Yes! His name was Emil and he came around breakfasttime. We filled out a card with what we wanted and left it on the stoop by the kitchen door, with the empty bottles. I used to just to gaze at the card and wonder why we didn't get most of the delights on it, like chocolate milk and eggs, just milk. But we got the eggs fresh from a local farm, and chocolate milk when we visited our cousins (who would only drink chocolate milk. At first I thought "lucky kids", then I thought "spoiled kids", and when I became a mom I thought "whatever it takes to get them to drink their milk".)

I was born in 1963 and barely remember the milkman when I was pre-K. I think we stopped having milk delivered by the late 60s.

I have vague memories, but it wasn't too long before we stopped that and Dad just picked up the milk at the store on his way home from work. When DH was a teen, he worked at a dairy farm and one of his duties was to drive to all the local farms and pick up the fresh morning milk to bring it back for bottling.

nope but my parents and grandparents used to reminisce about and missed it a lot.

they would talk about how the cream rose to the top, in the colder months - i think if memory serves - and used it in a variety of ways.

i do remember we had a 'huckster', he would drive down the street in his pickup truck selling fruits and veggies!! how awesome!!

oh and the Charlie Chip guy! we always got the chips and pretzels, so good!!!! loved those tins!

My grandparents had a box on their road just past the house and the milkman would deliver there. (By the time I remember the metal box, they had a refrigerator to store the delivered milk instead of their old ice box.)

When we had milk delivered, he came way early in morning before we were up. When it was cold weather, we left the door unlocked and he put it inside so it wouldn't freeze.

That was before my time. I'm not sure if my parents ever used a service like that. One set of grandparents were farmers and had a few cows. I know that my grandparents had milk from my great grandmother's cows part of the time, but I'm not sure about later.

They still do here. But we no longer use him because the milk began to arrive later and later after we’d gone to work. So the milk ended up sitting on the doorstep all day. Also you have to order it and we found we often ended up with too much or too little depending on usage. But I do wish we could still use him because the glass bottles are reused.

We still had it delivered in 2011

I bought a rowhouse built in the 1950s. It came with a milk door at the back door. The inside door had been painted shut, but the space inside the outer door was a handy spot to keep my trowel and such for my little patch of garden. I did ask about the milk delivery service that was available in the area, and they said they don’t go to the back doors anyway, anymore. They would give me an insulated box for by the front door. I decided not to get the service, as first, like floral says, my usage varied and second, I was never sure how late I’d be coming home from work.

(That townhouse also had a mail slot by the front door. Even after putting weatherstripping around it, I could really feel the cold air there in the winter.)

Now, of course, there are a lot of grocery delivery services, and milk could be included in that.

We had an unheated sun porch and left the outermost door unlocked for Monday morning deliveries. I loved sitting on the floor peeking through the french doors to see what wonderful things he was bringing us. I loved the cottage cheese.

I recall the metal box by our side door, and the card you checked off items to order from the dairy - cottage cheese, sour cream, milk, cream - and I think there was sherbet and eggs too...?

My mom, who grew up WI, told us about the cold cream pushing the tops off the milk bottles in winter.

Starting in the 70s, I remember buying milk at gas stations.

And we had Charles Chips too - IIRC, you gave them back the empty cans of pretzels and potato chips and they gave you fresh filled ones.

I still have some of those old tins🙂

Yes, I remember. My uncle and his family owned the small dairy. His brother Buzzy delivered the milk in an old truck that bounced and swayed with every pothole, bump or bend. If the truck had shocks or springs they sure weren't operational anymore. He would let me and a friend ride around the neighborhood in the truck while he made deliveries occasionally. We would sit in the back being bounced all over eating ice chips. It was like being on an amusement ride. Fun times.

Oh yes, getting the chocolate milk was a treat.

I remember if we ran out of milk before the next delivery my mom would try to pawn powdered milk off on us. Yuck

I remember it, I think it stopped when we moved into a new house when I was 7.

Milk has always been delivered over here in electric vehicles, milk floats, at least since they stopped using a horse and cart.

I don't remember that at all, ever. But my grandparents house, built in 1940, had the little set of inside-to-outside doors by their side (kitchen) entry, and my mom remembered milk delivered there when she was a kid.

Carolb, I recall milk boxes at a few gas stations. Big metal bins, I don’t remember how you paid for it, maybe inside the gas station? We never used it because we had our Emil stopping by a few mornings a week, but my ”I remember (our town) when” group has people who used the milk boxes. Especially those who lived in the neighborhood behind downtown, it would be a kid’s job to run out and get a bottle of milk.

