I remember seeing his truck pulling into the yard. He was a friendly man and always spoke to me. My name is Ben and he called me B E up and down. That came from the fact I couldn't remember the letter N when he asked me to spell my name. So I became B E up and down forever. Of course forever in a childs view may have been two years or so. The company, Dugan Brothers Bakery went out of buisness in 1967. A victim of grocery stores and the cost of home delivery.
I have a particulary fond memory of the Dugan man. On one of his visits to my Grandmothers house she purchased a bag of potato chips. Potato chips were a bit of a novelty item then and came packaged in a wax paper bag that was stapled shut. I was given this bag of chips and kid fashion tried to open it by using my teeth to remove the staples. I cut my lip on the staple and combined with the salt from the chips it stung like crazy! I cried to my Grandmother about this and she told me she would tell that "Dugan Man" about it. She assured me something would be done.
The very next time the Dugan man came he called out to me,hey B E up and down I have something specialy made for you. I ran over to him and he presented me with a bag of potato chips. I looked at that bag and the top was sealed shut with a crinkled apperance. The Dugan man explained to me that because of that staple cutting my lip the Dugan Company changed the way they sealed the bag. In fact he said all the other companies would too ! Whats' more he gave me that bag free of charge.
For a very long time I firmly believed that was the reason bags were sealed the way they are now. Sounded reasonable to me.
Just the photo of that truck alone has made me hungry...
ReplyDeleteMy Dad drove a truck for them in Bklyn back then.
DeleteThe only competition Dugan’s had was
DeleteElfenbines Bakery in Far Rockaway,NY
Loved the Dugan Man and have wonderful memories of him as well. Was wondering do you happen to remember - was it the Dugan man who delivered milk in bottles (with a red cap I think) at the door along with bread, cupcakes and other stuff?
ReplyDeleteDugan only delivered bread/cakes. There was a separate milk man. I remember there was cream on top!
DeleteYeah, I remember the Dugan man & truck from the 50's. We lived in W.Allenhurst, Monmouth Co., N.J.... We also had Shore Dairy's in Allenhurst and they delivered milk, butter, etc. Every winter the cream would rise in the bottle and push the waxed cardboard top up and out of the bottle. The cream rose like a tower a few inches high above the bottle!!!
DeleteRed cap, whole milk, originally cream top.
DeleteI used to scoop the cream off the milk.. fun times, fresh food and friendlyness
DeleteI lived in St. Albans, Queens back in the late 40's and early 50's. The Dugan's truck use to come a couple of times a week to deliver to our house. I always wanted Cherry Pie, I use to get it once in a blue moon. Had loads of crumb cake. Great memories. I also miss the milk man.
ReplyDeleteI too well remember the Dugan Man coming to our door at Rock Ridge Lake in Denville, NJ. Always loved the cupcakes, like Hostess but instead of chocolate icing, just had sprinkled white powdered sugar. I have a great photo from the early 1930's of my Dad driving the Dugan truck, I wish I could share but no way to attach it.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember the D in the window?
DeleteMy Dad was a Dugan delivery man. It was his favorite job. I would ride with him when I could during summer vacation days. Once his supervisor came by and caught me standing in the back of the truck. The drivers were not allowed to have any riders with them. He managed to keep his job because he was one of the top selling drivers for Dugan's so the supervisor let him slide. I remember how sad my Dad was when the company closed. That job was synonymous with my Dad; friendly, appreciative along with his love for being outdoors. Great memories indeed.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I just found a thimble with Dugans Bakery for the Home marked on it.
ReplyDeleteI weng everywhere to get a Baker fir my wedding cake that was Dugan iciing.
ReplyDeleteI distinctly remember the Dugan truck coming to our house on the farm in Pottersville, NJ. We didn't have the 'D' in our window - the Dugan man just drove up our longish driveway knowing we'd buy something. I'm sure he delivered those tasty offerings to others in our small community as well. The cupcakes, raisin cakes, crumb cakes and potato chips were all family favorites. The potato chip bag as I remember it, was a sealed, heavy duty, silver bag. They must have phased out the wax paper packaging before they started delivering to our location. Yes! The good ole days indeed!
ReplyDeleteI remember the maple grove dairy truck delivering milk,my friend and I would chase the truck at 5:30 am up the street on our bikes, we were early risers
ReplyDeleteMy dad worked out of Hackensack since at least 1936...started with a horse, then Divco. I have many of his safe driver pins and Al B Careful ones too. I also have a surviving Dugans pencil...good memories besides the great bakery goods.
ReplyDeletemy grandfather my great uncle and my dad worked for dugan brothers my dad and grand dad where mechanics on the old international trucks my great uncle was a route rider
ReplyDeleteMy mom and dad owned and operated a small neighborhood grocery store in Hawthorne, N.J. The Dugan truck delivered fresh baked goods each morning. I also remember working with my cousin delivering Sicomac Dairy milk
ReplyDeletewhen it came in glass bottles. Good memories of a simpler time. Marty V.
