DID YOU STILL HAVE A MILKMAN growing up? (Do you look suspiciously like him? tee hee.) Historic New England has a really wonderful virtual-online exhibit about the history of milk home delivery from 1860-1960. The exhibit also helps explain some of the history of modern kitchens. Alas, we Retro Renovators know how the story ends. –>
I am the oldest child, born in ’59 (same year as Barbie) and I think that we actually still had a milkman delivering milk to our first little house on Buena Place in Carlsbad. The one with the countertop I once featured and mom said it was in that house! But I can’t find the post now, drats. Mom, can you verify we had a milkman?
Here in the Berkshires we still have a functional dairy, and they still do home delivery, hitting each town in the county one day per week. High Lawn Farm, a really wonderful place, it’s like a fairy tale, more than 100 years old. The milk is wonderful, but it costs more, of course. It comes from Jersey cows, and I think they say it has more protein and calcium and of course, none of those artificial hormones. On Saturdays in the summer I drive down (it’s just 2 or 3 miles away) and buy a half gallon of heavy cream. I then make the most delicious delectable ice cream in the world with a vintage electric (yes, I know…) ice cream churner that I got at a garage sale for five bucks.
The dairy! The milkman! The chocolate cows that make chocolate milk! All this is leading up to: Historic New England’s absolutely delightful virtual exhibit – From Dairy to Doorstep. Very interesting. For example, do you know the #1 factor that killed the milkman? I tested my history-teaching husband, and he guessed ‘industrial dairy farming.’ Hah! Gotcha! The answer: Refrigerators. These little details about how and why life changed – became “modern” – fascinate me. In fact, I think the reason I like the postwar era so much, rather than say, the Victorian era, is that in many ways we are still playing out the changes launched after WWII. Most all the elements important to life today gelled then.
The exhibit reports:
After World War II, change came to the milkman. The milkman was a familiar character in the neighborhoods of small towns and cities alike, and dairy products now held an unquestioned place in the American diet. Yet, refrigerators, supermarkets, suburban sprawl, and automobiles threatened home delivery. Consumers chose to live in different places and get milk in different ways. In fact, by the end of the 1950s, home delivery fell into a decline and never recovered. By the early 1950s, reliable power refrigeration replaced ice boxes and revised the homemaker’s job of buying and cooking for the household. Perishable foods like milk could now be bought in greater quantity and kept longer without spoiling, more meals could be made from leftovers, and frozen foods could replace fresh. The milkman did not have to arrive every day in order for the family to have unsoured milk.
Tour the wonderful Historic New England virtual exhibit here.
Lauren says
Thanks so much for this post & link to Historic New England! REALLY enjoyed the read, and I love this quote from the virtual exhibit:
“It seems strange to one not intellectually soaked in milk propaganda that whole races can live and thrive and acquire strength and endurance without ever touching a drop of milk, or without using any other products of dairy animals.” —F. J. Schlink, Eat, Drink, and Be Wary, 1935
roger price says
I was born in 1956 in ca. and we had a milk man that used to bring milk to the house. we also had a butter and egg man. and a bread man that would deliver bread and he also had great donuts on his truck! I really miss those donuts!!
dory m says
I was born in Detroit Mi. in the 40s and as a young girl I remember the milkman brought the milk every day and he had a horse pulling the milk truck. Does anyone remember this. I would love to prove it to my older brother and husband.
Pedo43@yahoo.com
Ernest Carter says
Back in the early 50’s in Mass I can remember the Hood milkman stopping at our house every other day and leaving milk. As kids we used to ask him for some slivers of ice on a hot summer day. Now I have my own milk truck and I am outfitting it to look like it used to. Sure brings back a lot of memories.
Stephen Kennedy says
I am looking for information on two former Dairys, The Fredericksburg Creamery in Fredericksburg Va. and the Crescent Dairy of N.W. Washington D.C. I collect milk bottles and have one of each and I am looking for the history of both. My Father was a Milkman for Alexandria Dairy in Alexandria Va.