I remember the metal container outside the back porch for milk, but we had a more agreeable milkman. After my mother had to begin working, he brought the milk, cheese inside and put it in the refrigerator. The house was never locked and he just walked in the back door, surprising us in our pajamas having cereal at the kitchen table on a no-school day more than once.

we did not get it , but it was always fun to go look at the house up the street. That house had 6 boys and their porch was so full of milk bottles . (like 6 or 8 half gallons )two times a week.

The milkman of my youth was the one that drove the milk truck that came and picked up the milk from our cows every day. (I grew up on a farm). And I was the delivery girl that delivered the milk we used from the barn to the house every evening. Never had any milk delivery until after I came to Texas, in the mid 60's.

Oh, and I also remember the first time I had store-bought (homogenized?) milk from the grocery store. YUCK! ! ! Unbelievably nasty stuff! I wanted real, fresh from the cow milk! Over a period of time I did get used to the commercial stuff, (I had to) but I never learned to like it. And to this day, I don't really like milk, and never drink it.

Rusty

Not only did we get milk delivered, but we got soda and beer too!

We still have a milkman in our area. People will pay for nostalgia.

We can also buy our milk from a relatively local farm in glass bottles. They make amazing ice cream and yogurt and butter and even eggnog.

I still have the little box where my parents' milk was delivered. I never in my married life had milk delivered. My parents even had Utz potato chips and pretzel deliveries too back in the day.

We can get it here as well. We’ve teamed up with the Upper Canada Creamery to BRING BACK milk delivery to Ottawa. Might try it for fun

I too, just vaguely remember the milkman bringing bottles to our door but delivery must have stopped by the time I started grade school.

We had the Jewel-T man (was that the name?) drive through town and even out on the country roads selling some food items, cookies, bread, etc., and trinkets of some sorts. He had a brown truck I think. Once when we kids were riding bikes on a country road, we waved him down and bought some treats.

Yes, delivered to the back door of our apartment in brown glass bottles, but only when I was very small.

I remember seeing them in old Judy Garland and Shirley Temple movies.

I think my parents stopped home delivery when I was about ten years old, so around 1969. Our deliveries had been in half gallon bottles, as there were six kids who drank milk with every meal and often with snacks.

Nope. I grew up on a farm and went to the barn and milked the cow! Now that was fresh!

Yes.

I remember it, and I remember that the shiny silver insulated box had a quilted design. We had Charles Chips delivered too - that was basically the only junk food - no, I do remember Mom buying garlic crackers and dip every once in a while. Ice cream was a treat, not an everyday or every week item.

One of those two delivery men brought bread as well - think probably the milkman.

The first 4 years or so that we lived in that house, there was not a grocery store close - Mom had to drive several miles into the next town to the closest grocery - we only had just a "pony keg" that didn't really have much in the way of staples like bread, IIRC. The groceries weren't open very late (or early) either.

I remember when the first convenience store opened nearby - a "King Kwik" that was open from 7am til 10pm - how radical!!

No need to remember more than about 6 months ago. This area has two milk services or at least did earlier this year when I discontinued the company I was using. They delivered lots of other stuff. Some good, some not so good but much higher than the company's supplying the products would ship the product to you covering cost plus shipping. Milk was decent with the company I was using but I could have the same product delivered with my regular groceries for a lot less.

I don’t actually remember the milk man coming, but I do remember the box so he must have. This would be early 70’s.

My daughter recently asked why there was a milk man. I didn’t have an answer. Clearly we had refrigerators and other shopping to do, so why the relatively specialized delivery?

Sure do.

Not milk, but from the western part of LA to the beach and south to the South Bay, Helms Bakery trucks would drive through the neighborhoods with fresh baked bread. Kids were excited for the visits (when they were home) because the back of the truck had delicious doughnuts, especially the glazed variety.

Trucks looked like this, and the link is to a very short Youtube video of the whistle sound

Elmer, that’s as good as the ice cream truck! Thanks for sharing that! (I sure could go for a doughnut, now…)

There was an ice cream truck too, the Good Humor Man. I don't think that brand was SoCal specific, I know the Helms truck was. I think both Good Humor and Helms were gone sometime in the 60s and if not, were by that time very much waning in popularity.

