# Deliveries in the old days



## Lashann (May 20, 2020)

I remember as a kid seeing the milk man come in his truck to deliver milk in glass bottles to our front porch in the mornings.  Hubby still has memories of a horse driven ice wagon coming to his street to make regular deliveries of ice to an elderly neighbour.  Back then we were so dependent on these deliveries to our neighbourhoods.  When our kids were growing up about the only regular truck I saw on the street was the ice cream guy in the summer.  How times have changed.


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## Aunt Bea (May 20, 2020)

I remember the milkman and the Watkins vanilla man.  The Watkins man didn't come often but when he did it always seemed to be a long visit.  My mother or my grandmother would always try to think of an inexpensive item to buy in an effort to send him on his way.  Our Watkins man didn't have a fancy van like this one he worked out of the trunk of his old car.







I'm sure that some of today's kids get just as excited about seeing the FedEx and UPS delivery people pulling up in a big truck.


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## Rosemarie (May 20, 2020)

I can't remember my mother ever actually shopping for groceries. Everything was delivered. She would send me to the shop with a list, and it would be delivered later in the day. There were various tradesmen who called in their horse and cart vehicles...knife-grinders, tinkers, gypsies selling things.  There are still a few mobile shops, but not like it used to be.


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## hollydolly (May 20, 2020)

Lashann said:


> I remember as a kid seeing the milk man come in his truck to deliver milk in glass bottles to our front porch in the mornings.  Hubby still has memories of a horse driven ice wagon coming to his street to make regular deliveries of ice to an elderly neighbour.  Back then we were so dependent on these deliveries to our neighbourhoods.  When our kids were growing up about the only regular truck I saw on the street was the ice cream guy in the summer.  How times have changed.


I used to be a milk delivery girl.. getting up at 4am when I was 12 & 13 years old.. delivering milk to a thousand houses which included 6 blocks of high rises, 20 floors high ...  with the milkman ( my father).. and the milk boys my brother and his pal... in all weathers, MIlk bottle iced up in winter and in the freezing dark mornings.. Home by 7am,  to just a cup of tea and half a bread roll... then ready for the 2 mile walk to school...


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## hollydolly (May 20, 2020)

Rosemarie said:


> I can't remember my mother ever actually shopping for groceries. Everything was delivered. She would send me to the shop with a list, and it would be delivered later in the day. There were various tradesmen who called in their horse and cart vehicles...knife-grinders, tinkers, gypsies selling things.  There are still a few mobile shops, but not like it used to be.


It's been a very long time since we had mobile anything here in the South.. I miss the greengrocers, the bakers, the butchers... all coming round.. ( I married the butchers boy) ... but we didn't have them in the city in Scotland where I was raised, we had to go supermarket shopping... but here in the sticks where I moved when I was a young adult, we had all those delivery people..


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## Tommy (May 20, 2020)

In the 1950s and 60s, we too had home delivery of milk and other dairy products from a local dairy.  Our house had an insulated compartment built into the wall near the side door.  The milkman would put products into it via a small exterior door and we would access them by a another little door on the inside.  Everything stayed cool in the summer but wouldn't freeze in winter.

When we moved from our former community a few years ago, one could still get home delivery of glass-bottled milk from a local dairy.


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## hollydolly (May 20, 2020)

Tommy said:


> In the 1950s and 60s, we too had home delivery of milk and other dairy products from a local dairy.  Our house had an insulated compartment built into the wall near the side door.  The milkman would put products into it via a small exterior door and we would access them by a another little door on the inside.  Everything stayed cool in the summer but wouldn't freeze in winter.
> 
> When we moved from our former community a few years ago, one could still get home delivery of glass-bottled milk from a local dairy.


 we still can get milk deliveries here in glass bottles from a milk delivery man if we wanted , a very  few neighbours still do  .. the milk  comes from a local farm, but not many people do , because the price of the milk is 4 times higher than the supermarket


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## IrisSenior (May 20, 2020)

I don't remember any deliveries where I lived.

I do get excited when Canada Post delivers me a package I have been waiting for.


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## Furryanimal (May 20, 2020)

We had the milk float,a bread delivery guy,two different pop delivery firms and a guy we all called’joe Soap’ who came around in a grocery lorry.


