Do You Remember the Fuller Brush Man?

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LindaB

Member
How about the Watkins guy or the Avon Lady? All of them were welcome visitors in our house and we knew them by name. Since my mom didn't work and we were a one car family, she purchased many things this way.
 

Yes I remember, bought the best hair brushes from the Fuller Brush man, the best liniment from the Watkins man and the best product for repelling mosquitoes and it smelled great and softened your skin, Skin So Soft from Avon. Awww, the good old days.
 
We had something called Betterware? or Tupperware which were essentially plastic containers or plastic 'things'. I think people had a Tupperware 'party' and invited people to look at the merchandise. Nowadays we do have booklets from Avon put through the door for orders. Think I remember an advert where the doorbell was rung and then the words Avon Calling! :unsure:
 
Fuller Brush rarely when I was very, very young but not after that.

My father worked for Revlon so no Avon Lady for us. :cool:

We lived in rural areas so door-to-door sales were a rarity, and that suited my mother just fine.
 
jujube said:
Then there was the Jewel-T (Jewel-Tea?) truck that came around. My mom had a set of their dishes that she got a few pieces at a time. You'll see the dishes in antique shops frequently.
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Oh, yeah! I forgot Jewel Tea. Also the Charles Chip man.
 
I remember all those, and also the Encyclopedia salesman/woman... usually a man but the mother of a classmate sold Encyclopedias.

My aunt sold Avon. She always smelled so good 🙂 and I remember the little samples she put into the white bags.
 
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We had a Watkins vanilla man.

My mother and grandmother always tried to extract as much gossip from him as they could without giving up any information of their own.

When the visits ran too long they always tried to find some small inexpensive item to buy so he would be on his way.

The Watkins vanilla was and still is a very good product.

These days the local Walmart stocks Watkins vanilla.
 
Becky1951 said:
Yes I remember, bought the best hair brushes from the Fuller Brush man, the best liniment from the Watkins man and the best product for repelling mosquitoes and it smelled great and softened your skin, Skin So Soft from Avon. Awww, the good old days.
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Skin So Soft still repels mosquitoes. My former mother-in-law in Oz sold Avon for most of her life, and put me on to it. Thank goodness, as the mozzies there loved me. Their bites gave me quarter-sized welts.

Avon of today is not the Avon of Yesteryear. They sell everything. Clothes, jewellery, etc.
 
The Fuller Brush man still appears in a commercial for a home exterior washing tool that attaches to the garden hose. All the reviews of the product claim it is useless.
 
There was the blind man who came around to sell brooms and offer to recane your chairs.

How about the man with the pony you could get your picture taken on?

I also remember a guy coming around selling sets of Melmac (Melemine) dishes, supposed to be unbreakable. He was demonstrating how strong it was by pounding on a cup with a hammer when my sister flipped a plate off her highchair tray and it broke on the floor. Boy, was he embarrassed. My mom bought a set, anyway. They were still using them when I left home.

The Bible salesman. He could stamp your name in gold on the front cover.
 
One of the summer's best loved visitors- Mr. Softee. You heard that song, and it was "MOM!!!" My brother was 5/6. He would stand in line, tget his cone and walk away-, and not pay. This happened day after day. Was this a little kid, who didn't understand you needed money to get ice cream? Nope. He was not about to spend HIS money frivolously, he was hoarding it.
 
Yup,remember him.Also,the bakery truck man,milkman and we had a gentleman that used to come monthly from Prudential to collect the life insurance premiums,he was very nice,would sit with my Mom and Gramma and have coffee or tea and chat his name was Mr.Morrow.
Heck,even our doctor made house calls!
 
FullerBrush Man
Amway
Avon
Mary Kay
Tupperware
Kerby vacuum cleaners

My parents didn’t like surprise visitors and neither do I. Maybe that’s strange but that’s how I am.
When strangers appear at my front door I’m not too pleased so sometimes don’t even answer.
Today I huge tall guy showed up.😨

Skin so soft is great insect repellent that smells nice
 
The Fuller Brush man who visited our home was also the preacher in our little nearby chapel. As a child, I always knew him as "Mr. Thomas" and he had a deep booming voice which helped get his Sunday message across.

I was always fascinated when he opened up his big leather cases to allow my mom and grandma a view of his wares. Sadly, if I remember correctly, no toys ever appeared among his treasures but he always treated me kindly.
 
Avon 'Skin so soft' is well known amongst the camping community - especially here in Scotland where it helps to repel the dreaded 'midgie'. Yes, I remember the 'Betterware' man coming round with his suitcase, selling brushes, polish and other cleaning materials. Tupperware, I definitely remember. When my sister gave up nursing to raise her own family , she became a Tupperware agent, eventually becoming the area manager with a company car. When her family grew up, she returned to nursing.
 
Pinky said:
Skin So Soft still repels mosquitoes. My former mother-in-law in Oz sold Avon for most of her life, and put me on to it. Thank goodness, as the mozzies there loved me. Their bites gave me quarter-sized welts.

Avon of today is not the Avon of Yesteryear. They sell everything. Clothes, jewellery, etc.
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Do they ?...I didn't know that..:)


Yes I use skin-so-soft too instead of Buzz off or similar but I buy it online and not directly from avon, so I had no idea they're diversified
 
We had a little, bent over, old man that walked down the middle of our streets that we called The Umbrella Man. He pushed a cart with a little bell that was full of things, pots and pans, pottery, cups and saucers and...umbrellas! Whenever us kids saw him coming we'd run and tell our mothers and everyone bought some little thing from him. I guess it our way of supporting the poor old guy.
 
Yeah, I totally forgot about the Fuller Brush guy. There were a lot of door to door peddlers back then. Encyclopedia salesmen. The vacuum cleaner guy. There was a guy selling this pine furniture polish that was supposed to be super great. My mom hated the Tupperware parties. The host throwing the "party" got lots of free Tupperware for throwing the party., and guests were more or less obligated to buy something. Tupperware was not cheap, and my mom complained she could buy the same thing at a discount store for a third of the price. Nope, we never had a "Ding Dong" Avon Lady. I don't remember the name, but there was another cosmetic saleslady, who would come to your home. My mom got some kind of stuff that came in a small flat jar. I remember a guy with a big canvas top truck, who sold vegetables. There was a big scale that hung of the end of the truck. That's going way back to the late 40s., 50, 51.
 

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