Not too long ago farm goods and other products were delivered to your front door.

Local residents bought fresh veggies, flowers and even meat from a huckster, a traveling farmer.I had an opportunity to explore the huckster lifestyle last weekend at an event in Reading. I learned more about the old 1880s market wagon, one of the early tools of the trade.Many men and women who plied the huckster trade in our local towns originally used horse-drawn wagons.Over time, wagons were replaced by farm trucks, flatbeds, pickups and even station wagons.The local farmer was more than just a vendor. Invariably, the huckster became a family friend who knew the weather forecast, the road conditions, and maybe even details of the flu season.One I remember well was Mamie Helfrich. I can still picture her in a farm dress.She also wore a weathered brown leather pouch with a matching strap strung around her shoulder. The pouch was the equivalent of a cash register.There were many others, names such as Hine, Snyder, Dunn, Miller, Nardini, Middlecamp, Blew and more.Another, Helen Arner of New Ringgold, was called "the gladiola lady" even though she also sold fresh veggies."My parents and grandparents were farmers," she said with pride back in 1999 when I interviewed her. With a smile as radiant as nurturing sunshine, she told me in her special, Pennsylvania Dutch way that raising and selling produce was a wholesome, rewarding way to make a living."I started doing it with my mother, Bertha Steigerwalt. Then when I married, my husband Willard and I did it and my brother Freddie took over helping my mother," she said."The first truck I drove was a 1936 International. Then I had a 1948 Studebaker bought from Dudley Motors. We used it for 26 years and it always came home under its own power; it never had to be towed. Then we bought a 1974 GMC," Arner said."We had two routes in 1946 and we came to Tamaqua four days a week. My husband and I did East End and Dutch Hill and my mother and brother did Lehigh Street, Gay Street and that area."I asked her to tell me all about her job because Arner was a veteran of the trade. She was 77 and had been calling door-to-door for 63 years.One surprising detail she revealed was that, in her opinion, food tasted much better years ago.Apparently, something is missing nowadays."We used to dress chickens, but we quit doing that in 1982. Our chickens were tasty. Today, they look good and they're tender but the taste isn't there," she said.I enjoyed spending time with her and listening to her stories. She was the lone remaining door-to-door huckster from the old days in the Tamaqua area."If it weren't for the people, I wouldn't do it," she said. "They're what keeps me going,"She did it a few more years. But then, time sneaked up and put an end to something wonderful. It's always sad when an era ends. And time has a way of stealing way too much from our lives.When you try to explain to young people today that corn, cabbage, strawberries and gladiolas were delivered to your front door regularly, they look at you like you're crazy. But it's true. And milk, too, was delivered to the door.It was a far different time. It was a more innocent era - a touch of health and freshness in an uncomplicated world.Now it's only a distant memory and a yearning to revisit.If we could only spend a few hours with our favorite huckster of long ago, we'd be much better for it.Contact Donald R. Serfass at

dserfass@tnonline.com.