First Trip To The Big Apple

My dad had promised his sister if he got a truck that he would carry peaches up the east coast and sell them to supply houses for fresh fruit.

He talked one of his nephews to go with him on his first run and to help him with the peaches. Also with a family member the trip wouldn't seem so long and he would welcome the company.

They made sale in North Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and ran out of peaches. The returned home and loaded more peaches on the truck and set out again and made sells in Virginia, West Virginia and Massachusetts before running out of peaches again.

As they went through each state they would call on the ones that they had already sold and they wanted more and they kept the truck in the road selling peaches. They also bought peaches from other peach orchards to sell as well to have enough fresh peaches.

When they got to New York for the first time my dad said that people would distract them and then they had a friend hop on back of the truck and would steal some of their peaches. My dad said this was going to have to stop or they wouldn't make any money that way. The next time they went to New York they were ready for the guys that had a little racket going. When he loaded the truck on the back he put peach crates with peaches on top in the crate but the crate was weighted down with Georgia red clay. When they got some of the crates off of the back they only got a few peaches on top but they got a crate of red clay.

After peach season was over he went back to hauling scrap iron. He was still hauling scrap iron when my parents got married and he was also working at Mrs. P.Y. Waters Grocery.

Palmer Waters