Memories of growing up in Lewisburg, WV, a great town and a great time to be young
We moved to Lewisburg in the spring of 1955. There were several necessary steps when moving to a new location – turning on the electricity, notifying the water company, installing a new telephone and contacting the milkman to get on his route.
In those days, milk was available at grocery stores, but most families had it delivered to their doorsteps, usually twice a week. You could also order butter and cream, and eggs from some, but multiple quart bottles of pasteurized milk from the milkman were absolute necessities for any family with growing children.
If there was such a thing a lactose intolerance in those days, I never knew about it. We drank milk like there wouldn’t be anymore the next day – often swigging straight from the bottle if no one was watching. After all, our health books in grade school said that “Milk was nature’s most perfect food” and who can argue with a health book?
In the mid-fifties, milk came in returnable quart bottles with small paper caps, which were always the dickens to get off without tearing. Before taking off the cap, it was imperative to thoroughly shake the pasteurized milk bottle so that the heavy cream on top was blended with the white milk below. Otherwise, your first glass from the bottle tasted more like whipping cream than actual milk. Parents in those days relished pouring a little of the rich cream in their morning coffee.
The pasteurized milk we drank went through a process of heating and then rapid cooling. This slowed the microbial growth process and helped milk to stay fresh a little longer. But the cream was always on top and the white milk below.
When the homogenization process arrived, it really added nothing to the shelf life or purity of the milk, but it permanently blended the cream with the milk so that no shaking was necessary. Later, a product called 2% milk hit the market. We called it “gray milk”, quite a step down from the richness of whole milk.
In the late 50’s and into the 60’s, the quart milk jars were gradually replaced with rectangular cardboard boxes, including a new half-gallon size. These boxes allowed more milk to be carried and displayed in a given space than did the old glass bottles.
The new cartons also reduced the cost of milk for consumers since disposable paper cartons were cheaper than the returnable glass bottles, there was little breakage and the freight was less, and gradually the milkman became obsolete.
But milk never tasted as good as in the old days when it came cold and fresh, in quart bottles delivered by the milkman.