BoroPark24 recently published a piece on seltzer and the labor history in their neighborhood. Below is a piece:
Seltzer was once the beverage of choice for Boro Parkers of yesteryear, and many can recall the Seltzer truck that you used to make the rounds delivering seltzer in glass bottles.
To help us with the history of seltzer and its importance to Boro Park Yidden of yesteryear, we enlisted the help of Barry Joseph, a historian at the American Museum of Natural History, who wrote Seltzertopia; The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Drink.
He explains: There was time when seltzer was synonymous with Jews. “Specifically for that first generation of Ashkenazi Jews who arrived in New York City, seltzer was always on the table, and many family members worked in the business. An editorial in 1903, entitled “The Jew in the Bottling Business” extolled this new “class of industrious and energetic men, who are finding the business of bottling beverages an attractive vocation [and] learning the business in large numbers.”
“Also,” adds Mr. Joseph, “for many who were Kosher, seltzer could be relied upon. And, as our parents and grand-parents (and great-grandparents) moved away from the Lower East side [many of them to the spacious living conditions of Boro Park] we took this new American-Jewish delicacy with us, enabled by the many seltzer men who would deliver the siphons door to door (the siphon is that custom-made metal spout atop the bottle, so crucial to keeping that strong fizz trapped inside the glass bottle).
Back in the day, every home had their own seltzer man. A truck would pull up, enter an apartment building with a new case of seltzer; make the rounds floor to floor, and leave with the empty siphons. As soon as he pulled away the next guy would pull in, working the same building, just different apartments. In addition, the candy shops relied heavily on seltzer, which they would mix with a variety of syrup’s.
“There were dozens of seltzer bottlers in Brooklyn and possible hundreds if not thousands of delivery men around the city. The height of seltzer delivery was most likely between the 1920’s-to the 1950’s.”
To read the rest of the piece, and the labor battles, go here.