Do you remember the milk man?

[MichelleVW]

I'm 41 and I remember when I was really young we had a milk man. Had a little silver box out the side door and mom would leave a note telling what she wanted. It was the very early 70's.

He would leave milk and take our empty bottles!

 

[lowie]

i remember the milkman very well. he was my daddy

 

[lvanleer]

I remember as a child there was a silver metal box on our side porch where the milkman would make his weekly deliveries....fast forward to today my DH and I have a white metal box on the front porch of the same house I grew up in and the milkman from a country creamery delivers our milk, eggs, cheese, juice, and meats......It's great.....especially the chocolate milk and sweet tea we get weekly.

 

[Magic Mom]

We never had a milk man, but when we lived in Germany, we had a BEER man. He was my favorite delivery guy ever....<<sigh>> I miss having a beer man. Every friday I would leave my empty beer and soda bottles by the door, and like magic, they would be replaced with new filled bottles of beer. Almost like a Beer Fairy.

 

[Micca]

My brother, who is about 20 years older than me, was a milkman. When the delivery of milk became less common he switched to driving a bread truck.

 

[Geoff_M]

Yep... We had guys from Meadow Gold and Riggin dairies that used to deliver the bottles to the small tin boxes outside my grandparents house. My parents used the small kiosk drive-thru dairy store, the "Miller's Milk House", to buy the 1/2 gallon glass bottles of milk.

 

[NC State]

I remember on Wednesdays mama would leave a note on the door for her order. We would leave the door unlocked and our Pine State milk man would come in and place our order in the house! Boy things has changed over the years. (I'm only 43 years old not 90!)

 

[mpls_mm]

I still have a milk-man. It's cheaper than the store. It's the same brand as at the grocery store, just cutting out the middle man. I do well on his over-runs too. He has weekly specials of things they have too much of. We just got those little ice cream cups from him for a party and it was way cheaper. I can call and place bulk orders if I want to save.

 

[Pooh's Pixie]

We never had a milk man, but when we lived in Germany, we had a BEER man. He was my favorite delivery guy ever....<<sigh>> I miss having a beer man. Every friday I would leave my empty beer and soda bottles by the door, and like magic, they would be replaced with new filled bottles of beer. Almost like a Beer Fairy.

Wow, they know how to live in Germany! That would be DH's dream!

 

[Todd&Copper]

Uh, no. They did not have milkmen delivering fresh dairy goodness to our house in Staten Island in the mid-1970s. And they certainly did not have milkmen in my 'hood in Hawaii in the late 70's/early 80's.

So, do you have to [generally] be 40+ to remember the milkman (I am not talking about specialty dairies that deliver milk to a few customers, I mean the "everyone on the street gets all of their milk this way" kind of milkman)?

 

[manning]

And then there was the woman in our town who had five kids fathered by the milkman.

What a scandal until it was realized the milkman was her husband.

 

[chisnpeke]

My mom is 54 and she remembers the milkman. He would leave glass bottles with paper on the top to peel off. No caps.

She also remembers a bread man.

They sold their yellow VW Beetle to the milkman.

 

[GeorgeG]

I'm 62 and remember those days well. The milkman delivered milk, eggs, and butter. Then there was the bakery truck that delivered bread and cakes. A local market had a truck that came around with produce and the sharpener guy had a truck with a grinding wheel and sharpened knives and scissors (I think he sold them, too).

I'm not sure why we had all those conveniences unless is was for freshness. Everything we got that way was fresh from that morning where it might be a few days old in the stores. As others have mentioned, those were the days of stay-at-home wives with no cars, but just about every neighborhood had a neighborhood store within walking distance. Also, refrigerators were considerable smaller and couldn't hold a weeks worth of supplies. It was a simpler life back then, and in many ways, better.

 

[mickeysgal]

my daughter looks just like him

I remember the milkman when I was little. Funny how things have changed so much.

 

[DawnCt1]

I not only remember the "milk man" but the ICE MAN! When I was about 4 or 5, the ice man would come and put ice the ice boxes left out on the steps in Boston, where I lived. Some people still had ice boxes. We used to run behind him and he would break off chunks of ice for us on a hot day. The produce man used to come by horse drawn wagon. I also remember the Paddy wagon that would pick up the drunks in the alley. Now they travel by ambulance.
Here is where I used to live. Sorry the link didn't work. I used to live on West Canton St. in Boston. There was a huge horse barn across Tremont St. towards Washington St.

 

[mickeysgal]

So, do you have to [generally] be 40+ to remember the milkman (I am not talking about specialty dairies that deliver milk to a few customers, I mean the "everyone on the street gets all of their milk this way" kind of milkman)?

Yes, this is the way I remember it. Just like a postman or a newspaper boy. They were that common.

Someone upthread mentioned a produce truck going through the neighborhood. I remember that too. Very fresh fruit and veggies.

And yes, I'm 40+.

 

[claudia]

We still have a milk man......

 

[Michelle67]

I remember my sister getting her milk and butter from the milkman when she was first married in the early 70s. I know my mother had the milkman coming back in Delaware before we moved here in 1971 (we lived away from the base on an old farm, and she didn't have a car then) but I can't remember it.

Also have pics of me standing next to my mother while she did the laundry in the wringer washer in Delaware. OT but...just another of those "remember these." Uh oh, might start singing the Statler Brothers now.

 

[darlak]

We had a milkman until I was in my early teens, from White Dairy. He delivered milk, cheese and eggs, but my favorite was the chocolate milk. It was whole milk, not 2% or 1 %, which is almost all you can buy anymore in chocolate.

Almost everyday after school, I had a pb sandwich and a big glass of cold chocolate milk. To this day, I still want chocolate milk if I'm having a pb sandwich.

Did anybody else's milk delivery company offer promotional products? Ours gave Cornish-Thermo-Ware cups, bowls, pitchers and coffee mugs. I have a few pieces that were my moms and have managed to get a few more pieces on ebay.

 

[John VN]

I was the milkman's right hand helper in High School. Saturday mornings and snow days I would help deliver the milk. Had one cold, snowy weekday morning when Rich turned a corner too fast and then applied the brakes too hard. We had a morning milk bath that day.

Another day I jumped out of the truck a little too early with 2 quarts in each hand held between the fingers. Fast moving truck+non moving ground+improper timing=4 broken bottles and 1 gallon of milk on the ground.

Woke up at 3:30AM those days and to tell you the truth, I really did have fun.

Gee, that was over 40 years ago.