Dugans Vs. Krugs – An Early Levittown Competition - Patch

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Community Corner

Dugans vs. Krugs – An Early Levittown Competition

One of the differences that mattered in a suburban marriage.

Louise Cassano, Neighbor

Posted Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 10:38 am ET|Updated Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 4:03 pm ET

We were a Dugans household.

 When my parents first moved to Elbow Lane in Levittown in 1951, the nearest grocery store was at the South Village Green, about a mile away. We were a one-car family, which was fine because neither my mom nor my eldest sister, who was 18 at the time, drove, and Dad was a city fireman not home for days at a time working 72 hours on and 72 hours off.

Dugans and Krugs were mobile food delivery services – kind of unique for their day and an important convenience. They brought bread, rolls, muffins, cakes, pies and other staples to the doorstep three times a week on clean trucks in which there were shelves that stored the inventory. They resembled small grocery stores on wheels. As I recall, Dugans trucks were white; Krugs were green. Milk was delivered in much the same way back then, as was laundry bleach called gevelle.

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If you bought from Dugans, you rarely bought from Krugs. We were a Dugans family. Mostly because Dugans solicited us before Krugs did, but in her slightly partisan demeanor my mother was sure Dugans prices were pennies cheaper than Krugs. Pennies mattered in those days and Mom knew prices like she knew the back of her hand.

Though Dugans and Krugs were pennies more expensive than the Sunrise Supermarket at the South Village Green, these street vendors were a highly valued service for suburban housewives, most of whom had no car at their disposal and for whom public transportation was a luxury they left behind in the urban areas from which they emigrated.

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I learned, years later, after we were engaged, that my husband’s family was a Krugs Family. I also learned they were Ford people; we were Chevy. They were national brands, we were store brands (remember Ann Page?) We had the same religious and ethnic history, but celebrated holidays differently. We were Christmas Eve; they were Christmas Day. We liked Romano on macaroni, they liked Locatelli.

Forty-six years later, I could look back on these differences and say they were inconsequential, but I’d be lying. Though Krugs and Dugans were no longer delivering by the time we were married, the other preferences with which my husband and I were raised were strong points of disagreement in the early days of our marriage. When I bought store brands to save 10 or 15 cents (pennies were losing their significance), he insisted Birds Eye was better. When we bought our first new car, he leaned toward Ford; I leaned toward Chevy. He won out. We compromised on Parmesan to complement our macaroni dishes.

As newlyweds, we felt we were betraying our parents by making choices that were contrary to theirs. As years went by, the differences strengthened our relationship. They taught us how to compromise and led to family preferences and traditions that became our own and our children’s. Now the children are establishing their own and I can’t help but wonder if they would have been Krugs or Dugans.

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