The Milkman is back!

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: open mike
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 05:27 PM

the curb feelers were one long springy thing sticking out..
i gues they ARE still available!! http://www.shrunkenheads.com/Products/Car_Accessories/Curb_Feelers.htm
A.K.A. "Mechanical Proximity Warning Device"
"In the 1950's, cars were often equipped with curb feelers, a spring or flexible wire that would make a noise if it contacted a curb. This would signal the driver in time to avoid damaging the wheels or hubcaps"
aND EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ILLEGAL THEY ARE STILL AVAILABLE:
A.K.A. "NECKING KNOBS" BECAUSE YOU COULD DRIVE WITH ONE HAND AND THE OTHER HAND COULD BE....WELL.., NEVER MIND...
http://www.shrunkenheads.com/Products/Car_Accessories/knobs/Brody_Index.htm
tHERE ARE THREE STATES WHERE IT IS ILLEGAL TO POSESS PET FERRETS,
but you can still get ferret food, shampoo, toys, houses, etc.

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: Barbara
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:37 PM

I think they were a set of these little metal spring thingies that clamped onto and stuck out from the lower edge of your car and made a noise when they hit low lying objects like curbs, tree stumps and the kid's trike. My grandmother had them, along with a suicide knob, on her old Studabaker. (A suicide knob is a doorknob type thing that screwed onto one side of your steering wheel and made it possible to turn sharply by grabbing the knob and using it to rotate the steering wheel. They are now illegal.)
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:37 PM

It's still fairly widespread in England, if under threat. Here is the recruiting page from one of the main companies, with over 2,500 rounds:

Advantages of being a Dairy Crest Roundsperson
# Working outdoors
# Early start, early finish
# Your customers become your friends
# Working on your own
# Setting your own goals / targets
# The more you sell, the more you earn

A lot in common with busking really...

I wonder, do we have any milkmen on the Mudcat? After all, during the hoohah about music licensing, the question of the position of whistling milkmen kept on being being brought into play.

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:10 PM

what's a curb feeler?

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: Barbara
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:06 PM

We had a little cubby next to the back door; the milkman put the milk in from the outside, and we unloaded it from the inside. At one point there was a milk cart and horse, I remember from my childhood, the milkman would get off with his wire basket carrier, you could hear him coming by the clink of the milk bottles, and the horse would immediately move on down the street to the next stop. If you were awake early, you'd hear that and the clop, clop of the horse, and the jingle of his harness when he shook his head.
"Gold top" is the one with the cream on top and you can either shake it up or pour the cream off? We kids would get into those and drink the cream straight. It was "standard" (with the cream on top) or "homogenized" (with the cream inseparably mixed in). And here in the US we had little waxed cardboard circles that fit snugly in the top of the bottle, and then a folded circular waxed paper cap over the whole thing.
This would have been suburban Detroit, Michigan in the early 50s.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: open mike
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:42 PM

doesn't exactly roll (or drip) off the tongue, does it!
i actually found a place in the U.S. that still has door
to door dairy delivery in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.
ahh...it has gone the way of those dearly beloved things
such as drive-in movies, curb feelers and public trampoline
places...i feel a song coming on!!

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:31 PM

Still a milkman in Wiltshire too - but not daily unfortunately, we have our gold top delivered every other day.

AND ... AND ... AND

Just nine miles up the road in Devizes, where the wonderful 6X is actually brewed, they still have deliveries to the local pubs by brewers dray pulled by heavy horses. It gets a bit hairy driving round Devizes some days because visitors are so stunned to see the dray pulled by two heavy horses with the driver and assistant in traditional garb of about 100 years ago. The horses have recently had their annual holiday, and it's lovely to see them gamboling around the farm when they are first set loose. Of course, it could have something to do with the quart of 6X that they are given to drink as they arrive - they really do seem to enjoy the 'home-brewed'product. But then, don't we all who are lucky enough to live within supping distance of the real fresh stuff from the brewery. It certainly aids the singing at the Wiltshire Traditions Folk Club held in Devizes on Monday nights.

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:15 PM

No, it's an electric milk-float. I can remember when the milkman had a horse-drawn milk float, but that was in London, and a long time ago.

Mind you, I see from the website of the company involved round our way that they now officially don't say "milkman" but "roundsperson". Can't see that catching on, somehow.

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: open mike
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:02 PM

so is there really a place in the world where fresh milk arrives on the door steP? good to know it! i remeber the box on the porch...and the clang of the lid of it, and the glass bottles--recycleable! is the box insulated? our old one was plain wood with a hinged top...(bet he doesn't come by horse-drawn wagon as the ice vendor once did!)

Subject: RE: The Milkman is back!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 01:41 PM

We thought we'd lost our milkman, but we haven't!

To explain - when we went off to Sidmouth we stuck a note in a milk bottle outside our house saying "no milk till further notice". We came back and stuck another note saying "Milk as usual" - but none arrived. And then we passed the milk depot and there were big "To Let" signs on it.

Horrible thought - the milk round had ended. The 'Oggie Man is nothing to this, there's always been a milkman, it's one of the things by which you know the country hasn't gone completely round the bend. And yet we knew that most of our neighbours don't have milk delivered - we get milk from the supermarket every now and then, most people do it all the time.

But then there came a plaintive note from the dairy about our cancelling the milk, and it turned out it was all a mistake, and we're getting it delivered once more.

But we know that it probably won't be long before it really does end. I think it's a real shame the world is heading inexorably in that direction.

Here comes the milkman, Thomas Tripp the milkman.
Can you hear the milkman with his jangle jingle jang ?
What does it matter if the bottles make a clatter ?
One doesn't want to chatter over jangle jingle jang.

That's "Thomas Tripp the Milkman" from Gordon Murray's groundbreaking animation series Camberwick Green.