Speaking of bottles

This is the kind of bottles I collect.
Have a bunch of them around here in all sizes.
Picture is a quart and half pint.



My grandfather was a dairy farmer back when the farmer also delivered milk door to door.
All I have is stories told to me by my dad as my grandfather died the year I was born.
Per my dad he had a large dairy in what is now a very populated area of New Orleans.
He lost it all during WW 2 and what he did not lose he drank away.

My dad stayed in the home delivery side of the business.
He had his own customers and bought milk for the local Sealtest bottler.
Life was good because our state had a state milk commission that set the retail store price 2 cents below home delivery price.
In a 1970's court case the state milk commission was done away with.
My dads home delivery business lasted till the early 1980's when health problems drove him out of business.
He was the last home delivery milkman still in business in New Orleans when he got out.

A old wooden milk case.





And a carrier the milkman used to carry bottles to your door.



Our state now has what we call the Dairy Stabilization Board which sets the minimum price processors must pay farmers for milk. State law requires retailers to mark their milk up at least 6 percent above cost-plus-freight.

John, I have one of those wooden/metal cases, but no dairy name. Thanks for letting me know what it was used for, I wasn't sure. My lady friend uses it as part of the decor in her den---a mini wine rack.

John:

I remember those days (late 40's & early 50's), when the Milkman would deliver the Milk in bottles on the front porch at about 5:30 every morning. Sometimes he'd leave Cheese or a tub of Butter that Mom had ordered. Paid for everything once a month, payment in an envelope along with the Bill and clipped to the Mailbox on the front porch.

I have one of the later Milk Cases, when they made them out of the heavy-guage wire. Also have some of the cardboard bottle seals (unused) with the Dairy's name on them. Also have the little, pointy metal tool for punctureing & prying out the cardboard seals.


Doc :>)

We had the ones with the 'bulb' on the top where the cream was. We had a little spoon type thing you would put in the bottle and drain out the cream if you didn't want it in the milk. Sometimes we would collect it in a jar and strap it to the agitator in the old washing machine and make butter out of it.

Fond memories of drinking milk at school out of the little glass bottles with the round cardboard cap and the tiny bottles of cream for your coffee at cafes. I have a couple of those.

I was talking with some guys one time and one was telling about a demolition job he did. Knocked down an old dairy building full of cases of glass milk bottles. He said he never thought to save any. The name of the dairy??? Yasgur Farms, site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival
Max Yasgur and Woodstock

John,
My dad had a family dairy form 1957-67. We bottled, pasteurized, and delivered. Our motto, we squeeze, you pour.

Dairy was at the edge of town. People would bring their glass bottles, we would fill them right out of the tank, non pasteurized for $.50 a gallon. At milking time, costumers were lined up. The milk went out of the tank as fast as it went in.

Living on a dairy taught me what I didn't want to do with the rest of my life. I have all the respect for anyone who wants to milk cows so I don't have to.

I remember as a kid in grade school, milk was sold in the small glass bottles like you showed on the left. We only used gallon and half gallon bottles. Our crates were metal not wood. I still have some metal crates, very strong. You can even stand on them.

Added footnote:
If anyone around Knox, Indiana, Starke county, has one of our glass bottles with Riverside Dairy on it, my sister would love to buy it from you.

We had milk delivered in the mid sixties from Oconee Dairies in Seneca SC. Gallon bottles put in an insulated container with a scoop of ice twice a week. Mama decided we were spending too much on milk (3 growing boys and Daddy), all loved milk. She called and canceled the deliveries and that evening, the owner came out to see what was wrong. Said we were his best customer. Owner was Marshall Parker, former state senator and one time head of Small Business Administration in DC.
Richard in NW SC

Ouch that hurt. big bummer for sure. I collect old bottles also. I was working in the crawl space under a school. I found so many milk bottles in there, I would bring 2 out at a time when I came out of there a few times a day until I had all of them. pipefitters would drink milk before torching/welding the galvinized pipe so they would not get sick. There were also some whiskey bottles down there. I never figured out why they were there, it was such a pleasant place to be...NOT...MTP