Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Blue Milk Tickets

He loaded his truck in the morning and came back with empty bottles at night.

My father went to work 6205 days in a row, give or take a few, from 1945 until 1962. Until I was 16 and my cousin, Jackie, 18 or 19. We were both old enough to drive the milk truck then and we knew his routes, since we’d been (I speak for myself) half-assed helpers of his. So he took his first vacation in 17 years. He and my mother went away and my cousin and I delivered the milk for a week. As far as I know, no baby died for lack of it: we made the rounds, Jackie and I, up and down the streets of our small town — Elm and Cottage and Clark — during the summer of 1962.

Sponsored
Sponsored

My father divided his customers into two routes, one Monday and Wednesday and Friday and the other Tuesday and Thursday. On Saturdays he did both. On Sundays he delivered to three or four stores. He slept in a bit on Sundays, but he still shaped up for work. My mother worked too, full-time, as a telephone operator, as well as acting as primary caretaker of her aging and increasingly ill mother, my grandmother, with whom we lived, on the family farm. My grandfather, the last lifelong farmer in the family, died when I was three. My uncle (mother’s side) milked the cows. My father delivered the milk. The point is: they went to work. You did this: you went to work. Glad to have a job — they went through the Depression, and then, right on its back, came WWII. You go to work: that’s a great lesson, for which I am grateful.

My father liked his job. He was, essentially, his own boss. He loaded his truck in the morning and came back with empty bottles at night. Sometimes, when I was in grade school, he’d drive by when we were out for recess or at lunch. That filled me with joy. I helped him on Saturdays, his double route. He’d pick me up about 10:30, letting me sleep late. I learned useful things working with him. One: how to drive a truck, which, after I graduated from college, I did for a while to earn a living. And two: a sense of balance. I could stand next to him (large front cab to allow easy and continuous exit and entry) and, without holding on to anything, not lose my balance as he went around corners, stopped quickly, etc. I can ride New York subways without holding a pole — an urban kind of surfing.

People paid for their milk with little blue tickets. They’d leave him money, he’d leave the blue tickets, then they’d give him back the tickets for milk. He carried a little sack of the cash — maybe $20–$30 in bills and another 20 in change. For this sack of change, which he hung up in the laundry room off the kitchen after work, I am also grateful. In my teen years I’d clip a buck or so in dimes and quarters for a few gallons of gas with which to cruise with my pals in their parents’ or my parents’ car. My bet is he knew I was skimming now and then from the family business — I think he could tell by the heft of it just how much change was in his little sack. Good trick (let them think they’re getting away with something when they aren’t) to use on kids, Pop, thanks. I use the same trick on your granddaughter. And I taught her the one song you taught me: “Oh the monkey chased his tail around the flagpole” — one line, over and over. That fills us both with joy. Thank you, Father, your genius is your heart, and you taught me more than you knew.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will L.A. Times crowd out San Diego U-T at Riverside printing plant?

Will Toni Atkins stand back from anti-SDG&E initiative?
Next Article

Hip-hop artist Don Elway makes movies for his music

Not Ordinary EP tells a story of life on the streets

My father went to work 6205 days in a row, give or take a few, from 1945 until 1962. Until I was 16 and my cousin, Jackie, 18 or 19. We were both old enough to drive the milk truck then and we knew his routes, since we’d been (I speak for myself) half-assed helpers of his. So he took his first vacation in 17 years. He and my mother went away and my cousin and I delivered the milk for a week. As far as I know, no baby died for lack of it: we made the rounds, Jackie and I, up and down the streets of our small town — Elm and Cottage and Clark — during the summer of 1962.

Sponsored
Sponsored

My father divided his customers into two routes, one Monday and Wednesday and Friday and the other Tuesday and Thursday. On Saturdays he did both. On Sundays he delivered to three or four stores. He slept in a bit on Sundays, but he still shaped up for work. My mother worked too, full-time, as a telephone operator, as well as acting as primary caretaker of her aging and increasingly ill mother, my grandmother, with whom we lived, on the family farm. My grandfather, the last lifelong farmer in the family, died when I was three. My uncle (mother’s side) milked the cows. My father delivered the milk. The point is: they went to work. You did this: you went to work. Glad to have a job — they went through the Depression, and then, right on its back, came WWII. You go to work: that’s a great lesson, for which I am grateful.

My father liked his job. He was, essentially, his own boss. He loaded his truck in the morning and came back with empty bottles at night. Sometimes, when I was in grade school, he’d drive by when we were out for recess or at lunch. That filled me with joy. I helped him on Saturdays, his double route. He’d pick me up about 10:30, letting me sleep late. I learned useful things working with him. One: how to drive a truck, which, after I graduated from college, I did for a while to earn a living. And two: a sense of balance. I could stand next to him (large front cab to allow easy and continuous exit and entry) and, without holding on to anything, not lose my balance as he went around corners, stopped quickly, etc. I can ride New York subways without holding a pole — an urban kind of surfing.

People paid for their milk with little blue tickets. They’d leave him money, he’d leave the blue tickets, then they’d give him back the tickets for milk. He carried a little sack of the cash — maybe $20–$30 in bills and another 20 in change. For this sack of change, which he hung up in the laundry room off the kitchen after work, I am also grateful. In my teen years I’d clip a buck or so in dimes and quarters for a few gallons of gas with which to cruise with my pals in their parents’ or my parents’ car. My bet is he knew I was skimming now and then from the family business — I think he could tell by the heft of it just how much change was in his little sack. Good trick (let them think they’re getting away with something when they aren’t) to use on kids, Pop, thanks. I use the same trick on your granddaughter. And I taught her the one song you taught me: “Oh the monkey chased his tail around the flagpole” — one line, over and over. That fills us both with joy. Thank you, Father, your genius is your heart, and you taught me more than you knew.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Next Article

Yo-Yo Ma, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky come to San Diego

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.