puget Sound.
Love those old Ford Econolines. There was a doppelganger of this van in our neighborhood about 20 years ago. Two old bachelor brothers living in a ramshackle house, with their faded old service van. We called them Horace and Jasper. Long may they run.
I love these pictures. My grandfather retired from the Railway Express Agency (REA Express) and drove delivery trucks in Northwest Louisiana.
When I was a kid in the early 1970s, I would spend most summers with my grandparents. Some of my favorite memories are when my grandfather would swing by the house in his work truck after breakfast and take me with him for deliveries for a couple of hours.
The truck only had one seat, so I remember sitting cross-legged on the “hump” next to his seat (engine cover, I guess) looking out the front window. It was the early 70s so seatbelts were not yet a “thing”. Ha.
This picture is from the internet, but the truck looked something like this.
Thank you for the GREAT memories!!
Standard Coffee delivered to my Dad and Mom in the 50’s and 60’s
Mr. Montgomery and Mr Carmen also worked on our television (only had one) and delivered and installed our first two color sets
Sedan deliveries with no passenger side rear view mirrors. What absolute moron approved this for production? After purchasing such car, what moron wouldn’t have added one?
As to the Chevy from Courtesy Chevrolet, looks like a California plate circa 1956. The phone # DU is for Dunkirk or 38. Same as my childhood number.
These are great shots, so many things looked nicer back in the day.
That shiny red Dodge is beautiful, it would have made a great sound too with a V8, carrying a nice load too !
I grew up in Coshocton, Ohio, and remember the sesquicentennial. It was a weeklong celebration with several parades and other activities. Thanks for the memories!
Great photos aa great memories for those who lived in these times. Much thanks. Does anyone remember the diaper service trucks? One is attached, which is a 1950 Ford.
I love-love these, and am always a little let down when someone re-creates one today with not-quite-right typefaces, etc.
HAWAII: I see “Hawaii Blossoms” was a substantial floral firm–it’s early 1962 here, and they’ve got the concession for the upcoming Seattle World’s Fair:
I grew up in that era with my father owning a sign co. That’s still in business
I wonder if ‘Samuel’s Pharmacy’ filled eyeglass prescriptions…that lettering on the delivery vehicle hurts my eyes…?