THE HONEST MILKMAN

MILKMAN AND HIS DIVCO  TRUCK

 Most of those who read my blog on line are under fifty years of age and probably have little to no recollection of home milk delivery which was all but over by 1976. Therefore, a brief history lesson is in order. Before the advent of modern preservatives, milk did not have a long shelf life. It also had to be packaged in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.  Maximum container size was one quart.  Most households required fresh milk several times a week, if not daily. Add to that the fact that the convenience stores we all take for granted, had not yet planted themselves on every corner.  Enter the milkman.  His job was to go thru a neighborhood house by house and deliver the dairy goods required by each household.  Milk was the staple, but, often butter, eggs, and fruit juices were also available.  Next to each doorstep was a small insulated box.  The consumer left a note in the box to let the milkman know what to deliver that day along with empty bottles to return from the previous delivery.  Once a week the milkman left a bill in the box for goods received.  In turn, the consumer left a cash payment that the milkman retrieved on his next visit.  In those days people seldom used checks for small payment amounts.  Also, in those days, most people were honest and would not steal the cash out of a milk box. Milk was delivered in special trucks made by DIVCO  (Detroit Industrial Vehicles COmpany) which allowed the milkman to drive while standing up and exit the truck from either side.  The trucks were not refrigerated relying on dry ice to keep the milk cold. DIVCO ceased manufacturing after nearly sixty years in 1986.  Today DIVCO trucks are highly sought after by collectors.  Milkmen always wore uniforms, as did most blue collar professionals years ago.  Compare the smartly uniformed gas station attendant or cab driver of yesteryear, complete with hat and bow tie, to the last guy who pumped your gas, or, drove you to the airport.

 In 1966 a woman contacted me to service her piano.  She complained that many of the keys were making no sound at all and many more keys were sluggish and hard to push down.  I knew from experience that something had gotten into the mechanism of the piano.  Over the years I have extracted pencils, toys, eye glasses, coins, jewelry, photographs, greeting cards, paper money, dead rodents, you name it.  In the case of this piano it was approximately $1700.00 in cash.  About twelve thousand dollars in 2017 money.  Her husband, a milkman, was napping in another part of the house, resting up after doing his early morning milk route.  Her excited shrieking woke him up.  He ran to the living room to investigate and found me, forceps in hand, pulling bunches of cash out of the family piano.  His wife continued to shriek.  At this point he remembered that years earlier he had put the receipts from his milk route on top of the piano and retired to the bedroom to take his usual nap. When he awoke later that afternoon the money had disappeared.  Given the fact that most folks did not lock their doors in those days he assumed someone had come into the house and stolen  the money.  He called his supervisor at the dairy he drove his milk route for and was instructed to file a police report and then forget about the money.  The dairy's insurance carrier would cover the loss.

What actually had happened was that he had rolled up the money into a wad and placed a rubber band around it.  The bankroll was knocked inside the piano when someone, probably one of his children, opened the key cover without noticing the money.  Over the years the rubber band rotted away allowing the loosened money to migrate throughout the playing mechanism of the piano until it obstructed the keys.  The honest milkman returned the cash to his employer who ethically returned it to the insurance company who had paid out the claim years earlier.  To my surprise, about a month later, I received a check from the insurance carrier for $200.00.  About $1400.00 in 2017 money.  The notation on the memo portion of the check read FINDER FEE. My wife and I took a nice vacation thanks to the honest milkman.