Sunday Morning Grocery Deliveries as I Remember Them
Frank D'Elia/ 04-05-07
It was on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1941. I was nine years old and had
arrived from Italy in 1940 and was hanging around with my favorite uncle. Uncle
Nick was preparing to deliver groceries to the homes of his customers in
Dearborn, Michigan that they had ordered from his Italian grocery store known as
Trotta Bros. He and his brother Uncle Tony were owners of the store and the
building. As he was loading the groceries into his black 1939 panel truck which
was equipped with two rear cargo doors I asked him if I could go along. As usual
his answer was "Yes". He loved the company as he drove from house to house to
deliver the groceries and I loved going for a ride in any type of vehicle.
As he stopped and delivered his goods at each house, he would of course spend
sometime chatting with the people there. Uncle Nick loved a good argument,
especially politics. Sometimes these discussions lasted a long time which made
him late for the subsequent deliveries. Most of the groceries were intended for
the Sunday dinners of the customers. Needless to say, we met up with more than
one frustrated customer on these Sunday
deliveries.
The inside of the truck was as bare as you could get it. There was a seat for
the driver, no safety belts of course, and nothing else. No seat on the
passenger side, no seat in the back. The walls were bare and not paneled in any
way; the ribs on the sides of the panel truck were not covered. On the passenger
side was a wooden box turned upside down that was once used to hold bottles of
Hires Root Beer or perhaps Orange Nehi, popular drinks of that day. Now it was
used as the passenger seat. The vehicle of course was a stick shift with first,
second, third and reverse drives. I don't remember whatever happened to that
truck. Anyway, one Sunday cousin Josephine decided that she wanted to go along
for the ride also.
She was about 13 years old at that time and she got to sit in the front seat (wooden box). I sat in the back on a box of groceries. When Uncle Nick drove the truck he had the habit of leaning over the steering wheel with his face close to the windshield. I can still see his large hands wrapped around the steering wheel directing the truck down Schaffer Road from lane to lane. This road usually carried a lot of traffic, everyday except Sundays. Today being Sunday, there was not any traffic at all. Thank God!! as the truck swerved left to change lanes, Josephine leaned to the right, the door opened and she was gone! Out the door and laying on the road. I told Uncle Nick, he stopped, rushed out the door, picked up Josephine, and brought her back to the truck without a scratch on her that I can remember. We continued on our way to deliver the rest of the goods to the waiting customers with Uncle Nick muttering menaggia this and menaggia that.
