News, Notes & Inside Info from a Children’s Book Author

The Charles Chips Man

November 15th, 2009 Posted in Family, Greatest Hits

Does anybody remember Charles Chips?

I do, or just did, recently, after not remembering it for years and years. Suddenly, once again, there it was: a specific object of memory newly recovered, pressing up against my skull. That big 16-ounce drum of Charles Chips.

For me, pushing 50, closing out the first decade of the 21st century, it’s an almost dreamlike memory. Not that there was once a company that made chips and pretzels. But that those items were delivered, from home to home, in a truck that looked like this:

My brother, Billy, you see, was once a Charles Chips Man. He drove a truck exactly like that, wore some kind of brown uniform, and had a route that carried him to various points on Long Island. I don’t really know the specifics of his job; I’ll have to ask him about it over Thanksgiving. But I do remember, as concrete image (for “image” is the container of memory; we need to “picture” those wisps of time), those tan-and-brown tin drums on top of our refrigerator. I can remember my fingers prying open a tin, working around the lid in a circle, lifting bit by bit. We loved our Charles Chips at 1720 Adelphi Road in Wantagh, New York. Seven kids, remember. So on a regular basis, that familiar truck would pull up to our house and the delivery man would ring the bell. Oh, the excitement!

“Mom, the Charles Chips Man is here!”

He’d ask if we needed any, and of course we did, three or four cans every time. We’d return the old cans, which I suppose were reused, and then off he’d drive to the next Charles Chips-loving house on the route.

How was such a thing ever possible? Could it be true? Oh, it was true, and glorious. A man would drive around in a truck delivering potato chips and pretzels from house to house, and how we loved it.

And one day — I suppose it was one day — he was gone. Not enough business to sustain the route, or perhaps not enough children left in our house. The Charles Chips Man stopped coming, stopped ringing our bell. And this afternoon, when I told Nick and Gavin about it, they looked at me as if I had lived in another land, a distant impossible time before they existed, when their father was a boy.

Does anyone else remember?

  1. 14 Responses to “The Charles Chips Man”

  2. By Leanne on Nov 23, 2009

    Yes, I do. Although my mother and father thought I was CRAZY when I recently told them of this childhood memory! I had to google home-delivery of chips to prove my memory was not a hallucination! They had forgotten, but I had not. It was a highlight of my childhood!

  3. By jimmy on Nov 24, 2009

    Thanks for commenting, Leanne. It does seem more like a hallucination than an actual memory.

  4. By Theresa on Dec 17, 2009

    My dad was a Charles Chips man, I was sooo embarrased at the time, that big truck parked in front of the house. But darn that was some good stuff! And everything we owned was stored in a Charles Chip can!

  5. By jimmy on Dec 18, 2009

    Thanks for commenting, Theresa. You made a poignant observation/confession about your father’s job, it’s easy (and a little sad) to imagine that young girl mortified by her father’s job, or social status. Feels like there’s a story there. You should write it down.

    As for those cans — they did come in handy!

    My sister — she’s about ten years older than me — went off to Puerto Rico and came back in love. I must have been ten years old. The boy followed her to New York and my father, who had some connection to Charles Chips (maybe he insured them?), found the boy a job. Of course, it was a disaster, as he was new to the country, driving around Long Island, hopelessly lost. The relationship didn’t last.

  6. By Phil McQueen on Jan 6, 2010

    We used to get delivery of the chips at the office where I worked in the 70’s. There was a $5 deposit for the big can…which was refundable. I kept my first can…and would just get the chips in a large plastic bag straight from the delivery truck. Then I just put the bag into the can. Kept the can in my office. Wish I still had it. And I sure do miss the chips….the BBQ were awesome !

  7. By Richard Dockery on Jan 21, 2010

    In the 80’s my family had Charlies Chips delivered to our home in Illinois. I loved them with Deans French Opinion dip.They had a out of this world taste. My mother loved the cookies!

  8. By rayray21 on Feb 6, 2010

    ah yes the Charles Chips man!!! Those were the days…. when the world was less complicated and you could leave your empty Charles Chip can on your doorstep and come home to find it refilled with those oh so goood thin crunchy chips that were salted just right…they don’t make chips like that anymore!…I wonder why they went out of business? BBQ was good, but the original flavor was my favorite…don’t remember Jewel T but I do rmember the green back stamps….bring back the good old days…kids these days are cheated….

  9. By Mora on Mar 10, 2010

    We had Charles Chips delivered to our home in a suburb of Rochester, NY. I think my mother still has the Charles Chips can stored in the basement!

  10. By Erin on Mar 11, 2010

    I remember having Charles Chips delivered where my dad worked in Phoenix, AZ in the mid-80’s. Just the other day on a christian radio station they were talking about things from your childhood that are not available anymore. The DJ said Charles Chips, but the younger producer had no idea what he was talking about. I hope you don’t mind, but I am emailing him a link to this page so he can learn about these wonderful chips.

  11. By Noel on Mar 13, 2010

    I remember the Charles Chips man coming to our house in Little Rock Arkansas as near ago as the late 1970’s. We didn’t have to be home when he came - just left the tins on the our back porch, took the empty tins and our check in payment. Then one day he didn’t come at all. That was a sad day at our home. No more Charles Chips.

  12. By Fred on Mar 23, 2010

    My wife and I were just talking about Charles Chips and Pretzels…so I looked it up. Those were great tasting products. It appeaers they did not do enough adds on TV or radio….I wonder if some one is still around thay has the formulas for those products?

    Thanks for info on a good company that appears to be no more….
    Fred

  13. By Rebecca on Mar 27, 2010

    Just bought a Charles Chips tin at a consignment shop. I had never heard of them. Decided to look it up and found this info.

  14. By Steve on Apr 23, 2010

    My Dad was a Charles Chips distributor in N.Y. In the early 1990’s, Musser Potato Chips, whom owned the company had finacial problems and went bankrupt. The comapny was put up for sale, but a suitable buyer was never found. I recall in the 1ate 1980’s the company was concentrating on the retail bag business in supermarkets and not so much on home delivery. What was better then the chips in the can, was the toll house chocolate chip cookies. WOW, those were good.

  15. By Angie on Jul 26, 2010

    Do they still make the dill pickle flavored ones from Charles Chips? I have been craving them for years and never get around to looking them up. Now that I’m pregnant for the first time, this is a MUST on my “TO DO” list. If someone has a direct phone number or web site, i would greatly appreciate it.
    Sincerely,
    Angie in Orlando

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