I also remember Dugan Man and his truck coming to my house in Glendale, Queens on an almost daily basis... The man was always friendly and of course always welcomed... My favorite was the cupcakes.. A yellow flaky cupcake with a thick chocolate icing that I would peel off in one piece and enjoy and then and only then eat the cupcake.
ReplyDeleteI had an uncle and aunt who lived in Cormack LI just south of Comack Rd and Jericho Tpk...they owned a beautiful little cottage surrounded by farmland ( not a trace survives today )... but on the northwest corner of that intersection was the big Dugan Brothers Bakery Warehouse and Garage, where all of that wonderful bakery products were created.....and where it remained until the business died....
Yes, it was a great time to grow up.... we had the early morning milkman clanging his bottles as he delivered to the milk box leaving two glass quarts of milk and picking up the empties... you could always hear him coming....We also had Tommy, the oilman who would deliver oil (kerosine) in five gallon rectangular thin tin containers to the cellar of my grandparents 4 family home... we had old black wrought iron stoves that not only were used for cooking but also as a heat source.. Originally coal stoves, they were retrofitted as kerosine stoves and kept the back two rooms of the small four room apartment nice and toasty... In the summer Tommy the Oil man became Tommy the ice man and he made routine deliveries to to my Grandma’s overflow storage icebox in the cellar.....Those were the days...of simple life, simple yet very, very cherished time....
I swore it was Dugan that delivered our milk in the 50s. We had a silver box on back steps... he would take the empties and leave the new full bottles.
ReplyDeleteWe had the silver box, too. Our milkman worked for Dellwood, not Dugan's.
DeleteIt was Dellwood milk in a silver box near your door
DeleteMmmm Dugans. I LOVED the Dugan man. I miss the big metal basket full of crullers, coffee rings and babka. I need a babka right now.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather had a delivery route and I still have half a dozen of the metal (rusted) baskets
DeleteMy cousin was a delivery man in the early 50's. He drove an electric vehicle. He would pick me up at the corner of Abington Ave.and North 6th Street on Saturdays and I would accompany him. He had a route in East Orange. Brings back many fond memories.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Dugan fruit tart's, blueberry & cherry. We were fortunte in SW Farmingdale,LI. We had it all delivery wise. Warm Milk left in the metal mis-named cooler box, on the stoop. Good humor multiple times on no school day's. A pizza bus every Friday evening. Fresh made N.Y. Pizza in gas oven in bus.I believe the Fuller Brush as so a fresh produce man.
ReplyDeleteThose were definately different times.
ReplyDeleteGoing thru my dad's things we found a picture of
ReplyDeleteDUGAN BROTHERS 'YEARS OF SERVICE' DINNER
Hotel McAlpin New York City
April 26, 1944
My grandparents both worked there.
Does anyone remember tony Zientek or Frank Mullins from the 40’s. They both worked in Queens
ReplyDeleteI still have the Dugan's thimble in our breakfront from the days that my dad drove the truck for them and delivered to stores in the Bronx. My treat was, once a week, he would stop off at our home and let me choose one item from the "stale returns" although I did not know that at the time. Great memories.
ReplyDeleteI was 12yo..my uncle got cake delivered from dugans..oh those chocolate cupcakes.thick..i did have a sweet tooth.put the two togeter and munch away..oh i did put the bottom part of the cupcake back in the box.lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memory! My Uncle Harry was a Digan's driver, and I remember him bringing cupcakes when he came to visit. I can still taste that thick, fudgy chocolate icing (best enjoyed with a glass of milk delivered by the Dellwood milkman). Hard to believe that I was only seven years old when Dugan's went out of business.
ReplyDelete*Dugan's
DeleteSound like I'm the only Brooklyn guy who remembers Dugan. If it want out of business then I was only 3-4 when Dugan's came around.
ReplyDeleteI guess that explains why I thought that the guys name was Dugan!
Another interesting thing back then was the your Insurance Salesman used to come to the house to collect premiums and he was kind of a friend of the family. Phil was his name. He would stop and have coffee and cake at my grandmothers and I even remember him coming over to my parent's house when we moved from Flatbush to Marine Park. Great guys as I recall!
My Aunt Jean & Uncle Joe lived in a beautiful big house near Queens College in Flushing. Uncle Joe was a furier, so he did quite well. They were able to afford home delivery by the Dugan Bakery, and I remember enjoying their baked goods when I visited my aunt & uncle. Aunt Jean even purchased a toy plastic Dugan Delivery Van that I played with when I visited. But around 1960, Uncle Joe passed away and Aunt Jean moved to an apartment building. There were no more Dugan baked treats after that and my Aunt's toy van disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI have such fond memories of The Dugan man! I remember you would put the big cardboard “D” that they gave us in the window if you wanted The Dugan Man to stop at your house. I think I have a memory of loving their powdered donuts. Also we lived very near where they their bakery was and I remember driving home on the Southern State Parkway and savoring the amazing aromas wafting from the bakery making our mouth water! Fun memories!!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Brooklyn but since the age of 5, my family spent summers in White Lake, NY (many years later, the site of the Woodstock festival-but that's a story for another time). I believe the Dugan bakery for that area was located near Middletown, NY.
