My day would start At my mom's house, in the office, about 7:30. I'd collect any thing I needed, take any messages and remember this was before cell phones so there was no call me any time communications. I'd head down to the trailer. It was either behind Bill Vines' office or over near the entrance to Rockland Lake State Park. I'd load my truck, it'd take almost an hour to do. Occasionally I'd do it the night before, but that was rare. I'd load the trucks fourteen foot box from back to front, with no room to spare. There'd be space and access from the side door of the truck to get bi-products stored in the nose.
My first three stops, by luck were set up so I'd get rid of the majority of my load. I'd hit Tolstoy Nursing home, Nyack Manor Nursing home and a little while later, after a stop at Valley Cottage Deli, I go to Meals on Wheels. Each stop, when their check came in would pay most, if not all of a weeks milk bill. They'd usually pay with in forty-five days. Now your lucky if a stop like that pays within ninety or one hundred and twenty days. Doing the three big stops early on saved gas and would leave me with the back end of the truck full of empty cases I'd juggle around with for most of the day. I'd usually leave the trailer about 8:30, 9 O'Clock and get to Meals on Wheels about 11 AM. I'd then go over to Bardonia Deli. It's not there anymore, not even the building. A gas station, a house, a bank and the small shopping center were torn down in about 2014 to make way for another CVS.
Eric is in transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla Westchester. He has many surgeries and they save his legs. Two metal rods are inserted into his legs and the bones and muscles use these to allow him to walk. It takes several months for him to recover. He stays at my mom's house. That is why there is a long wooden ramp on the side of her house. Lynn stays at her parents house with Billy, I think. It is a while before they get to see each other.
I do remember sometime around four O'Clock I would deliver milk to Northern Riverview. The kitchen manager at Northern Riverview didn't like me delivering at that hour. He wanted his milk earlier in the day, some time around 9 AM fresh and cold. I was able to get away with it because my milk was always fresh, cold, never sour and I put the milk in front of the cooler so it could be checked and then I'd put it away. All that service and good product let me get away with the late delivery. If the milk had ever been sour, even if it was the producers fault, I would have been in trouble.
I'd head down Route 9W into Nyack, getting to Hartell's grocery Upper Nyack some time around five. Then South Broadway Deli. For a short period of time I delivered to the gas station next to them when the Murreys owned it and the deli. When they sold it some Indian guys took it over and were only interested in getting the cheapest price, so I lost it. It was a good stop when I lost it. It became a better stop after the Indians took over. They sold years later and it went through several owners before I came into contact with the stop again as a salesman for either Marcus or Consolidated. It was a dirty messed up place then. Timmy Sullivan, one of the sons of the owner of South Broadway deli had been given a share of the ownership of the gas station. He worked hard for many years pumping gas while him and another brother rented the gas station deli out. When I came back as a salesman years later he had bought out his brother and looked to be making a pretty good living off of selling gas and renting out the deli. A third brother had reopened the South Broadway deli. They didn't talk. A sister opened a deli in Pearl River. It lasted a few short years. A second sister, the smart one seemed to stay clear of the whole mess.
Across from the gas station and the deli for many years was the Old Fashion Restaurant. I think another milk man when he retired gave it to my dad and I and we did it for many years in the 70's and 80's. It was sold sometime in the 90's or maybe 2000's and went down hill rather quickly. The head chef a guy named Bill was very nice. He would take the porgys I'd catch while fishing on my boat. I didn't like porgys, to cathch or eat and he cook them up and always tell me they were delicious to eat. After South Broadway Deli, I went up Main Street doing different stops over the years, Skylark restaurant, an Indian restaurant, some long forgotten delis and candy stores that only native Nyack people and myself would remember. Jerry's a coffee shop ran by Jerry D' Auria and his sister(s) and kids until the 90's when he had a heart attack and I think died. He was a grouch, but he ran a good business.
Across the street for D'Auria was another store I did in the 70's and 80's. I don't remember the name. At the corner of Main and North Midland Ave was the Garden Deli. I remember one time I go in and something happens and I get yelled at. I leave the store and get into my Divco and just sit there. I'm really angry. One of the owners or one of the guy who ran it comes out and asks me if I'm going to deliver. I told him I needed to calm down first.
In the late seventies there was a guy who lived in Nyack and he delivered milk. He was very successful. His family owned property around Nanuet and he was the only person I knew who drove a new or almost new Divco. He lived in upper Nyack, had two houses west of North Broadway on Castle Heights Ave. I was jealous of his success. When he had some health issues he decided to retire and he gave his route to us. I guess my dad knew him. I don't remember his name, I think it was George Donsella. His route was the start of Muller Dairy being just about the only milk company in Nyack during the 70's and 80's. My dad and I delivered most likely 90% of the milk stops in Nyack. During that time and into the 90's I knew most owners of most businesses there.
In this blog I haven't touched on Summit School at all. It was one of my father's stops and Him and I did it from when it opened or there about, sometime in the 60's maybe until sometime around 2014 when I was forced out of the business. There were two short periods during that time I wasn't delivering there. One was shortly after my father died and I was looking for a fight. I knew Jennifer at Summit would be there person to give me one I was angry at my father dying, so I went in there and got into a fight with her. I don't remember what the fight was about. It was stupid. When I was told by my accountant that I needed to get bigger I went back there and asked up her if I could deliver there again. About a year, eighteen months had gone by. To my amazement she said yes. After that I'd just deliver the milk how she wanted. It wasn't an easy stop to do back then. THey had their refrigeration in the basement down a flight of steep stairs. Before the stairs there was a curb I'd pull the hand truck up on. Then I'd have to turn around on a narrow strip to go down a few odd curved steps, then I'd get to the cellar steps. Summit was a good stop and it took at least two of these trips. I'd do it around six at night and was tired, but I was back at Summit.
When I became a salesman in 2000, Jennifer had been gone for a few years. A mellow guy took over for her and stayed for only a short time. After that another mellower guy took over and him and I got along real well. Sometime in 2012-13 I had switched back to Consolidated from Marcus. I'd taken most of my stops with me. I walk into Summit and there is Marcus milk where Consolidated milk should be. Him and I talk. Service was not where it should be and products were missing. Bad service had lose me Summit. I begged and promised to get it back and I did. Then Consolidated went under a few short months later. I think the stop went to my new company, Cream O Land. I was with Cream O Land just a few months before they cleaned house. My Tuesday, Saturday route was into Pearl River, up the back way to Spring Valley. There was a Bagel Place, a deli and a concession in an office building I didin south Spring Valley.In the 70's I did a deli off Main street. She was a nice, but hard headed women. She was determined to try and halt the slide of Spring Valley. She remembered it back when it was the hub of the county. She fought the good fight, but the tidal wave was too much. When her husband retired from the police department, they both left town and went to live on the Jersey shore down in Cape May where she had property for years. After Spring Valley I'd go into New City. I'd finish my day back in Nyack doing some stops I can't remember.
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