Exactly how I remember it.
I was having a discussion the other day online with people who remembered the experiment with delivering milk in plastic bags that took place in the 1970’s, the use of which seems to be in revival, particularly at Costa Coffee shops. In short, milk came in strong (but often, not strong enough) plastic bags with a small amount of air in the top. You were given a free holder jug that you popped the bag in, and then snipped the corner off with scissors. You resealed the bag by sliding the cut corner into a slot in the lip of the jug.
If you find yourself thinking ‘This bloke should get out more…’ you’re probably right. I couldn’t believe I was searching for that at 1am either.
The experiment wasn’t a success and the use of bottles returned, but the memory lingers. I’m fairly sure it was tried by a company locally. It was while I was musing on this subject and undertaking some nostalgic research that I came across the following image in the Flickr stream of brookos photos. I remember these floats serving Brownhills, and the dairy seemed popular. I seem to remember Unigate, who had great advertising campaigns, and of course, the Co-op.
We haven’t covered delivery services and companies at the Brownhills Blog. We’ve touched on Pelari’s Ice Cream – mainly the untimely death of their horse at the hands of Nazi bombers in the war – but what do you recall of milkmen, posties, draymen and mobile grocers? Ice cream vans, too, particularly in the sixties, seventies? We’re losing these things hand over fist and I’d be interested to see what you guys can dig up… post a comment or BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.
Woolner Brothers milk float LDH725D in the early eighties at the Upper Forster Street dairy in Walsall. From the Flikr photostream of brookos photos.