"At the door or at your store"

Fairly often, the subject of 'how things have changed since I was a kid' comes up with my elderly clients. It's a fruitful topic, cuz we both have so many instances to cite. We're graciously philosophical about it, realizing that our personal "change the world" phases slipped away when we were busy at building a new business or career, or raising kids.

That conversation often segue's into "Oh, man, WHEN did [some event] change/happen, do you remember?"  This usually brings laughs, since we can't remember the names of companies or where their plant was, let alone when they stopped being a daily part of our lives. Think bobby pins, film for cameras, wringer washers, bluing, Saturday shoe polishing, hankies, junkers as first cars, clutches, fishing because we were Catholic, throat blessing cuz we ate those fish, REAL food like butter and whole milk with cream on top....in bottles, remember? 

 An ad from an Austin, Mn newspaper, probably in the 60s, when cartons were a brand new thing.  Plastic bottles were introduced in the 80s because of this (pun alert!) dairy case:

Once we moved to Sauk Rapids, it was easiest to have milk delivered to the house. Everybody did. All my urban clients have stories about stuff their milkman did when he walked into the house to put the new milk right in the fridge.  One helped himself to a piece of pie, another turned the oven on as requested on a note...another let the dog out and back in when he stopped. 

 Naw, this wasn't OUR Oak Grove truck and driver, but evidently, Oak Grove was a franchise and still is, because this family company delivers in the west suburbs of Minneapolis.  Local dairies for us were Oak Grove, Kuebelbecks and Purity Dairy...and wasn't there one called Sanitary, too, around St Cloud?  I remember those companies mostly from their ads on book covers we 'protected' our textbooks with every fall. 

BTW, did you realize we're off on another tangent again? This time, it's Larry's fault--he found the Polly Meadows ad. ☺

And LOOK what I found:
The crate below held thirty half pint bottles, like we had at school, and the quart bottles were exactly what we bought at the Dairy Bar on 3rd street when we were kids, remember?
 Ok, Yup, I'm through!