Lesson:Walter Backerman, Seltzer Man

Listening lesson

1. Listen to the audio below.

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2. Now listen again following the text.

Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Walter Backerman, Seltzer Man

Walter Backerman - SELTZER MAN New York Works: Audio Portraits of a Vanishing City Produced by: Emily Botein & Joe Richman The Next Big Thing (NPR) 1/19/2002

Dean Olsher, host: Hi, this is Dean Olsher. I'm going to take you around the city and introduce you to people who make up the radio series New York Works, seven people who are in professions that are slowly disappearing.

MUSIC

In 1919 Jacob Rosenblum took his horse-drawn wagon and began delivering bottles of seltzer-water to tenements on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the late 1940s, his son also became a seltzer deliveryman and later his grandson took over the route. There used to be thousands of seltzer men in New York City and now Jacob Rosenblum’s grandson, Walter Backerman, is one of the handful left.

MUSIC FADES IN

HEAR TRUCK STARTING, RATTLING

Walter Backerman, seltzer man: The time now is 6:30 in the morning, on 111th street, right off of Amsterdam Avenue, not far from Broadway. Let me start from scratch. My name is Walter the Seltzer Man (STREET SOUNDS, HORNS HONKING.) This is my truck. It has a little bit of everything. A bunch of old, old bottles, office supplies, I got aspirin in case anyone comes in the truck got a headache. Got flares, digital camera, I have guide books, I got tour books in case I’m curious I drive by I see an old building, want to know a little bit about the history. I have a truck that’s basically extremely chaotic. To anyone else it would appear to be a shambles, but to me it’s semi-organized.

MUSIC FADES UP

BOTTLES RATTLING - TRUCK STOPS - WALTER CHECKS BOTTLES

Walter Backerman: Make sure the bottles work I squirt ‘em. Make sure they haven’t leaked, that the gas is still good. You’ve got blue bottles, you’ve got green bottles. I just like to look at them. I think the seltzer bottles looks beautiful. (DESCRIBING BOTTLE) The year is 1952. That’s the year I was born, the bottle’s as old as I am. Funny thing about it is that now to this day, the bottles are worth so much that I’d be better off pulling out all my bottles out of every customer's house and selling them slowly as antiques and collectibles. At this sad point in time the bottle is unfortunately worth more dead than it is alive.

SCENE CHANGES

Walter Backerman: Seltzer man. (DOOR BUZZES) I have pleasure in my route I really do. Honest, it’s not just the money. I enjoy the route, I enjoy meeting people, I enjoy the camaraderie, I enjoy the socialism. And I like talking to people.

MUSIC FADES UP - VISITING PEOPLE MONTAGE

Customer 1: Oh, hello.

Walter Backerman: How you doing?

BOTTLES RATTLING

Walter Backerman: I remember one time my wife said, look, don’t take it seriously, you’re a novelty for the minute. You’re just the delivery guy. Don’t think you’re anything more than that. You’re like the guy delivering Poland Springs to a water cooler. And I said to her, god I hope not.

VISITING CUSTOMERS

Walter Backerman: Seltzer man! How you doing?

Customer 2: Walter the Seltzer Man!

Walter Backerman: When I asked my grandfather about the route in the old days, he said to me, it was a tough route, it’s a hard way to make a living. I really wish that you would find something easier to do. And my father too, I remember I went to visit my father in the hospital and my father was really very, very sick, you know his body was kind of giving up on him. And the weird part about it, the last thing my father ever said to me was, you know, I have nightmares about the route. I go to sleep and dream I’m on the route, it just never ends. I wish you didn’t follow in my footsteps. So when you see your grandfather filled with regret about you following in their footsteps, you see your father filled with regret about you following in their footsteps it's got to make you think maybe you could have done something different with your life. Sooner or later, nothing lasts forever, and there may be a time when this is the end of the world for the seltzer route.

SCENE CHANGES: IN TRUCK

Walter Backerman: The time is now 2:30, and we’re in the van Cortland section of the Bronx. We’re about to make a right turn onto Hillman avenue, going around the corner from Mrs. Blitz. She’s been on my route since before I was born. And she was buying seltzer from my father then. Her parents bought from my grandparents. And now they’re gone, Mrs. Blitz’s husband’s gone, my father’s gone. All that’s left of this whole story is me and Mrs. Blitz.

DOOR BELL RINGS

Mildred Blitz, customer: Oh, hello.

Walter Backerman: Oh, don’t you look beautiful, you got all dressed up for me?

Mildred Blitz: Come here. I’ve got a defective bottle here. When Walter comes in the door on Saturday, we just go back over the years. I mean the seltzer is great, but it’s Walter. That’s the thing about his product. He’s the product. It’s not the seltzer, it’s Walter. He talks about retiring, I get sick. While we’re on the subject, would you like a glass of seltzer? I could make you a... with chocolate and milk. (SOUND OF SELTZER SQUIRTING) What’s sad now is the seltzer that’s being sold in the supermarket doesn’t come close. It doesn’t have the taste; it’s nothing. When you open the top it fizzles a little the first time and then it dies, a horrible death. Ich, it’s awful.

Walter Backerman: You got the real thing baby.

Mildred Blitz: That’s right. Drink some more.

Walter Backerman: How many years you actually live in this apartment?

Mildred Blitz: 52 years.

Walter Backerman: Wow, and my father was delivering to you in the late forties.

Mildred Blitz: It was great. Everybody had different men in their lives. You had the seltzer man; you had the milkman. These were the people in your life. It's a different world today. Tempis is fugite, which means time is passing, you know that.

Walter Backerman: Of course. Time flies. It’s funny uh I remember coming here as a kid I might have been ten years old and now I’m almost fifty and I’m still doing it.

Mildred Blitz: You’re not just a seltzer man. You’re too bright. When you told me you were leaving law school to work with Al, I was devastated.

Walter Backerman: Well that's the road not taken.

Mildred Blitz: Not that I have so much regard for lawyers. I mean I’d rather take an honest seltzer man any day of the week but the future for the honest seltzer man is what, is what?

Walter Backerman: I guess you’re right. Seltzer is just an anachronistic profession.

Mildred Blitz: So I think you’re beautiful.

Walter Backerman: God bless you baby, you’re looking pretty good yourself.

Mildred Blitz: It took me hours to get to look like this.

MUSIC FADES IN

Walter Backerman: The time is now 6:30 at night and it’s time to head back home. My whole life was spent doing seltzer and the funny thing about it is that since I’m one of the last left as far as the seltzer world is concerned it’s like to a lot of people I’m selling memories. When I come back and I bring the seltzer. It’s the same bottles that my father delivered to them, maybe that my grandfather delivered to the grandparents. You come into their house, for some reason for that moment in time the husband’s still there the kids are still there, they’re young. Somehow, I bring in history.

MUSIC FADES UP

I like being the seltzer man.

MUSIC ENDS

Noah Adams, host: New York Works is produced by Emily Botein and Joe Richman, with help from Ben Shapiro. The series is a collaboration between Radio Diaries and WNYC’s The Next Big Thing. This is All Things Considered from NPR news.

2002 Emily Botein & Joe Richman

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