sheeny man, [[1950's junk dealer with horse-drawn wagon)

[rodj44137]

Kirk Douglas' father was a rag man. Kirk's autobiography is titled, "The Ragman's Son."

[Pontiac6000]

I remember Charlie's. They came as north as Fenkell in the '70s. Wasn't he the same guy selling those cement planters, the mahogany picnic stuff- and later- the barrel bbq pits? There had to be nothing to 'pick' from once the Lyndon industries slowed down and KMart blue-lighted them away.

Ray1936
We had the knife sharping guy with his grindstone hand cart as late as the early 70's in my Jefferson/Chalmers neighborhood as well as "Charlies Produce" truck, you could hear him on his trucks loud speaker calling out...Apples, Oranges, Waaaaaaaaaatamellon. Great memories of a
by gone era.

[poobert]

Being a child of the late Cold War, we never had horses on the street aside from DPD on occasion, which I imagine is more community relations than anything. I was just wondering recently when did horses finally fall out of everyday practical use for everyone in cities. It sounds like this was it! Interesting!

[13606Cedargrove]

We had a horse-drawn "junk man" in the Six Mile and Gratiot area until the mid-sixties. I do not recall his name, or if we even had a regular guy. I never heard of the "sheeny man" until much after that.

[pjbear05]

@13606Cedargrove did you also have Leonard, the old guy selling ice cream and frozen treats from a Cushman motorized trike? We had him in the Hoover - State Fair area, don't know if he worked that far east and south.

[13606Cedargrove]

pjbear: No guy on a Cushman, just Good Humor, and occasionally Mr. Softee. We also had the knife sharpener on foot with his wheel and bell, a blind man with a saxophone and a cup, and the produce vendors. All of them disappeared by the mid-sixties, except the produce trucks. Those trucks lasted about another 10 years, until the neighborhood went downhill, or more politically correctly, their customers moved away.

[expatriate]

I lived on Alter road in the 50s and the sheeny man came down our alley [[that was the border of Grosse Pointe Park) routinely and let the neighborhood kids feed his horse sugar, carrots and apples. I don't recall that there was nothing derogatory implied in the name.