The Dinette Set by Julie Larson for October 29, 2012

AHA, it was the milkman! (Who suffers from bad eyesight…)

So… the milkman came over in the evening, and stuck his keys in the lock, AFTER Verl got home…and it doesn’t bother her?

Of course, Verla would never leave her keys in the door.

Which, by the way, Burl seems to be opening so far… or so hard… he knocked a picture askew on the wall.If not…. what IS that?No Find-It today?Or does Burl finding Verl’s keys in the door cover it?

Good morning, Crusty friends.

The milkman, huh? One of the oldest butts of jokes. My grandmother used to regale us children with humour from when she was a new bride in the ‘90s. One was about a woman who didn’t have a working clock, who calls out to the milkman, “Do you have the time?” His response is, “Yes, but I don’t have anyone to hold my horses!” Followed by giggles all around. Sounds juvenile to us now, but Oma was only 16 when she married Opa. And they had a milkman as well as an iceman. (who cometh.)

Mikie I’m nowhere NEAR old enough to be your grandmother…but we always had a milkman when I was a kid…and the local organic dairy still had them here till around 1980…. even glass bottles, and insulated aluminum milk boxes you left outside the door for deliveries.We didn’t have a real iceman per se, but in the 1950’s the ice cream truck would deliver ice blocks if you ordered them…I don’t think I knew anyone who used ice for everyday refrigeration, but LOTS of people still called the fridge the “icebox”… I don’t think it would sound strange to me even now.

We had our milk delivered by one of the local farmers. They had a few milk cows and would bring the milk in half gallon Mason jars. (‘shine came the same way, but that’s a different story).

OH, and my grandparents had an icebox

I had misread Verl’s comment at first. I thought she was saying that only Joy, Jerry, and the milkman had keys. I was thinking it was extremely revealing that Jerry had a key to Verl’s “pad”. But, I was wrong.

Verla’s wall decorations (obliques, angles with mirrored surfaces are straight out of the 40’s/50’s along with the color of the chairs (naugahyde, I’m sure). .Maybe that’s why we got a collective nostalgia hit here..And yes, a cousin and I provided the family lore with a story when Granpa “busted us” for baking potatoes in the coal furnace. We sneaked upstairs for the butter, salt and paprika.I can also still feel the heaviness of the ash bucket and coal scuttle.

The “Find-It” today is the “Find-It”…….. cannot find it…...What’s it say on Verl’s shirt… ? ? ?Tin Bubbl Jacu2Must be TEXT speak………

I think the Mailman/milkman references here were sarcastic jokes. My wife and I do the same thing. I’ll be out somewhere and call to say I am on my way home, she’ll respond, “Thanks, that gives me time to get the guys out of here”.

I think she’s joking, right?

Tiny Bubbles Jacuzzi

We had a milkman until about 20 years ago. They started delivering at about 2 a.m. (bad enough in the hot summers) and my dog HATED the truck. After a few weeks of being wakened in the wee hours, we finally cancelled the service.I also remember having an egg man as a kid. He came a couple of times a week.

When I was a kid in the ’40’s we had a milkman and twice-a-day mail delivery to the door, no less! i can also remember spending the whole day with my brother at the community pool/park @<10 years and my mother glad for the break. I also rode the city bus alone to downtown Houston in the 8th and 9th grades to a music lesson. And for the “biggie,” my dad told me many years later, that was the time when he could expect a hot meal every night and sex three times a week!

Alta Dena still delivers in my town.

Growing up in Australia in the thirties we had a milkman who delivered milk into a “billy can” hung on the front gate and an iceman who delivered big blocks. Had to remember to empty the basin underneath the icebox.

Not to mention Charles Chips.

I have returned mailbox keys recently to neighbors who forgot theirs in the box (and have had mine returned too). .In my childhood and even my married life we still had regular milk delivered (and cream etc if I wished it). I did not drive back then so it was good not to have another heavy item to carry on my bike. It took me at least 3 trips to bring home groceries for family of 6 every week..Verl’s shirt looks like “Tiny Bubble Jacuzzi”- sounds like she is having more fun with the milkman than with Jerry (he could not be as repulsive).

Milk, Schmilk! Where’s is the find it??