popsicle&ice cream trucks....

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cfz2882

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Feb 9, 2010
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Location
Belle Fourche,SD
anyone have any interesting vintage popsicle,ice cream or milk trucks
active in your area or remember any from the past?
Here are a few i remember;
-cushman 3-wheelers with a coldbox on the back and the music box...
when you heard that music you ran to get change and chased down that
cushman! These vehicles were propelled by an OMC built opposed twin
under the seat.
-divco;with their 1935 era styling these trucks were made from before ww2
(not sure of exact year production started)until feb 1986.
In the early '80s a local creamery had several of these and i have
seen them as popsicle trucks too.Early trucks often had a continental
"red seal"4 cyl as not much speed was needed for"stand up and drive"
local delivery version-by the '80s a 300 Ci ford six was the engine.
-Jeep;locally there is a vintage jeep popsicle truck-apparently built
on a 2wd willys jeep chassis,it is almost a cube shape-as tall and
wide as it is long.Equipped with a music box,it comes to my local
car show every year.
-Ca 1950 GMC;once a milk truck,a local catering company uses it now.
It is the flat-front style
 
There was one here

About 1992ish a VW customer of mine started a milk delivery service. I don't know what kind of milk truck he had, but it was the real deal, with huge frozen cooling panels in the ceiling. He had to leave it plugged in all day long, in order to freeze those, and then he went around delivering starting at about 3am.

It was really great because he wore the milkman delivery uniform, and the whole she'bang.

He couldn't make ends meet with it though, and only lasted a year or 3.
 
thats cool he had the milkman uniform and all!
The divcos that my local creamery had also had the electric refrigeration
units-i remember looking through the grill on the lower side of the
refrigerated body and seeing the"bolted hermetic"compressor.
 
Yep, he was really trying hard to make it work. It was a great idea and initially he had a lot of customers. I think the truck was probably a Divco from the late 60's.

The problem with the service was; A person is at the grocery store every few days to begin with, so having a gallon of milk delivered every couple of days doesn't really do them any good. Plus, there's no way he could run that truck around town, paying for it's fuel and maintenance, and have it plugged in 18hrs a day, and still sell a gallon of milk at a price that was close to a supermarket price.

I think it wound up being a huge amount of work and responsibility with all the billing statemnts, and responding to people's order changes via telephone, etc.....he was probably earning about $2/hr when it was all said and done.
 
Milkman days......AND MORE>>>>>>.

How about the Breadman..!!? We had a breadman who came right into our kitchen via Backdoor and checked the bread drawer and marked on the ticket hanging inside the steel cabinet door above it (1958-Kitchen re-do) his delivery...sweet rolls, bread and dinner rolls,for Sunday..He came 3 times a week, same as the milk man, in the morning, came right into our kitchen and put the milk in the "SERVEL GAS" refrigerator>>The Veggie/Fruit man, with his open truck (in moderate weather, grew up in Belmont County, Eastern Ohio) would pull up beside our house beside the back porch area, Grandma would select from site, what she wanted..Those were the days of Home Service and all these men were "SPECIAL" in their OWN WAY....This all stopped in 1975..Flushing, OHIO. and Home of CONGRESSMAN WAYNE L. HAYS...18th District OHIO....
 
In  the suburbs of Chicago we had Bowman Dairy. They had these unique dark green milk trucks. The photo below is the same kind of truck they used

. When you signed up with them you received a insulated metal container to put next to your door.  You'd leave a skip of paper for what you wanted it could be milk, buttermilk, skim milk, cottage cheese, eggs, etc. Then the milk man would put the items in the box. The box kept things cool in the summer and would keep them from freezing in the winter.The milk always came in a glass bottle.

 The Bowman dairy company lasted until 1966 or so. That's about the time home delivery became too expensive to maintain.

 

whirlcool++1-26-2011-23-57-22.jpg
 
Pevely Dairy!

We also had a big, metal, insulated box on the back stoop. Milk, cream, butter and orange juice, delivered fresh every other day. The milk often had cream rise to the neck of the glass bottle. Sad to say, I don't remember the delivery guys, I must have been asleep when they came.

We have Oberweis dairy now, they also deliver, but to a VERY limited area. Glass bottles (much bigger than the quart bottles I remember) and CHOCOLATE milk. Who'd a thunk it?
 
Yeah, the Bowman dairy trucks didn't have all those side markers on it. Bowman Dairy did start up around 1890 and lasted until 1966 when Dean Foods bought them.  Then Dean realized that home delivery was too expensive to operate.
 

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