Do you remember when the milkman used to deliver milk?

Question

In those six-pack metal containers that held quart glass bottles with little paper pull tops? Did you ever have a bakery truck coming around the neighborhood where you could buy fresh baked bread and pies and doughnuts of all kinds? What were your favorite doughnuts if you had that happen?

I grew up in Southern California and after the milkman delivered the milk about an hour or two later Helm's Bakery trucks would begin selling bread and pies and pastries all around the neighborhood and once a week we were allowed to buy our favorite doughnuts, mine were lemon filled jobs sort of like jelly doughnuts, except filled with lemon cream.

Answer 1

Stop it, stop it, I'm drowning in my own drool.
I'm a southern Californian too.
Helms:My favorite donut was the raspberry jelly, favorite cookie the big fat choclate coconut macaroon.

Answer 2

My mother would scoop the cream at the top of the milk bottles into a creamer for coffee. Milk was not homoginized until a few years later. The milk would pop through the caps when everything froze. The Helms bakery truck was often a highlight of our day. The trucks always fascinated me with the drawers that pulled out full of baked goods. I wonder if any of those trucks are in an automobile museum somewhere.
Jelly filled doughnuts were my favorite.

Answer 3

I lived up North in WV and the milk would freeze and about an inch would rise out of the bottle pushing the paper pull tops off, Mom would let us put sugar on the part that came out of the bottle and eat it. And I loved lemon filled doughnuts, still do. I think it was nice to get milk, delivered right to your door, bakery products dito, and the fruit wagon was just great, a local farmer would sell home grown produce, and the musk melons were so great, just as sweet as could be, the ones's you buy in a grocery store are not half as good. The tomatoes grown on the vine has such a good taste, the ones that ripen in a hot house do not have much flavor.
They say you cannot go home again, and I find this is true with food, nothing ever tastes as good as when I was a kid.
And yes, Annamae, I remember the laundry truck, they would take the laundry and return it two days later all ironed, and fresh. wish we had one now.
You know we have things like computers, tv's, DVD's now, but we have lost some of the good things of old.

Answer 4

Oh Wally, you are doing me in, talking about the lemon filling
in doughnuts. I never ever tasted anything like that. That
sounds heavenly.
No we never saw a bakery truck on our street. Just the
morning milkman is all. The bakery was about two blocks
away. And that's where my mom got her bread and birthday
cakes. Rarely did she ever buy things like sweet rolls or
eclairs or doughnuts. In those days, we could buy apple-
sauce doughnuts, that were so nice and moist. On the
rare occasion, mom would buy a mixed assortment of
doughnuts. My dad loved the glazed, and mine were the
applesauce. But it was a very rare occasion we'd get such
a treat as that.
I do remember the milk delivery in the glass bottles. She
would also get a carton of cottage cheese and butter when
she needed them, if she couldn't wait til she could get to
the grocery store. The delivery was very handy and it was
easy to over order, and rack up a higher bill. As I found out
later when I was a young wife in the 60s'. That's when I
think, they stopped making deliveries and sold their products
straight to th egrocery stores. Gosh that seems like a very
long time ago. I guess, it's because it was LOL.

Answer 5

Oh yes I do. And I remember my friend from third grade got in the local papers because for weeks he'd slip out in the morning and drink several quarts of milk, leaving behind the empty bottles. He was a one boy crime spree. The milkman disappeared in my hometown when the first 7-11 opened in 1965 (or there about). I liked the 7-11 because I would steal the Playboys before they were force to keep them behind the counters.

Answer 6

Yes we had a milkman . The bottles were glass with a red handle . When my husband was 2 he tried picking one up and fell and was cut and still has the scars. I bet he remembers the milkman ! No Doughnuts . We had so many bakery's growing up within a 3 min walk from the house .

Answer 7

I do remember the milkman, that's when I was a rotten kid. My Mom wouldn't let us have chocolate milk so sometimes my friends and I would get up early and take the neighbors. how awful was that, but at the time the taste overcame right from wrong. I also grew up a short time is So. Cal. in Anaheim.
The bakery truck was wonderful, and yes the lemon dough nuts were my favorite too, that was a Friday morning treat. We also went to Winchell's after church on Sunday. A tradition I loved until we moved.

Answer 8

In the 1970's I used to still have a milkman deliver to my house. Now you hardly hear of that, but there is one milkman about 8 miles away from me who still delivers milk. He worked for a dairy for many years until the owner retired about 20 years ago. He set up an independent business for himself and he still travels all over the place delivering milk, eggs, yogurt and a few other goodies. He also has fresh smoked meat items from what I've heard. His customers call him "Bear". He looks like a big bear, and surely resembles Grizzly Adams. Very kind man who says that he now delivers milk to many of the adult children of some of the families he once delivered to 20 years ago. Told me that a few of his customers still leave the door open for him to come right in. A rarity today. He also watches out for many elderly individuals who are housebound and look forward to him coming.

He's a dying breed of independent businessmen who still believe more in the one-to-one personal customer service, versus the big dollar.. Don't ever remember a bread man coming around the neighborhood.

Answer 9

My dad was the foreman at a big ranch/farm when I was little and we had a milk cow. I used to take the little pint bottles of milk down to the farm hands in my wagon at noon. Ice cold milk to go with the lunch they brought from home. In the 60's I had milk delivered to the house, and also butter and cheese and if I ordered ice cream he would ring the bell when he delivered so I wouldn't let it sit and melt. I don't drink a bunch of milk but when I do it is the hard core vitamin D type not the blue water. We never had a pastry delivery.

Answer 10

I was growing up in southern Calif. in the fifties too. Yes, we had milk delivery and the Helms bakery truck. I loved their cream puffs, but didn't get them often. They were expensive. I think 50 cents. I especially liked the cream that rose to top of the milk. Milk just doesn't do that anymore.

Answer 11

Yupper, I remember the milk man in Detroit, Michigan and the bakery man in Warren Michigan . And when I was growing up in Wisconsin, I remember we had a bakery, close to where we lived. I also remember the milkman there. Oh. how I loved that bakery! Them days are gone forever, you can't find bakings like that where I live now.