Ed Chan says
My friend Pat Thompson is looking for information and photos of Alexandria Dairy. If you have anything, please let me know.
Ed
Ken says
I have recently acquired a “cream storage/delivery box with the words “Alexandria Dairy” I cannot find anything about this company….”Dairy Queens” have made it almost impossible to search. I did find the “Mount Vernon Dairy” in Alexandria….it would be wonderful to get more information….such a shame when a legacy is lost …..
Brian says
Hi Stephen,
My family ran Farmer’s Creamery in Fredericksburg for many years, is this the one you are looking for? I might be able to help. Many members of our family have the bottle, crates, signs, pictures and tools from the creamery.
Kelley Farmer Smith says
I am a collector of Farmers Creamery in Fredericksburg, VA. As I live in the area I have been looking for historical information and have not been able to find anything at all. Can you please give me any insight as to where to look or information that would help. Thank you!!
pam kueber says
Hi Kelley, I do not know…. Sorry that I could not provide more help…
Brian says
Hi Kelley,
I have quite a bit of information actually, if I don’t have what your looking for I might be able to locate it. What are you looking for?
-Brian
Krissy says
Hi! I am also searching for information on Farmer’s of Fredericksburg. I am looking for pictures of polls bottles, so when I search, I know that it Ida from the creamery here and not in another state. Is there a database or website that would show logos throughout the years?
Sherri says
Brian,
Two of my grandparents worked at the Farmer`s Creamery and I collect memorabilia. Do you have any items for sale? I am particularly interested in finding a sign.
Thanks!
Ed Chan says
Steven,
Do you happen to have any photos an Alexandria Dairy Delivery Truck? I recently purchased a 1948 Divco Milk truck and want to paint it like those from Alexandria Dairy. My e-mail is capitaldriving@yahoo.com.
Thanks.
Ed
marjorie says
We had a milkman in Durango, CO in the Mid- 60’s …we lived in a rural area out of the city limits…My mom bought milk, cottage cheese and ice cream and even bacon from him. We got our set of colored aluminum glasses and pitcher from him … cottage cheese came in the glasses and ice cream came in the pitcher. I think it was Meadow Gold or Bordon’s….
I live in the Twin Cities (MN) now and you can get milk delivered from Kemps
CouldBeVeronica says
I was born in a small town in NE Central PA in 1969 and don’t remember milk deliveries or milk doors, although my closest neighbor was a dairy farmer. He sold all his milk to Hershey for many years. In the 70’s, however, Eppler’s Farm opened a huge farmers market where, in addition to bulk products and produce of all kinds, they sold their own milk in large plastic bags designed to fit into a special plastic pitcher. I seem to remember the pitcher being a distinctive 70’s brown–but that may just be my memory’s color palette from that era! They closed down decades ago, but it was VERY popular at the time.
Moonlight Milk says
Moonlight Milk has been delivering in Carlsbad and North County San Diego since 2002!! Milkman still kicking:)
Bill says
I was a milkman in Maine for two years Aroostock Farms in Presque Isle. Then i moved to western Mass. and was one for High Lawn Farm in Lee. Mass. for thirty years. The best times of my life. got know a lot of people and watch there kids grow up.
pam kueber says
Hey, Bill, I live in Lenox!
atomicbowler-dave says
There was a small (ever shrinking) firm in our city until fairly recently that still did home deliveries. In the early to mid 70’s we still had at least two competing firms, although they were undoubtedly both much smaller than they once had been. I had the aquaintance of one of the owners at the last survivor and got to have a real hoot driving an old Stand-Up style (the deliveryman actually drove standing up, leaning against a butt-rest and hanging on to the steering wheel!) Divco milk truck around their lot for a while one afternoon in my twenties. Too bad we don’t have things like that in our culture anymore, indeed.
Dave