Omar Bread

Do any of you Midwesterners remember the Omar man? They drove door to door routes in small panel trucks with bread, pies etc. The companiy is long gone, but I wanted to find out something about the history of the company. I think the hq was Columbus, Ohio.

I don't remember any Omar man, but I did spot an Omar pie tin on e-bay.

Yes, I remember Omar Bread and also Donaldson Bread, which was also delivered to your door and from whom Mom bought bread weekly. Have no idea of the history of either but do remember them, along with the iceman, greengrocer and milkman...all door to door deliveries.

Donna

Don't remember an Omar man, but we had a "potato chip man"--Charles' Chips. Also making appearances at our house: the egg man, milk man, Fuller Brush man, and Avon lady.

quote:

Originally posted by KimChee43

Don't remember an Omar man, but we had a "potato chip man"--Charles' Chips. Also making appearances at our house: the egg man, milk man, Fuller Brush man, and Avon lady.

Charlie's Chips

When the Charlie's Chip truck would come by, the receptionist would make an announcement over the PA "the Charlie Chip man is here" and the shop would drop everything and go out and get their cans of chips.

One day this salesman from Alcoa walked in the door, handed his card to her and said, "Hi, I'm Charley Chipman". She could do nothing but stammer. That was 20 some years ago and I think he still calls on us.

Cakes

We use to get stuff from Omar,and the Hood milk man (who also would bring soda and chips and ice cream and other stuff),and the Jewel Tea man,who had practically a small grocery store on his truck,and some guy who sold my ma nylon stockings,and a local character who would show up every spring selling bunches of sassafrass,I loved the smell of that stuff.
Nowadays the only traveling food salesman I see is this guy who drives around with a chest freezer strapped to his pickup truck who always wants to sell a $200 dollar assortment of meat.I fell for his pitch one time and bought 100$ worth.It was pretty unremarkable beef but he was a pretty good salesman.
I also see the Schwanns guy in our neighboorhood but have never bought anything from him.Some of the stuff on their website looks pretty good.A guy I know says the breakfast sausage is good.I guess they have come back from that food poisoning incident a few years back.

The Omar bread man stopped at my house every week along with the Charlie chips guy. I think there are still some large chip tins hanging around somewhere. I miss the delivery guys. What a concept...food to your door.

I know this topic is way out of date, but my uncle was an Omar bread man.

hey billfish, a couple ofyears ago a guy showed up at my door wanting to sell meat from the back of his pickup: no thank you! I said. Now I have a NO Soliciting sign on my front door!

My name is Mary and my Dad was an Omar Man in the late 40's.
He worked out of Rushville, Indiana, but he started in Connersville Indiana and the bread men were sent to Richmond and Rushville.
I have ads that show the Omar men's pitures and it tells about them and their families and of course about the Omar products.
If you are interested - let me know at niddy_noddy@netzero.net

Regarding Omar Bread Co.
I used to work for them as a delivery man about the early 1960's when I got out of the Army. I worked out of their Libertyville Illinois place. I would go in early morning and load my truck and go on my rt in Northern IL. Their bakery was in Milwaukee Wisc. I left after about a year. I don't know how long they remained in business. It was a house to house route and miserable. People wouldn't pay the bill and I was responsible. I didn't meet anyone who stayed too long.

My dad was the Omar Man on the 1957 calendar, not sure if he did it more than 1 year. If anyone out there has one of these calendars, I would love to purchase it from you.

Cindy

Hi, went poking around the net and found several links,I hope this helps.
Pamela


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Omar+Bakery&btnG=Search

In our town, the Omar Bread man was Lee Niceswanger and everyone knew him. Grandma's favorite was their Spanish Bar cake, but I always voted for the chocolate cup cakes. We didn't have TV then, but my aunt did, and I still remember the Omar Bread commercial with its catchy tune:
(whistle) Oh, Mom! Here comes the Omar man!
I'm the Omar man, (tap,tap,tap)
knocking at your door (rappa tap tap).
When you taste my bread (mmmm boy!),
you're gonna want more (rappa tap tap).
Yes, everone loves those cookies and cakes
and the wonderful bread the Omar bakes!
Get it from your Omar man!

I remember the Omar bakery trucks that delivered to homes in Milwaukee. In fact the bakery building still exists at 2130 W. Clybourn in Milwaukee. If you know how to use Street View in Google you can actually see a picture of the original building.

Omar had the best bread...very heavy and nutty....there was a cinnamon nut roll and cream turnovers. It was always a treat...I lived in Soux City .....my sister and I sang the tune/jingle as we ate the wonderful stuff..