ReplyDeleteThe Dugan man would pull into the driveway at least once a week. I may be incorrect but I believe he drove a Ford Model A truck He always announced his presence by blowing an old AA-OO-GA horn and shouting
"Dugan's Baa-Red"! The chocolate cupcakes were great but my favorite was the powdered jelly donuts.They were loaded with jelly and invariably, a glob of it would land on my white T-shirt, driving my mom to distraction To this day, I always check out the jelly donuts every time I visit a bakery, but have not found one that comes close to Dugan's.
I wish I could get my hands on the receipt of there coconut coffee cake ring...any ideas???
ReplyDeleteDon't see that one, but found this: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/12/18/78549500.html?pageNumber=56
DeleteI do remember the Dugan Bread man delivery truck coming thru our block in Hollis Queens in 1940/50’s
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember a comic book that was as given out to us kids about a character called “Peetie Wheat”?
Yes, I remember Peter Wheat comic.
DeleteMy grandfather was a sea captain, home in East Meadow, Long Island, when he was home we would eat Dugans crumb cake and toaster corn bread rounds with fresh butter, I can taste it as I am typing
ReplyDeleteWhat fun to find this thread about the Dugan Man! I was eating some country grain toast from Cob's Bread and the memory of the Dugan Man's incredible whole wheat muffins came back to me. I think they had raisins in them. I don't remember ever trying the chocolate cupcakes or powdered donuts, or I am sure I would have begged for them every time he came around, but Mom always got us the whole wheat muffins from the truck in West Long Branch, NJ, and I adored them! I can picture the truck, which was always exciting to see ("It's the Dugan Man!!), and I remember the taste like it was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteMy grandma in south river no had a large card with a big “D” on it to place on the window of she wanted the Dugan man to stop so she could buy some baked goods.
ReplyDeleteI woke up this morning thinking of the Dugan's man and truck during the war. (II). On Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. Everything makes me cry these days.
ReplyDeleteAll of you mention cupcakes with thick chocolate icing, but do I not remember strawberry and vanilla icing too? We lived at the top of a hill in Lake Waubeeka Connecticut and one of the momentous occasions of my childhood was the arrival of Dugan’s truck chugging up that hill and Mr. Dugan ( for that’s what we called him) bellowing “Dooooogan’s!!!!”. All the mothers would appear and I would plead with my mother to forego the “healthier” whole-wheat muffins and buy the cupcakes. She’d wind up getting both. Many years later we would hear the sad and shocking news that the Dugan man had committed suicide, almost symbolic of the termination of a bucolic, simpler, and happier time.
ReplyDeleteMy parents lived in Teaneck, New Jersey until I was about 3years old( last child). My mother always said the Dugan man on her route took too long at her next door neighbors house & he was delivering more than baked goods. Haha!
ReplyDeleteI lived in Paramus as a kid in the 60’s. We only had one car, and I remember the weekly visits from the Dugan’s truck. The driver look like red Skelton. I loved their raisin bread mostly
ReplyDeleteWe lived in Mount Vernon NY in the 1950's. We lived on the third floor and recall the Dugan's man carrying his box up three flights of stairs. My mother would then make her selections. There were five of us kids and we all loved their cakes and pies.Great memories.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandfather, Valentine Gotthardt, lived in Yonkers and had a Dugan delivey route from the 1920s until the company closed in 1967. He knew to original owner, David H. Dugan. He called him "Old man Dugan". Fond memories of him bring unsold bread, cake, rolls and een cheese cake home with him every Friday. He said he saw a lot of rare/old coins during the depression as people scrounged for cash to buy food. He was told in the mid 60's that if the employees voted for a union the business would be closed down. That is exactly what happened and the management took the employees company pension money with them (That was legal in 1967). My grandfather then in his 60's was forced to find work as a construction laborer until he was 72.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was also a Dugan man. He worked from 1942 or so until they closed. He had 25 years in and lost it all, including his security deposit. He even turned in the cash collections in his pocket. He was around 50 years old and went to work at Con Ed. He loved that job.
DeleteI remember the cupcakes with the flat icing, I use to peel it off and eat that separately. They were delicious! Great memories! ❤️
ReplyDeleteMy step-dad worked as a driver for Dugan's in Clifton. During the summer break my brother's and I used to go to work with him and help make deliveries. We'd look for the big "D" card in the homes' windows, grab their regular orders and while my dad drove real slow we'd jump out, make the delivery and then run back to the truck and get ready for the next delivery.
ReplyDelete