Maine Egg

Some family history…

Uncle Myron Lord, Phyllis’s (Dr. Wingnut’s Great Aunt) brother had a cold storage space in Portland on Commercial Street where he stored and distributed fresh apples from his orchards in Parsonsfield, Maine to grocery stores throughout New England.  When the managers of these stores came to him and asked him if he would also be interested in fresh egg distribution as the stores were presently unhappy with the eggs they were then receiving.  At this point he was not interested but told Dad (A. S. Treworgy) that if he were interested he, Myron, would set him up in the egg business.  When Dad agreed Myron informed the stores that he had a competent person to furnish them with the freshest of eggs in a very timely manner.  Thus Maine Egg Producers was born.

Dad rented a small cooler space from New England Cold Storage ( building owned by George Lewis) on Commercial Street in Portland.  Paul Neal remembers this small cooler room being partitioned off from the other cooler space by a make-shift wall.  In this space the eggs were held up to a light one at a time to be candled.  At the doorway of this room hung a heavy blanket to darken the area for candling.  Dad had a desk in Myron’s office.  One of the only areas that was warm.  The egg cartons were in the beginning not marked but color coded for the varying egg sizes.

Pyramids was the term used for the folding egg boxes.  Brand ‘X’ boxes were used in the beginning.

Paul Neal used to go in and help out after school and would ride with Roy Carr when he went out to pick up eggs.  Dad also would pick up and make the deliveries.  Paul remembers the old Ford delivery truck.  There were holes >in the floor of this truck and Dad put an old metal sign under the floor mats to plug the holes so that water from the road would not splash up into the truck.

For the first couple of years the eggs were delivered only to local stores.  When television first came out dad wanted to show that his fresh eggs were better that those held in cold storage so…He enlisted the services of Agnes Gibbs and Jake Broffee to taste test the eggs for Agnes’ television cooking show.  Jake was apparently qualified because he had an agricultural show on radio… ‘Yours for better agriculture.’  The results were that the cold storage eggs for these two taste testers tasted better than the fresh ones.  Needless to say the show never aired.