Burlington St.

Speaker 1:    

One day – we were just young then – Freddy Traini was the steady delivery around there, and he had Vario, which was his nephew, to help him one day. 

Vario got out of the wagon, but he forgot to move, so the wagon ran over him. 

And it ran right over him, but the horse stopped right on his ankle. 

And it didn’t move, we couldn’t get it to move. 

So, Freddy Traini was delivering some milk, he was the toughest son of a __, that I’d ever see in my life; he was tougher than you. 

Speaker 2:    

Yeah. 

Speaker 1:    

He lifted that bloody wagon full of milk, honest to God, the back wheels, and and, so Vario could get his leg out.  

There was no hydraulic jacks in those days and nobody around. 

And in fact, that’s how Vario got his leg broken and they took him to the hospital. 

Speaker 1:    

Tell me the story about when the kid was on the horse, and it broke loose… 

Speaker 2:    

Ha ha. 

Well, there was a little kid, __ Tony. 

Speaker 1:    

Yes. 

Speaker 2:    

And he had a cowboy suit on. 

Speaker 1:    

Right. 

Speaker 2:    

And he says, ‘I’m a cowboy.’ 

He said, I want to ride your horse. 

[laugher] 

So, I posted him on back of my horse. 

I thought only taken from Birmingham to the … Railway tracks. 

It was only, maybe, 100 yards. 

And this horse, this horse kept on running. 

[laughter] 

We passed Sherman Avenue. 

We passed … street. 

[laughter] 

We went all the way to … street. 

Barton. 

Couldn’t believe it. 

Speaker 1:    

Were you chasing the horse? 

Speaker 2:    

Was I chasing? I was driving! 

Speaker 1:    

Oh. 

[laughter] 

Speaker 2:    

As soon as I set down the reins, he had full control! 

Yeah but, that was a good day, though, yeah.   

I enjoyed every minute of it! 

Speaker 1:    

I had, I had the horse for about eight years. 

Speaker 2:    

And then after the wagon the truck. 

Speaker 1:    

The truck, yeah. 

And you know what? 

What? 

That increase my work by about two hours a day. 

Speaker 2:    

Having a truck? 

Speaker 1:    

Having a truck. 

Speaker 2:    

How, how come? 

Speaker 1:    

Because you have to park it and walked back to it. 

Speaker 2:    

Ahh. 

Speaker 1:    

Whereas the horse he’d be there waiting for you. 

Speaker 2:    

What time did you start the horse in the morning? 

There was a bylaw, you couldn’t start before seven. 

Okay. 

Speaker 1:    

Yeah, there was a bylaw. 

[chuckles] 

Otherwise, I would’ve started at 5 o’clock in the morning. 

[laughter] 

I like to get it over with. 

Speaker 2:    

What, what time would you finish? 

Speaker 1:    

Oh, always I turned in before lunch. 

Speaker 2:    

And what did you do in the afternoon? 

Speaker 1:    

Well, the races! 

[Laughter] 

Speaker 1:    

This is me sitting here. 

I was, beside this guy here, I used to go on Sunday mornings with him. 

To go deliver the milk. 

Speaker 2:    

Who was the guy? 

Speaker 1:    

Panek. 

Speaker 2:    

Panek. 

Speaker 1:    

Yes. 

Oh yeah, yeah. 

[chatter] 

It would take us all day to get on a mountain run. To get up the Ottawa Street Hill.  

To deliver the bloody milk. 

Speaker 1:    

I had a lot of really good customers.  

Speaker 2:    

Yeah. 

Speaker 1:    

And, you know, during the strike not one of them quit. 

Speaker 2:    

They all kept the milk coming during the strike. 

Speaker 1:    

I kept delivering milk, I go right by them, get along, and go on with my business. 

Speaker 2:    

And, and pretty well everyone thought they would pay you; make sure that you got paid for the milk, even during the strike. 

Speaker 1:    

Even with the strike, yes. That’s right. Everything worked well. 

Speaker 2:    

Freddie how… 

Speaker 1:    

No cheaters. 

Speaker 2:    

No. 

Speaker 1:    

We had no cheaters on Brightside. 

Speaker 2:    

…isn’t that something. 

Speaker 1:    

No. 

They were all good workers.