***
Raw milk was delivered to Andy Rexene’s house that was in the first block on Westmont avenue.  The milk was from nearby farms in Delaware Township.  In his barn that in the backyard backed up against the Pennsylvania railroad tracks, Andy had pasteurizing and bottling equipment.  Andy's horse drawn milk wagon daily covered the town serving the milk to regular customers.

***
On any clear summer day a baby coach could be seen on our streets with flags flying on both sides.  Pushing it was a black man decked out in a swallow tail coat and a high silk hat.  Sometimes he changed his headdress to a sombrero.  The coach was filled with peanuts and he was "the peanut man."  As he trudged about town he kept up a loud constant string of chatter.  He never shut up and the whole neighborhood was well aware of his presence.  A small customer could buy any quantity of peanuts that he could afford.  A penny or a nickel sale would give "the peanut man" a topic for his monologue.  For instance, he would lecture on what the coin was, how and where it was made, what part of a quarter or dollar it was, and, off the cuff, he would gabble on indefinitely.  He had quite an act.  Often he could be seen down in Camden peddling his wares so he probably was a native of that city.

***
A little white, glass windowed truck slowly covered the streets in town every summer.  It was the "waffle" truck that sold a sandwich that consisted of two waffles with a brick of ice cream in between.  This was a good hot weather treat that cost ten cents, but every youngster often could not afford it, for after all, a dime in those days was ten cents!

A bakery route
One is filled with nostalgia when thinking of a service that once was accepted as a part of every day life.  The younger generation on learning of it will find it an interesting bit of folklore.  Bakery products were still being delivered by horse and wagon.

The Bond Bakery was near Camden's City Line at Woodlynne.  The driver of the route serving Haddonfield left his home here in town at 3:30 am every day and by 5:15 he had his wagon loaded with bread and bakery product, and with his horse harnessed up and hitched he was headed down Haddon avenue toward Haddonfield.

A turn onto Maple avenue, when Westmont was reached took him to the beginning of his route on Cedar avenue.  There was only farmland where the Fargo homes are now so only approximately eight homes were served and the route went back up Maple avenue toward Haddon avenue.  There were ten customers spaced out between the open spaces.  The streets connecting led back into what was then know as Westmont Heights.

By the time Haddonfield was reached, fifty loaves of bread had been left on doorsteps of regular customers so that lunches could be packed.  After breakfast at eight o'clock the developed section of the Wood Tract was served.  Personal contacts could be made after that hour and bakery specialties besides bread could be sold.  The entire route was retraced so there was twice-a-day service.  New customers were sampled with free loaves of bread at the driver's expense.

Mickey, the horse, makes a story all by himself.  He was on that route for over eighteen years and knew every regular customer's house as well as the driver and automatically stopped at each one.  All neighborhood children knew Mickey and when they gathered around he would lift his foot and move it up and down while they would stroke it.  On the long collection days he would grow impatient at the delays and around 2:30 he would drag the wagon up over the curb to the bottom step of the porch where the driver was standing, and he would be taken back to the street and tied to a tree.  He always had on a muzzle as he had a bad habit of nibbling all tree leaves that he could reach.  One icy winter day Mickey fell and his head had to be held low so that he would not try to get up by himself and possibly break a leg.  An Abbotts milkman assisted in getting him back on his four feet.  Fortunately, nothing was broken but the two shafts of the wagon.

When the day's work was completed the trip back to the bakery was always eventful.  Going down Haddon avenue Mickey was impatient to get home and he was not slowed or stopped by anything.  The driver was frequently shouting for somebody to make way for them.

Mickey was retired in 1936 to the beautiful farm in Pennsylvania of the General Baking Company.  There he was pastured and lived happily ever after with all the other horses that had been used for years on the delivery route.

On your next visit to the supermarket, pause when you pass the shelves of pastries and loaves of bread, and think how there is no Mickey anymore clip-clopping up the street bringing those products to you.

Reminiscing with Dick Bimmer, who drove that bakery route for two winters, made this column possible.