(slow upbeat music)
- The first time I ever made a delivery
was in the spring of 1953,
and I was six months old on my father's route.
I grew up doing this.
Seltzer man.
My name is Walter Backerman,
and I am a Seltzer Man.
A Seltzer Man is the order taker, the bottle fixer,
the driver, the deliverer,
the salesman.
You're everything rolled into one.
If people ask you what it is about the seltzer business
that makes you wanna continue doing it,
you hold that seltzer bottle
and you hold history.
You hold memories.
You hold an object of beauty.
That's 1871.
It still works.
- Without these bottles, this business doesn't exist.
This machine is a Barnett & Foster siphon filling machine.
I think it was made in London, early 1900s.
It's a six siphon grade filling machine.
It goes around through the carousel
and only one bottle goes in at a time.
So it's a lot of work.
The reason this is a better seltzer
is because there's nothing else in this seltzer
other than New York City tap water,
which is triple-filtered through sand, charcoal,
and paper, and CO2.
- Fortunately, as long as the machine is fixed
and I have a place to fill,
I can't see any reason why this business
should be a nail in the coffin situation
where it's over.
It won't be over till the last bottle of seltzer
is squirted, and I don't see that anytime soon.