Hold those milk man jokes
When I was a kid everyone seemed to have a metal box next to their front door (even in NYC)–empty milk bottles were placed there and, Voila!, the next morning, fresh milk appeared, thanks to neighborhood deliveries made long before most people awoke.
Friends just passed along this article from the Glens Falls Post-Star about Jeff and Jan King who have revived a family tradition of delivering milk to their community.
Here’s a scene they might encounter during their first winter…this was New Hampshire last winter:
By the way, I also remember seltzer in large glass bottles with metal “spritzer” units on top (think circus clown props) being delivered in 6-bottle crates to us once or twice a week. My dad liked his fizzy water.
There was a knife sharpener, who arrived in our neighborhood with his horse-drawn wagon and honing stone every few months (I’m not kidding, middle of NYC post-World War II, not pre-Columbian).
What would you like to see come back to your neighborhood, something you remember from childhood? A service? A product?
Tags: milk delivery
We had a wood and coal burning stove when I was growing up in the back woods near Prescott (Ontario) in the early 50s. The stove was the central feature in our large kitchen. I can remember these heaps of coal being delivered to our home every so often. The delivery truck would just dump the coal in a pile on the driveway and it would be our job (my job) to shovel the coal into the bins inside the garage.
Of course, I also remember many a cold winter night when I’d have to go out into the garage – not attached – to fill up the coal scuttle and lug it in.
Ah, yes, the early 50s before central heating! Would I like to see that come back? Not on your life! I’ll take natural gas heating with a programmable thermostat any day.
I’m fairly sure that’s Exeter England rather than New Hampshire. They have snow plows in New Hampshire.
Add to the list of memories from the 50’s in New York City- Coal deliveries and picking up stray pieces to write on the sidewalks; bulk ice deliveries; dry cleaning deliveries; newspapers delivered both morning and afternoon; two mail deliveries a day during holiday season; the Fuller Brush man; a sanitation man pushing a broom and a barrel on wheels. I also remember the itinerent knife sharpener as well as a tinker who pushed a cart and would repair holes in your pots and pans.
Yes Sir, that’s Exeter in my home country, Merrie Ole England that is!