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## jujube (May 20, 2020)

The Watkins van, the Fuller Brush man and the Jewel T truck came around like clockwork in our neighborhood.


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## Em in Ohio (May 20, 2020)

We had a truck come through daily that carried huge blocks of ice.  As kids, we would occasionally 'snatch' one from the back when the driver was gone and use it as a street sled!  I should be ashamed.


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## Lashann (May 20, 2020)

Em in Ohio said:


> We had a truck come through daily that carried huge blocks of ice.  As kids, we would occasionally 'snatch' one from the back when the driver was gone and use it as a street sled!  I should be ashamed.



Hubby and his buddies also ran after the ice wagon, hopefully to scoop up small chunks of cold ice.... quite a nice treat for some kids during the hot summer weather.


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## Lashann (May 20, 2020)

Tommy said:


> In the 1950s and 60s, we too had home delivery of milk and other dairy products from a local dairy. Our house had an insulated compartment built into the wall near the side door. The milkman would put products into it via a small exterior door and we would access them by a another little door on the inside. Everything stayed cool in the summer but wouldn't freeze in winter.


A friend on a nearby street still has her milk box near her side door and driveway.  She uses it for mail and other small parcel deliveries to keep them safe (hopefully) from the "porch pirates" in our neighbourhood.


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## Pappy (May 20, 2020)

About the only thing we had delivered in the country was our coal for the furnace. When we lived in town, milk was delivered and left in a container just outside the front door.


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## Em in Ohio (May 20, 2020)

Pappy said:


> About the only thing we had delivered in the country was our coal for the furnace. When we lived in town, milk was delivered and left in a container just outside the front door.


Wow - I completely forgot about the 'coal shoots!'  Thanks for the memory nudge!


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## Furryanimal (May 20, 2020)

I forgot about the coal being delivered.


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## JaniceM (May 20, 2020)

My parents never had anything delivered when I was a kid, but before then they had milk and bread products delivered, and also products from a company called Schwann's.


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## PopsnTuff (May 20, 2020)

Oh yeah, the coal delivery and the milk is all I remember.....and those pesky encyclopedia salesman and the vacuum cleaner salesmen.....
those were the days my friend


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## Aunt Marg (May 20, 2020)

Lashann said:


> I remember as a kid seeing the milk man come in his truck to deliver milk in glass bottles to our front porch in the mornings.  Hubby still has memories of a horse driven ice wagon coming to his street to make regular deliveries of ice to an elderly neighbour.  Back then we were so dependent on these deliveries to our neighbourhoods.  When our kids were growing up about the only regular truck I saw on the street was the ice cream guy in the summer.  How times have changed.


Topics like this are my favourite! Thank you so much for starting it, Lashann!

I remember milk trucks and diaper service trucks, we got neither to our home, but there were many I remember that did.

One thing I do remember, is riding our bikes down to the dairy on weekends... just blocks away from our house, and the worker in the warehouse would always bring us out a treat, like those ice cream push-ups that came in a tube, and you used your thumbs to push the ice cream out of the heavy cardboard tube as you ate it.

On extra special days, we'd get a fragment of dry ice to play with, and what a ball we had playing with that! 

Anyhow, one thing I remember related to the milk truck drivers, they allows waved and tooted their horn for us kids, and every now and then they'd stop and talk with us for a few minutes. It was a more personable day back in the day, people (IMO) cared more for others, respected others more, and there was more of a sense of closeness and care.


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## Ken N Tx (May 20, 2020)




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## In The Sticks (May 20, 2020)

Yup.

Shenandoah's Pride.  Milk and eggs.  If you wanted anything special (like cream or cottage cheese) you left a note.

We also had potato chips and other snack stuff delivered by Charles Chips in the DC area.  I don't recall if there was an Utz truck as well...


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## JaniceM (May 21, 2020)

In The Sticks said:


> Yup.
> 
> Shenandoah's Pride.  Milk and eggs.  If you wanted anything special (like cream or cottage cheese) you left a note.
> 
> We also had potato chips and other snack stuff delivered by Charles Chips in the DC area.  I don't recall if there was an Utz truck as well...


