19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, March 25, 1914: Nothing to write.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share an article from a central Pennsylvania newspaper, the Milton Evening Standard.
The nation was moving rapidly into the modern era—people could order butter, eggs and other farm produce directly from farmers, and the US Postal Service would deliver it a few days later.
I can’t imagine getting my groceries in the mail today. Wonder what happened. . .
Eggs in the mail. Now that sounds like it could be quite the delivery!
Mailmen must have handled packages more gently back then.🙂
Grocery delivery is not too common now, but I expect it to increase over the next few years as Amazon rolls out more distribution centers. I don’t know if we will see much in the way of perishable goods, but definitely shelf stable products.
Interesting. . . I never thought about how Amazon might deliver groceries someday.
Can’t imagine how they kept things from spoiling or breaking back then – but the idea is great. Today we do have Omaha Steaks, Hickory Farms, etc. but NOT eggs!
I wonder how long eggs keep during the summer months if they aren’t refrigerated.
I have no idea, but I’d be afraid to trust them after 2-3.
Can’t imagine getting my groceries in the mail but I’d be willing to give it a try. Wonder if there is an article saying it didn’t work out. I see Atlanta is mentioned.
I’ll probably never find time, but it would be interesting to research this and figure out when (and why) they quit delivering eggs and other farm produce via parcel post.
‘the rural carrier will make daily collections’ sounds like there might be some unhappy carriers. That could be a lot of extra work.
I have a fuzzy memory of Mom getting baby chicks delivered by mail.
It does like like it would make a lot of extra work. Maybe it was seen as jobs for carriers.
I also can vaguely remember that people got baby chicks delivered by mail years ago. Somehow that seems like it would have been really stressful on the birds.
That does seem a bit odd…
It strikes me as an idea that probably didn’t work very well in practice.
It makes sense to me. The time to deliver in the mail is less than the distribution now, especially after the food sits on the grocery store shelves. And unless the law has changed recently (which wouldn’t surprise me) you can send anything by mail without packaging. I didn’t know that until I read about it when the kids were little and we tried it, mailing stuff to my father, I think.
Interesting. . . I hadn’t realized that things could be mailed without packaging.
They were already struggling with the middleman in those days! Now days the farmer is overwhelmed with seed prices and the final consumer struggles to afford healthy eating and the middle man sits pretty. Ugh!
Never knew they moved produce by mail but am old enough to remember the milk man!
I like the way you framed it. I hadn’t thought about it quite that way.
I remember the milk man, and my grandfather selling eggs from the basket he carried to our house and others. My mother got out a bowl to store them in. But by mail? Hmm. I can imagine the “Fragile” sticker on the eggs …
I can vaguely remember my maternal grandfather talking about how he used to go into town, and go door-to-door selling eggs and cut flowers when he was a child.
Just to let my readers know. I’m having a hard time with a health issue right now and now I can post nothing on my blog nor can I get any help from WordPress with whatever the problem is. So please pray for me that these issues will be resolved soon. Blessings to all, Natalie 🙂
So sorry. Thoughts are with you.
Thanks so much. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
My thoughts are with you. I hope you are feeling better soon–and that the WordPress issues get resolved.
I’ve noticed that WordPress recently changed the way pictures are inserted/sized in posts, and I’ve found it challenging to get used to the new system.
Thank you so much Sheryl. I pray you are well. Yes, WP has made several aggrivating changes lately. I think their “Happiness Engineers” need to leave well enough alone. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
Now we deliver the chickens. Yikes!
🙂
I didn’t know they did that!
All I can imagine is broken eggs! Reminds me of local farmers here who deliver produce weekly to program subscribers … This is more popular as people realize that eating local makes sense. jane
Community supported agriculture is also becoming more common here.
They would have to wrap the eggs carefully!🙂
I wonder if they had special boxes or trays that they used for shipping.
I hope so!
I have this vision of Jim Carey kicking that parcel down the street and juggling it like in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Have you seen that? Its really cute.
Yah I wonder if they did that for any length of time. I guess if most people didn’t have a car, it would have been handy.