The following is an excerpt from Give Me Seltzer at a reading I did in August of 2010 in Great Barrington, MA. It's called The Blizzard of 2010. It was the first time I read it to an audience, to see how they'd respond.

The following is from the start of a talk on seltzer I gave on August of 2010 in Great Barrington, MA. It's from an old children's book and, of course, about seltzer.

I used to schlep cases of glass seltzer bottles up from my cousin in NJ who had it delivered by Joy Beverage I heard your presentation at Ahavath Sholom and it got me thinking that the last time I had seltzer in glass bottles was 10 years ago when we brought up 10 cases of seltzer for my son's bar mitzvah. We decided against serving liquor as getting a liquor license for the day was exorbitant, we only had wine for kiddush and served seltzer mixed drinks. We also served egg creams, It was a hit! No one missed an open bar. I thought just the kids would want egg creams but alas everyone wanted them. Kept running out of chocolate syrup & milk and the bartender kept running out, literally, for milk & chocolate syrup.

Not only am I honored for her to let me include it in my presentation, but she will be there in person as well and available for me to ask a few questions before the audience. A night not to miss.

Ask a Seltzer Man
Third-generation seltzermonger Walter Backerman on the dying art of H2O delivery.
By Sarah Bernard
Published Jul 25, 2010

With bottled seltzer at every corner store, why do people still call you?

Taste. The other day, I bought a seltzer at Walmart, brought it home, drank it, and spilled it out. I tasted the plastic! I use beautiful glass bottles with metal caps, never plastic. My seltzer is five times more expensive—it’s $35 for a case of ten—but people are willing to pay for what they want.

They must feel some loyalty too.

People like to support the little man. Then there’s this thing called nostalgia. I’m going to be 58, and customers remember the day I was born because my father delivered to them. The problem is, when people die you have to hope you get your bottles back.

Describe a typical day.

My van holds 40 cases, and I drive from the Bronx to New Jersey to Brooklyn for my steady customers. Three days a week I go to fill up the bottles. In the whole city, there’s one siphon filling machine still working—in Canarsie. You start with tap water, put it through a triple filtration system, plus a charcoal filter. You have to chill the water to 38 degrees, then infuse the carbon dioxide.

Is there going to be a fourth generation of Backerman seltzer men?

All the old guys used to tell me the business won’t last five years. The route has no place in 2010. But it had no place in the eighties either, and here I am still going.

To sign up for seltzer delivery, e-mail mrbubbles105@cs.com or call 718-468-4047.

WAMC's The Roundtable is an award-winning, nationally recognized three-hour eclectic talk program. The show airs from 9AM - noon each weekday and features news, interviews, in-depth discussion, listener call-ins, music, and much (much) more! Hosted by Joe Donahue and produced by Sarah LaDuke, The Roundtable tackles serious and lighthearted subjects, looking to explore the many facets of the human condition with civility, respect and responsibility. The show's hallmark is thoughtful interviews with A-list newsmakers, authors, artists, sports figures, actors, and people with interesting stories to tell. Since hitting the airwaves in May of 2001, The Roundtable has interviewed the likes of Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Maya Angelou, Madeleine Albright, Jimmy Carter, John McCain, Bob Dole, Bill O'Reilly, Steve Martin, James Taylor, Bill Cosby, Stephen King, Melissa Etheridge and lots of other really cool people. Plus, Wilco does our theme song. What more can you ask for?

It should be a lot of fun and my first interview since I started the book from scratch last Fall. As they podcast their show, I look forward to sharing it here once it's live.

And of course, if you live in the Albany area, check it out live and let me know the 411 on the show.

Note, this was a factory that manufactured not bottles (that was left to Europe) but the seltzer heads.

(click to view larger)

(click to view larger)

Sara Berland and her daughter, Felicja, from Chełm, visiting Krynica, a town in Poland famous for its spa, 1920s. It was traditional for visitors to a spa to carry around their own cups, which they used for drinking the mineral waters distinctive to each spa. (YIVO)

Sarah Elton's lovely post today makes me want to see Seltzer Works, the documentary she mentions about one of Brooklyn's last seltzer men, Kenny Gomberg—and wish we had a seltzer delivery service in Jamaica Plain. I can't find one, but I do find Give Me Seltzer, a blog I'll start reading, by one Barry Joseph, who's at work on a history of seltzer he intends to make definitive. He's got seemingly everything about current brands, and also equipment and its history.

The writer goes on to recount his conversion by his stepdaughter from tap to seltzer water when he received a Sodastream machine.

Notch another one up on the side of seltzer!

For more information, download their PDF file.

I can't wait. I know this is going to be a real blast!