The Huckstering Hankins Family

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 When I was growing up, every now and then, my Dad (Philip Charles Hankins) would talk about his childhood in Collegeville, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. One story he mentioned (more than once) was that he and his brother Ralph sold produce from the farm to their neighbors during the depression. I had the impression that it was the two of them an little red wagon going from house to house! 

Last night, I found a copy of a Class of 1948 newsletter for Collegeville-Trappe High School in Trappe, Pennsylvania likely from late winter/early spring of 2004. Apparently my Dad had emailed a classmate, Gene Pressler, to ask a question about someone who played basketball for the school in 1945! Gene looped another classmate, Jerry Wien, into the conversation - and away they went reminiscing about growing up in Collegeville. 

]]]Suddenly my Dad started writing about selling produce during the depression! And I finally have a better picture of what happened. I'll just share what my Dad wrote . . . 

"I remember them [a specific set of summer cottages in town] since my father [Francis William Hankins] would take the back seat out of the '31 Studebaker and fill the car with vegetables. He would drive slowly through town while we three kids [Ralph William Hankins, Elizabeth Ann Hankins and my Dad] would sell home grown sweet corn (25-cents a dozen) and other vegetables (beans in paper bags, 8-cents a pound; two pounds for 15-cents) by knocking on doors. We arrived [in Collegeville] in '36 so this must have been '37 or '38. Dad was laid off the week I was a year old ('32) and he never worked for anyone else again. He started his own consulting business somewhere around 1938. 

Philip Charles Hankins, Francis William Hankins 
and Elizabeth Ann Hankins
Early 1940s

People would come out to the street and select their corn out of the back of the car. Some wanted to open the ears to look at them. Dad set a policy: thirteen ears if you didn't strip down the husk; twelve ears if you did. It was a tribute to the quality of the corn that, after a short while, almost all the women would just pick the ears without ripping off the husk." [1]

Gene replied to this story - commenting "I can't quite imaging the Hankins family as hucksters!" [2]

]Ralph William Hankins on Red Boy
Early 1940s

In another email, Dad wrote 

"So far as Hankins huckstering is concerned, I assure you it is all true. I remember one day we came upon a came for diabetic children and the person in charge was Mrs. French (Polly's mother). Dad asked what they could use and they selected quite a bit. Mrs. French asked for a sales slip and Dad wrote one out. He wrote "Paid" on it and we went on. Dad could be generous but, if we had money to give away, we wouldn't have been huckstering." [3]

I loved reading these emails between my Dad and his high school friends. Now I want to figure out if there are any more published in other issues of the Class of 1948 Newsletter! 

As I looked for photos to accompany this blog post, I found more evidence of my family's struggles during the depression. I have lots of photos from the early 1930s, and then nothing until the 1940s. It turns out, sometime a gap in a family photo album tells a story too. 

 If you'd like to get a sense of his high school - check out the 1948 Colllegeville-Trappe yearbook on Ancestry. 


[1] Email Phil Hankins to Gene Pressler, 29 March 2004, published on page 2 of an undated issue of the Class of 1948 newsletter. 

[2] Email Gene Pressler to Phil Hankins, 29 March 2004, published on page 2 of an undated issue of the Class of 1948 newsletter. 

[3] Email Phil Hankins to Gene Pressler, 29 March 2004, published on page 3 of an undated issue of the Class of 1948 newsletter. 

Location: Collegeville, PA 19426, USA

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