Do you remember the milk man?

[Cool-Beans]

My whole life, I never had or saw a Milk Man. I know both my grandmothers had them.

I had an apartment once that had a door in the wall back that opened to a compartment. The other side of the compartment had a door on the outside. My dad said it was where the Milk Men would have left stuff.

Dad was there to show me how to use a fuse box, as I'd never seen one before. He also explained the hole in the wall that would have held a thing you talked into when people rang. And the metal stick that opened the transom. And the round phone jacks.

I showed him the cool light switches that were buttons. You pushed one in to turn it on and another to turn it off. I was very excited to exlain that and Dad said, "No ****?!" and started laughing. Once I figured out that he knew about that stuff is when I started asking if he knew what this was and was that was.

Dad got quite a kick out going around that apartment with me and explaining stuff.

 

[Michelle67]

So if you had push button light switches, was the fuse box still the kind with the round screw-in fuses? Had both in our house at one time...

Our old house (build 1886) that we sold two years ago had a deep metal drawer in the kitchen, and behind it was steel mesh that opened to the outside of the house. It was closed over on the outside, but I think that would have been the potato bin?

 

[Cool-Beans]

So if you had push button light switches, was the fuse box still the kind with the round screw-in fuses? Had both in our house at one time...

Yup. It was an old, old place. Still there, too, push-button lights and all. They knew how to build stuff back then.

I also thought the glass was cheap crap because it was hard to see through, but it turned out to be something called "leaded" glass or something. Supposedly something people liked and was good to have. But it was damned weird looking at stuff through it. I prefer regular, even glass.

Our old house (build 1886) that we sold two years ago had a deep metal drawer in the kitchen, and behind it was steel mesh that opened to the outside of the house. It was closed over on the outside, but I think that would have been the potato bin?

You got me. That's kind of cool, though. A potato bin.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

My whole life, I never had or saw a Milk Man. I know both my grandmothers had them.

I had an apartment once that had a door in the wall back that opened to a compartment. The other side of the compartment had a door on the outside. My dad said it was where the Milk Men would have left stuff.

Dad was there to show me how to use a fuse box, as I'd never seen one before. He also explained the hole in the wall that would have held a thing you talked into when people rang. And the metal stick that opened the transom. And the round phone jacks.

I showed him the cool light switches that were buttons. You pushed one in to turn it on and another to turn it off. I was very excited to exlain that and Dad said, "No ****?!" and started laughing. Once I figured out that he knew about that stuff is when I started asking if he knew what this was and was that was.

Dad got quite a kick out going around that apartment with me and explaining stuff.

I lived in a triple decker like that in Mass--I think it's what fostered my love of old houses much to DHs chagrin!

On our "house" it also had a built in washing machine in the pantry,it was a steel box on the wall about 4 feet off the floor and it had a big steel cover that you lifted up and the inside had a washboard. My dad removed it so we could put in an actual washer and dryer.

We also had a garbage chute off the back porch that went right down into the garbage barrel housing--it was one chute that all 3 floors could use--all you did was go to the back porch,lift the cover off and drop the bag in and down it went!

 

[lilyv]

We have our milk delivered. It tastes great it because it's fresh, and I also like the idea of doing my little part to help support a local dairy.

 

[daisax]

We didn't have a milk man, but we had an egg man -- he'd deliver eggs and in the summer corn on the cob. Probably other things, too, but that's what my mom bought.

We also had (Mom still has) a garbage pail behind the house -- you'd dump your scraps in it, and a guy who owned a pig farm would come around and take it away. I'm not sure what the homeowner got out of it, but maybe it was against the law to put garbage in the trash? Come tot hink of it, they probably didn't use plastic bags -- just put the trash in the metal cans, so the trash guys WOULD know if you slipped in garbage.

 

[Michelle67]

We also had (Mom still has) a garbage pail behind the house -- you'd dump your scraps in it, and a guy who owned a pig farm would come around and take it away. I'm not sure what the homeowner got out of it, but maybe it was against the law to put garbage in the trash?

I've never heard this one before, but I wonder if it could have been something that evolved out of the WW2 economy, when the ideas of reusing and recycling hit the American consciousness in a big way? That seems like it would have been a way that the average person could help keep meat costs down for everyone.