Orright.... I'm gonna show my age here, but who cares!
I used to live just down the road from the local dairy, when I lived in Doncaster, Muggaz. It was right on the junction, opposite Westfield Shoppingtown. Corner of Tram road and Doncaster Road.
As kids growing up, we used to sneak out of the house, at about 3am on the weekends and do the rounds with the milko, which was delivered by draught-horse and cart.
The milkman would always put an extra supply of flavoured milk in the cart for us as a reward for helping him deliver it. We also got a few bucks each time. (Y'know.. I think this is where I got my love of milk... I drink it by the gallon!)
Along the way we used to catch up with the guy that delivered cakes to the local milk bars, so we'd get to eat all these wonderful, free, fresh cakes.
....But the fun of it all was being able to ride around on the cart, in the wee small hours of the morning.
To smell the night air, ~ to watch the dark night slowly dawn into a new day,.... to see the fantastic colours of sunrise, the dampness of lightly falling dew on a brisk morning. (Man, I thank you for dredging up these wonderful memories and feelings) The smell of the sweating horse at the finish of the run. To be able to walk through the plush stables they were kept in.
The reasons it (delivery) was stopped were many.....
The price of milk back then was dead cheap, and it was still cost-effective to deliver it and return a profit for the dairy. Over the years, the profit margin grew smaller and smaller.
Dairies started losing more and more money due to milk thieves pinching the milk from houses it was delivered to. The policy was to replace stolen milk. There were also people who used to go around before the milko would arrive at the houses... and steal the money left with the empty milk bottles.
Then there were the sicko's who would go around just wantonly vandalising the milk, or worse still.... prising the caps off and urinating in it, or worse.
The world changes for the worse my friend.... and along the way milko's were forced into redundancy.
I wish the world could return to those trustful, happy times sometimes...... unfortunately it's something we'll never see again.
Hope I answered your questions.
Wreckless
