A Racing Bike, Spuds and a Picket Fence

An early Self Help Store

Interesting to read this week that a new chain of Delicatessens are being opened in New Zealand called "Nosh". The report in the newspaper breathlessly commented that they would carry a huge range of "food goodies" to satisfy every palate. There was also an article on Supermarket shoppers now being able to order their groceries online and have them delivered! Well Whoopee Doo!

One of my jobs as a teenager living in the Parnell suburb of Auckland was delivering groceries after school. Customers either rang their orders through or a child might deliver a hand held note to the grocers shop with a list of goods to be delivered, so this is basically back to the future!

One of the stores I worked for was a company called SELF HELP and the deliveries were made by via a large heavy grocers bike with a metal basket on the front. I was used to riding my own bike which was much lighter and smaller, so I always had difficulty riding the delivery bike. It didn't have a basket in the front like many of that era, so we used to put a carton inside to stop the groceries from falling through. Parnell is surrounded by many steep hills and the streets are also very steep and as I wasn't a very big bloke, I sometimes had to walk alongside the bike, otherwise it became a bit scary. The bike had mechanical brakes and these were never very effective, so all in all it was a difficult situation.

A Grocers Bike c 1959

One day a customer rang and wanted a sack of potatoes delivered (these were about 30+lb from memory) and as it was late afternoon, she wanted them for dinner that evening. The manager got the bag of spuds and when we went to load them on the bike we found the tyre was flat and we didn't have any patches to fix the tube. What to do! The solution was to put the bag of potatoes across the handlebars of his own bike, which was more of a slender racing type than the old heavy bike. I tried it out and although we had to adjust the handlebars I felt that I could ride it ok.

 I walked the bike across a very busy Parnell Road just to be safe and then leaned the bike against a wall for balance and mounted at the top of Garfield Street, which was quite steep. (and still is!) Away I went, down past the Police Station and as I started to crest the hill proper, I had a horrible thought. "What if I couldn't stop at the junction at the bottom of the hill where all the JJ Craig sand quarry trucks were continually going up and down." The Nestle' chocolate factory where my Grandmother worked was on the opposite corner and I had a vision of me hitting a truck at speed and crashing into the concrete wall of the factory! (now an apartment block)

Nestle' - now Apartments

I tried to gently turn the bike into a side street off Garfield street called Bath Street, but the weight of the potatoes on the handle bar wouldn't let me turn the bike and the brakes just wouldn't work at all. Panic stricken I tried as hard as I could in the split second before I went flashing past, gaining speed as I went. CRASH! I hit a picket fence on the property on the corner of Bath Street just missing a wooden power pole by inches! I lay on the pavement for a couple of seconds and then the pain in my head and face hit me. Oh Boy, did I feel sick. A man came over from the other side of the road and helped me to my feet and although quite groggy, I found I could walk unaided. I left the damaged bike and the spuds and headed back to the store, where the Manager grabbed me and sat me down on a chair. There was a bit of blood from my nose and one eye started to close, but I felt well enough to walk home, which wasn't very far from the shop. The Manager seemed quite concerned about his bike and the fact that he would have to recover the wreckage and also deliver the spuds (in his own time). I had a couple of days off school and by the end of the week my face was looking quite battered and bruised (enough to get some quality sympathy from my classmates) but the funniest thing of all was the shape of the picket fence clearly imprinted on my face!

x marks crash site

After crashing into the side of a car three weeks later (his fault of course) I decided to retire from grocery bike riding and went to work for another grocer who was my best mates Father. He wouldn’t allow bikes as they were too dangerous around Parnell Rise and side streets, so we used handcarts instead. Much safer and a lot less worry for my family. My mate Malcolm and I had some serious fun for the next year or so delivering groceries, but that is another story!