I remember Charles Chips!  My parents used to buy those large canisters when they had an eldercare home.


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## Damaged Goods (May 21, 2020)

1950s: Scissor grinder used to walk the back alleys of the city pushing a grinding wheel that had its own set of wheels.  The homemakers would run out to have their scissors sharpened.

Also, men in horse-drawn wagons sold produce.  People referred to them as "Street Ayrabs" for some reason.

The horses would deposit their own apples in the alleys.  On one occasion, after hearing how farmers used manure to fertilize their fields, my bro and I scooped up some of the horse's deposits and put them around mom's rose bushes in our back yard.

Mom wasn't pleased.


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## squatting dog (May 26, 2020)

Pappy said:


> About the only thing we had delivered in the country was our coal for the furnace. When we lived in town, milk was delivered and left in a container just outside the front door.


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## squatting dog (May 26, 2020)

In The Sticks said:


> Yup.
> 
> Shenandoah's Pride.  Milk and eggs.  If you wanted anything special (like cream or cottage cheese) you left a note.
> 
> We also had potato chips and other snack stuff delivered by Charles Chips in the DC area.  I don't recall if there was an Utz truck as well...



Oh yeah, Charles Chips.


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## squatting dog (May 26, 2020)

Tommy said:


> In the 1950s and 60s, we too had home delivery of milk and other dairy products from a local dairy.  Our house had an insulated compartment built into the wall near the side door.  The milkman would put products into it via a small exterior door and we would access them by a another little door on the inside.  Everything stayed cool in the summer but wouldn't freeze in winter.
> 
> When we moved from our former community a few years ago, one could still get home delivery of glass-bottled milk from a local dairy.



I suspect it was similar to this.


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## squatting dog (May 26, 2020)

Aunt Marg said:


> Topics like this are my favourite! Thank you so much for starting it, Lashann!
> I remember milk trucks and diaper service trucks, we got neither to our home, but there were many I remember that did.
> Anyhow, one thing I remember related to the milk truck drivers, they allows waved and tooted their horn for us kids, and every now and then they'd stop and talk with us for a few minutes. It was a more personable day back in the day, people (IMO) cared more for others, respected others more, and there was more of a sense of closeness and care.


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## squatting dog (May 26, 2020)

I remember having an old wooden milk box, similar to this, and then, a more modern (  ) metal one.


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## Aunt Bea (May 26, 2020)

Our milkman just left the milk on the step.

In the winter you had to hope you found it before the cat or the dog did!


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## Geezerette (May 26, 2020)

One of the delights during my childhood days was being allowed to gently pet the milkman’s or baker’s horse when they stopped for their deliveries. They knew just how far to advance for the next house. Such soft noses and warm necks. When their route was done, could be seen pulling the wagon at a fast trot down the main streets. And a school field trio to see them in their beautiful well kept stables.


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## Pinky (May 26, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> I suspect it was similar to this.
> 
> View attachment 106853


We had one of those next to our side entrance in N. Falls. We had to glue the inside door closed. Our mailbox was at the front.


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## Knight (May 26, 2020)

Only delivery was milk. I'm pretty sure my chubby little self was partly due to sneaking out to get the cream off the top of the milk.


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## fuzzybuddy (May 27, 2020)

When I was a kid (1950s), the milkman used to knock on the kitchen door, enter, and put the milk in the fridge. Our kitchen door was always unlocked. He'd pick up the empty glass bottles. Our milkman and my mom went to school together. He knew my dad, too. Of course, I lived in a small Massachusetts town of 18,000- and I was somehow related to half the town. I remember the thick layer of cream at the top of the bottles. Then we got "homogenized" milk, WOW!!!!  Fancy.
.


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## Aunt Marg (May 27, 2020)

fuzzybuddy said:


> When I was a kid (1950s), the milkman used to knock on the kitchen door, enter, and put the milk in the fridge. Our kitchen door was always unlocked. He'd pick up the empty glass bottles. Our milkman and my mom went to school together. He knew my dad, too. Of course, I lived in a small Massachusetts town of 18,000- and I was somehow related to half the town.View attachment 107056


The good old days... how I miss them.


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