Neil & Paul Beck (1^st Cousins) delivered groceries to the elderly residents in the valley from the Beck Brother’s (Beck & Bishop in later years) Fancy Foods and Staples Grocery Store for most of their teenage years. These elderly men & woman, more often the women than men, often times placed more than one grocery delivery order per day, perhaps it was because they forgot an item or two, or maybe they learned family members were coming over for a visit on little or no warning… no, it was most often due to the fact that they were lonely and the delivery boys provided them with some company, if only for a few minutes per delivery. If they were lucky, they could squeeze in more than one delivery per day.

Once the order was called in dad or Paul would put it together and set out to make their delivery, or deliveries depending upon how many lonely hearts were in need that day. They were often greeted at the door with cookies and milk to entice a longer visit and the boys were always willing to oblige as long as the cookie supply lasted. At first the deliveries were made with horse drawn carriages but by the 50’s the horses were traded in for a bright red “flatbed” Ford.

In the early years before the boys could drive a horse and wagon was their only option. Aspen was sparsely populated in those days and the deliveries were spread out all over the valley, sometimes in hard-to-reach locations on the back side of Aspen Mountain or up Smuggler Creek. Even as far out as Lenado. These remote locations afforded their customers with even less human interaction and a bigger need for an occasional visit from a “delivery boy.”

As time went on, Aspen began to lose more of these “old timers” and were replaced with the new generation growing up in the valley or moving in from the far reaches of the world. The need for deliveries got less and less as the 1960’s approached. Dad went on and started his own family and business as did Paul and the next generation was not needed for that type of work.

If you think about “small town America” a similar situation is evolving that takes you back to the days of the “delivery boys.” With on-line shopping becoming the “norm” small towns and people living in remote places now get to know their UPS Driver, Postman and even their Amazon drivers. I would hazard a guess that some of these lonely people order more frequently than they need to just to increase the chances of a quick visit form their own “delivery boy or girl.”  Sadly, these new delivery companies do not allow their drivers to linger any longer that what is absolutely necessary.