PASSING
NEWSPAPERS IN NEW BREMEN1
by Elton (“Pitt”) Bruns – N.B.H.S., 1925
My first and only paper route was the
“Cincinnati Post”. My competitor at the
time was Bill Moeller with the “Cincinnati Times Star”. Our routes pretty well covered the entire
village so that at times, he on one side of the street and I on the other,
passed each other’s papers.
Our route began when we picked up our
papers at Schulenberg’s “Drug” Store (later Gilberg’s Furniture Store), then
the Western Ohio Interurban Station and waiting room.
Our car was the 4:50 which arrived
anywhere from 4:50 to 6:00 p.m. Our
route took us west on Monroe to Main, then north on Main to Vogelsang’s (in
2005, Craig & Melinda Hoffman’s?), then back south on Franklin to Monroe
and then west to the White Mountain Creamery, where we stopped for free
buttermilk which was always on tap - sometimes ice cream, if the right people
were on duty, then back east to Franklin and Main and south to Plum and the
Wooden Shoe Brewery ice houses, then home where, if we were not too late with
the paper, we sometimes received a free Sarsaparilla.
Then we went south on Washington, past
Rabe’s lumber yard & mill, a block past South Street to Oliver Boesel’s and
Peter Erb’s, where we were sure to receive a lecture and a hunting story from
Pete. Typically, his feats were
capturing or shooting multiple game birds with a single shot, i.e. six pigeons
on the same limb. He took careful aim
and split the limb and trapped all birds by their feet. The next week, it would be similar except he
inserted his ramrod in the rifle barrel, took careful aim and impaled all six
on the ramrod.
Then back north on Washington and
Walnut, past Rabe’s Store, the Arcade, the Kuenzel Mills, the First National
Bank and several canal warehouses to Second Street. Then, east to the last house on Second Street to Arnold (“Fat”)
Gieseke’s where Mrs. Gieseke (Elsie, mother of Marge Lietz) usually gave us a
cookie. She was such a pretty and nice
lady. It was a pleasure to be near the
end of our routes.
It must be remembered that New Bremen
in 1917-1919 was much smaller than now, also the number of subscribers was low
in proportion to population. Our
combined routes had no more than 60-70 customers.
The winter of 1918 was an especially
severe one, with temperatures below zero and very heavy snows. There was practically no motorized traffic
on the streets and no salt was used.
Once down, the snow stayed on a long time so that we were able to load
our papers on a sled and sometimes get a pull from a horse-drawn sled or
sleigh. It was a wonderful sensation on
a wintry night with the only sounds being dogs barking and sleigh bells
jingling, one which I will never forget.
My father, F.W. (“Pitt”) Bruns wrote
many articles for the “New Bremen Sun” under the name of “SNURB” (Bruns spelled
backward).