Okay, so I don't know for sure if he really is the last milkman in this country, but I'm pretty sure that milkmen are an endangered species. I mean, when was the last time you heard about someone delivering milk to your doorstep (other than Amazon, that is)?
After dedicating 70 years of prompt, friendly, reliable service, 80 year-old Clyde Priest has reluctantly retired from his duty as milkman in Hannibal, MO. He began delivering milk at the age of 10, helping his father, and by July 20, the day he retired, he had outlived and out-serviced eight of the dairies that used to provide his products.
If it weren't for an emergency appendectomy in June, Priest probably would have kept on delivering, since he says he "loved every minute of it."
His customers trusted him so much that he would put their dairy purchases directly into in their refrigerators when they weren't home.
We need more people like Clyde Priest in this country.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-23-2006 @ 9:09PM
Pat said...
Vale Wood Farms in Loretto,PA still delivers door to door and is one of the last family dairies in the country. www.valewood.com.
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8-23-2006 @ 10:00PM
jmchez said...
Believe it or not there's a guy in Brooklyn (as in New York City not the Netherlands) who still delivers milk in the pre-dawn hours. Has a thriving business too!
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8-23-2006 @ 10:47PM
Chip said...
As a certified bulk milk hauler in the state of MA, I'm saddened to see Clyde Priest go.
My license is for picking up milk for cheesemaking, but I have this fantasy that one day I'll be driving along the road, on an errand or something, and I'll come up on a milk delivery truck that's broken down. I pull over, whip out my bulk hauler's license and load up on milk bottles to deliver.
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8-24-2006 @ 3:29AM
Gabriella said...
The last time I had milk delivered to me was in Savannah, Georgia when I was in 2nd grade. so, 1979
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8-24-2006 @ 5:10AM
Rob G. said...
Just yesterday, I was shocked to hear that my friend in Denver, CO has a milk man that delivers dairy products to his door - I didn't think they were around anymore. It's actually a really cool concept, I'm just not sure how they make money..
http://www.royalcrestdairy.com/
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8-24-2006 @ 5:20AM
Jared said...
Considering, by weight, gas is more expensive than milk, it doesn't sound like a money-making proposition.
Sigh.
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8-24-2006 @ 6:26AM
Chip said...
Making money on milk is getting harder and harder period. At least here in New England, which, according to some stats, has lost more than 20% of its dairy farms over the last five years. The Boston Globe had a solid breakdown of the problems in an article (http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/07/23/on_states_dairy_farms_price_pressures_are_breeding_trouble/?page=2) last month.
The cheesemaker I work for gets goats milk from a family who switched from cows because it just wasn't working anymore. The price for milk, the rising costs of doing business and a thousand other smaller cuts forced them into goats. Now, their milk goes exclusively to cheesemaking.
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8-24-2006 @ 8:22AM
Carrieanna said...
Both my sister in Colorado and my dad in Maryland have milk delivered to little boxes by their doors.
It's good stuff--especially at Christmas. The eggnog is fabulous. I'm jealous!
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8-24-2006 @ 10:09AM
Rhea said...
I am so happy to hear from the commenters that milk delivery lives! I remember the milkman coming to my door on dark winter mornings when I was a kid. There was a very cool exhibit a year or two ago on Milkmen and Milk Delivery at The National Heritage museum in Lexington, Mass.
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8-24-2006 @ 10:14AM
Chip said...
Rhea: Looks like Crescent Ridge (www.crescentridge.com/) in Sharon, MA, still delivers. A little far from Lexington, but it's there.
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8-24-2006 @ 10:21AM
LeRoy Bidlo said...
We still have home milk delivery to apartment buildings out here in western Canada. It helps seniors and shut-ins get the nutrition they need. (Not just tea and toast.) But I admit that the milk delivery man is headed to extinction, like doctors' house calls, bread delivery, and pleasant parking lot attendants.
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8-24-2006 @ 11:12AM
MJ said...
God wish I could get that here in NC! Always liked any beverage out of a glass bottle taste better to me h. Hate that carton smell when you drink out of it when I was in school, yuck....goats milk is great as well as the cheese. Use to get double yolk eggs delivered and fresh product from and old man in my area, theres nothing like fresh eggs or fresh anything for that matter!
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8-24-2006 @ 11:34AM
Bruce Dearborn Walker said...
Holy milk bottles, batman, I still remember the Royal Crest shield on our milk bottles from the late fifties. When the new Safeway opened two blocks away it what is now Lakewood, Co, my parents started buying it there because it was cheaper, but I noticed even a six that it wasn't as good. And I didn't like cartons either, but after my little brother dropped an broke a couple of bottles, cartons were always purchased.
Had no idea Royal Crest was even still in business.
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11-09-2006 @ 10:51AM
Ted said...
There is a dairy throughout the state of Illinois called Oberweis that delivers milk to a cooler at your door. Great eggnog at the holidays, too. We just moved to Maryland and really would like to find something similar. If the person whose father gats it delivered in Maryland would post where from I would appreciate it.
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11-13-2006 @ 11:37AM
Mary said...
Oh yeah! Im one of the lucky ones. I live in CO and have Royal Crest Deliver my goodies once a week. Right now they have THE BEST by far eggnog around. My husband and I are eggnog fanatics and unless its rich and thick, we don't touch it. Aside from Farm Stores in Florida, this eggnog here is to die for. Yumm!
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