We had Bond Bread, Sealtest milk and Charles Chips all delivered. We also had a garbage man who collected what we had dumped in the garbage pail. My mom had one of those triangular strainers in the corner of the sink. I hated when I had to dump the garbage into the pail with the foot pedal.

I also remember the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile coming to the neighborhood, but not regularly. He handed out wiener whistles .

My mother remembers stealing the cream off the top of the neighbors milk as she walked to school!

I have a Wiener Whistle! I think it was given out at a Fourth of July parade or something way back when.

I visited cousins downstate and was so excited they had an ice cream truck. So even though it was near mealtime, my parents let us go get a popsicle. Here, there was an ice cream truck that parked by a park that we went by weekly, but since it was usually on the way home for dinner, we rarely stopped.

For some reason, now that my kids are grown, NOW there’s an ice cream truck in our neighborhood, Go figure.

I never heard of Charles Chips till I saw the tins in a decorating magazine (the family had a baby named Charles). We had Jay’s, and not by delivery, but I remember my grandma had a Jay’s tin.

Yes I do. I remember the little fanned out cards you would put in the neck of one of the empty bottles out giving your order. They used to have premiums too. I remember a set of tall tumblers my mother and other neighbors collected that cottage cheese came in. We also had a peter Wheat breadman and of course the ice cream truck. I think there was another bakery truck, but I don't recall the name. They had excellent individual berry strudels.

We were a small family and didn't take milk delivery for long but the family I babysat for did. That milkman I remember. He lived in the neighborhood. I was around 13/14 and he would come right into the house to put the milk in the fridge. Married with children but that didn't stop him for chasing me around asking for "just one little kiss". He was probably just a young man, not much older than some of the guys I actually went out with, but to me he was the creepy older guy. He never got that kiss. On milk delivery days I always made sure I was in the room or outdoors with the kids.

The Good Humor man was a fixture in Jersey City, NJ when I was growing up. He knew all the kids for blocks and blocks and was the same guy, Jack, for many, many years. When I was in college, he'd let me know that he'd seen back home from college friends that I'd grown up who lived on different blocks.

Good Humor was not in my area - I recall hearing a reference to it in a movie and not knowing what it was. We did have an ice cream truck every summer for years - no particular brand that I remember; I always got the popsicles - big double ones.

How many of you remember going to the root beer stand on a hot summer evening? We had both Frostop (I remember the big mug on top of the building) and A&W stands - and I think maybe another brand - I can remember the locations of all 3 of them in my area (the Frostop was the one nearest our house.) Boy what a treat that was - they kept the mugs in the freezer so the root beer stayed ice cold without ice. They even had baby sized mugs for the young kids.

Thinking about that mug on the building led to remembering the Coca-cola sprite statue that was on top of the warehouse near my grandmother's. I always looked for it when we went to visit her.

Our milk was left in the milk chute (suburban home, built in 1955), and I remember it well.

Once he came too early (winter, still dark) and all the bottles froze and 'exploded'.

When my BIL’s family came for their first visit from the Pittsburgh suburbs a few summers ago, they were so surprised to see the ice cream truck driving through the neighborhood. They only knew it from the movies. I had no idea they are regional.

We had an A&W drive-in here - maybe 5 minutes from our house by car. The building's still here, and it's been various types of restaurants over the years. I believe they sold their root beer by the gallon (glass) jug that you could bring in for refills. I seem to recall my dad doing that. I remember that icy cold soda and how good it tasted - and their onion rings.

No Good Humor here until the 1970s, but yes, there were ice cream trucks.

We had Farm Stores - tiny drive thru stores that sold ice cream & other dairy products and eggs. They were pretty popular for awhile and you can still find those buildings, now repurposed, around town. The one we frequented is now a coffee bar.

Up until 1990 or 91 we had Hood milk delivery. We only got milk and yogurt though. We bought ice cream at the supermarket.

In 1950s NYC we lived in the top floor apartment of a 3 family house. The milkman brought the quart glass bottles upstairs to our door. I used to love the cream on the underside of the cardboard inner cap. We also had a horse drawn produce man , knife sharpener and junkman Later on we had Good Humor trucks, Bungalow Bar trucks in the Rockaways and Dugan the baker truck (the BEST cocolate cupcakes ever) in both the Rockaways and Catskills. We did have a small market across the street where we could buy milk and juice, but there were no larger markets, still nowhere near in size to todays ”super” markets until maybe the late 1960s to early 1970s.

A doorstep in town this morning...

Also saw an ice cream van in the park but didn't take a picture.