The last of the seltzer men

Eli Miller is one of New York City’s last seltzer men, said Corey Kilgannon in The New York Times. For more than half a century, Miller, 79, has delivered bottles of carbonated water to homes across Brooklyn. He can afford to retire, but that would mean his customers, many of whom have been with him for decades, might resort to store-bought seltzer. “I don’t want them to have to drink that dreck you buy in the supermarket,” he says. “So I guess I’ll retire when Gabriel blows his horn.” When Miller began delivering in 1960, there were some 500 seltzer men in New York, and a half-dozen bottling plants. Now he can count his competition on one hand, and the city has only one seltzer factory. Time has also taken its toll on Miller. He used to be able to carry two full cases of seltzer—weighing 70 pounds apiece—up four flights. Now he asks his customers to bring them up themselves from the lobby. Some days, back pain stops him from working. But he’s adamant that he won’t quit. “Old seltzer men never die, they just lose their shpritzer.” In 1976, his father, then 72, suffered a fatal heart attack while carrying a case up to a customer. “My father died on the route,” he says, “and I’m going to die on the route.”

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