Hey Mom, here comes the Omar man!

quote:

Originally posted by KimChee43

at our house: the egg man, milk man, Fuller Brush man, and Avon lady.

I am always amazed to see what comes back when I search.

I thought Fuller Brush was gone by 1967.

http://www.fullerstore.com/

My dad worked for Omar for many years.  He went from a route guy to running their locations in three cities.  We moved three times as the company was going under and they kept moving dad as the closed the.  He was the GM of Donaldson Bakery when it was in Louisville,KY.  I can remember him saying that the main problem was that women were not home as often in the later years and getting paid was harder.  He also indicted once that the union didn't help either.  The had chips and even soda at one time but their pies and bread were fantastic.  I believe the company was headquarterd in Omaha, NE with goods baked in other locations as well.  The last time I saw the name on a loaf of bread was at an outlet store in Columbus Ohio in the mid 1980's.   Great Thread.  Glad I found Roadfood on the web.

The only Omar I'm familiar with, is a tent maker!

I grew up in Galesburg, IL.  I remember the Omar bread guy stopping at our house.  If my memory is correct, it was in 1951 or 52.

The Omar Bakery truck came down our street in Indianapolis in the early 50s. That was a period when there was a lot of street activity from the milk man, the post man, the numerous ice cream trucks, coal delivery, ice delivery for ice boxes, and on and on. Even the police cars would cruise down our street on a regular basis. We played outside a lot and got familiar with it all. Most every family had a stay at home mother.

Stridge,

Thanks for a great question!  What a trip down memory "Lane." There is a tremendous amount of information in all of the responses you received. I lived in Crawfordsville, IN during the 1950s. We lived in a house on Lane Ave.  The Omar man would deliver bread and treats every week. 

I was just home for the weekend and Mom was talking about back in the day when bread and milk was delivered to our door. She mentioned the Omar man.  I remember the ice cream truck that came by the house daily; the Borden's Milk trucks.  It was a great time and place to grow up!

I am still looking for some Omar Bakery calendar's.  I found out he might have been on the calendar from 1954 to 1958, not positive.  Now more important than ever that I find some of these.  If you have any of these please let me know, you can send me a email at .  Thanks

I have fond memories of the Omar Bread who delivered to our home in Indianapolis his name was Chet Miller and he use to let my sister ride with him on his route even though he was not suppse to. We loved their baked goods, back in those days we did not have a car and it was easier to have lots of stuff delivered than take the street car down to the store. There was a company in competition with Omar it started with a a F I can't spell it, but think it was part of Bond Bread.

I remember the Omar man very well. They had some very tasty products.

I remember Omar, they were my competitor.  I worked for Donaldson Baking Co in 1958.  Mon, Wed. and Fri. I delivered bread to Upper Arlington near Columbus.  I did the projects on Tues, Thur., and Sat.  I lived right across the street at 10th and High.  I remember we had a bread called Hollywood bread.  It was less fattening.  The reason it was less fattening was because it was half the size of there regular loaf of bread.  They used the same bread dough to make both loaves of bread.  Hollywood bread was 50 cents a loaf and the larger regular loaf was a quarter.

Omar Bakery, once the largest 'door to door' bakery in the country, larger then wonder bread.
Headquarters in Rye, New York.
The demise was when father passed away, company passed down to family, company was sold piece meal.
Continental baking tried to buy them, but sale was nixed by government (anti-trust, same deal as ATT buying T-mobile).  Investor bought them, ran them right into ground.  Also the day of housewife being home buying bread and bakery from a route delivery, went by way of milk man.  They were quite the operation.  My father worked for them in management, ran many facilities through out midwest. We were moved almost every year. I went to 8 different schools before we settled in Milwaukee, their last profitable plant in the 60's.
Proud past, sad ending.

My Dad was an Omar Man in Columbus in the 50's. Do you remember the jingle?
"Get it from the Omar Man!"

I remember it well (grew up in Indianapolis).  I particularly recall their breakfast sweet rolls/coffee cake.

Oh, Mom!...Oh, Mom!....... Here comes the Omar man!
 
I remember this jingle being played countless times on the radio when I was a child back in the early 1950's.
 
There was also one for a coal company that went like this;
 
Call the Kessel truck to fill your bin, the chill stays out and the heat stays in.

Oh, Mom!...Oh, Mom!....... Here comes the Omar man!
 
I remember this jingle being played countless times on the radio when I was a child back in the early 1950's.
 
I also am in possession of an old loaf Omar Bread carrying container which I assume was used on the Omar Bread Trucks to stack loafs in the truck to prevent crushing the bread while in transit on the bread sale route.
 
There was also one for a coal company that went like this;
 
Call the Kessel truck to fill your bin, the chill stays out and the heat stays in.