Ever since the ravages of COVID, people have actively worked to find ways to withdraw from society. From DoorDash to delivery by drone, it seems that human interaction is on the wane. Not so long ago, home delivery of certain food products was very popular. Milk, of all things, was delivered to our doors with stunning efficiency by white-uniform-clad delivery drivers behind the wheel of distinctive milk trucks. If you have $11,000 and are looking to reenact one of the most historic renditions of food delivery, this rarely seen 1971 Divco 300D for sale on Craigslist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, may be your jam. Thanks to Tony P. for the tip!
Everywhere you go in today’s world, you see signs of folks withdrawing from society in some way or another. You cannot go shopping for groceries anymore without weaving around carts being loaded by a store employee for placement in an open SUV hatch out in the parking lot. If driving to the store is too much of a burden, you can order delivery by drone in many major cities. Let’s not even get into the whole DoorDash thing. Do any of you remember a time when going out to eat was something special? Now it seems that most places don’t even want you in the restaurant anymore. We are fast becoming a nation of voluntary shut-ins where food is concerned.
Before I spend anymore time on my soapbox about people getting food products delivered, I need to roll the clock back a minute. I am in my early fifties, so I have lived through some interesting and often now extinct stuff. One of my earliest memories is of a galvanized steel box on the front porch of my grandparents’ home in Florida. It had a hinged lid and was insulated with styrofoam. Every few days, they would receive a milk delivery from the T.G. Lee Dairy. The milkman drove a typical early-1970s step van instead of the distinctive Divco milk trucks seen in the north. However, the experience was the same. This service, along with a similar one from Charles Chips, with their plain potato chips in a round, brown tin, didn’t last very long into my childhood before they disappeared from memory.
Seeing this 1971 Divco model 300D step van pop up on the tips list brought my memory back to those carefree days as a kid who was fascinated by everything around me with an engine. It wasn’t until I was much older that I even saw a milk truck of this type at the Hershey Swap Meet, and even longer before I came across one below the Mason-Dixon Line. It seems that we never got the cool milk trucks that northerners enjoyed. Evidently, the tradition lasted for a long while in a few places. Divco manufactured this style milk truck from 1937 until 1986 with few changes.
Such trucks are rare to see today. One of the failings of the design is that these were non-refrigerated trucks. Products that required refrigeration, such as milk, were iced down instead. This melting ice kept moisture in the cracks and crevices of these trucks until it found a way out. Usually, that meant rust, and the pictures of this truck show evidence of this unfortunate side-effect. The good news is that the areas where rust has formed are almost all flat and should be easy to replace.
We are told that this dapper Divco was used to deliver milk by the Christiansen Dairy Company in Rhode Island until the seller purchased it in 2019. As for the rest of the truck, the seller claims that it does run and drive. It will also need some brake line replacement, as you would expect from a northern climate vehicle of this age. In fact, given that it is rated at a gross weight of 11,000 lbs., you might want to go over the whole brake system very carefully. These trucks aren’t geared to go very fast, but hills are a thing.
Perhaps some of the more enterprising companies today could look back and see the examples set back in the day for food delivery. We are told that dairies are suffering because milk consumption is in a freefall in this country. Maybe so. However, there seems to be no shortage of demand for energy drinks and caffiene laden sodas among just about every age group. Maybe these companies will consider door-to-door delivery again. There is certainly a market for it. Of course, by the time they got started along this path, the trucks will be driverless and a creepy human-featured robot will be happily skipping towards your door at all hours of the night.
After some deliberation, I think we will keep this milk truck delivery stuff to ourselves. What do you think? Please share your thoughts and memories in the comments.
We still have milk deliveries here in RI.
One neat feature on Divcos was the ability to stand up and drive, and these were manual transmission trucks. I think the seat could swing out of the way, and the clutch and brake pedal were combined in one. The throttle I think was on the shifter. I never drove one, just seen them and read about them. It fascinated me that someone could drive a standard transmission truck standing up. This Old Milk truck looks like it was “Put Out to Pasture” ( Punn Intended). This is still a great find and a I really enjoyed your write up Jeff. It’s great seeing all sorts of trucks here on Barnfinds. Hope it gets back on the road one day.
Here in Duluth Minnesota we had two competing dairies delivering milk in our neighbor hood, Spring Hill dairy and Hazelford dairy. A third, Lester River dairy didn’t deliver in our neighborhood.
I remember the single long-throw pedal: half-way down to declutch and continue down for braking. The Brock Hall trucks’ go pedal was also a unique design for stand-up driving: it was a lever down at floor level that moved sideways so the milkman (never saw any women delivering) swiveled his right foot on the heel to accelerate.
Our galvanized box was wood-lined for insulation, long before Styrofoam was available, and there were at least 2 dairies delivering.
3 old trucks today!
I sort of have one of each.
Ford 6 Divco.
When i get back to the orchard, I’ll check, I think it has a gas pedal.
Long ago. Land is sold and hate to see it scrapped, will you take it. Heating ac guy bought the refrigeration panels.
Someone else wanted most of the front of the body. That left a portable garden shed with doors on each end.
Howard, it was Land of lakes.
Good article Jeff about an important rig in a part of our past culture, and you answered a question that has bugged me for awhile-considering their numbers (49 years worth!) why don’t we see these pop up anywhere? Didn’t realize they weren’t refrigerated!
Learned something again today.
Thanks, Jeff.
I worked on some Divco trucks that had small refrigeration units in them. Some of them had plug-in units that cooled when they were off of the routes.
Oh boy, the “milkman” jokes should surface after a long hiatus.( crickets chirping) The milkman, or milkmaid, was the center of all jokes, mainly because of their arrival times. Before the 7-11( one of the 1st late night grocery stores) most grocery stores were a 9-5 deal. People had metal boxes in the home doors, and a 2 way opening, the milkman would leave the products, usually before dawn, ironically just after the old man left for the factory. My old man made a milk chute in the wall, that me and my brother used to climb out of at night, but that’s for a different time.
Certain vehicles had specific duties, like the Checker for a taxi, Mack was a dump truck, a Divco was for dairy. The ones that had no floors left, became tool sheds out back. It’s tough to try and relate anything today to the “stand-up Divco”, and the era it serviced. Never in a Divcos opertators wildest dreams did they ever think home delivery would be so big, and if you are like me, I don’t like shopping, and would welcome home delivery if it wasn’t riddled with so many problems. All hail the Divco,,,,for a more simpler time.
Hi Howard, There was a woman in our town that always told the story of after marrying her husband and moving to town, it was her second night here, she heard somebody in the kitchen at 4:30 am. She woke up her husband and told him there was a burglar in the kitchen, to which he replied, that’s just the milkman, he puts the milk in the refrigerator and takes the empties on his way out, go back to sleep. The local Dairy was two houses down the road from where I grew up. I got to go with them one day in the Divco to deliver milk. It was pretty interesting watching the father stand up and drive the Divco. When he made a stop, the daughter my age would take the milk to the house. They also had an old Divco that was rotted out that the father place next to the ice skating pond so the kid could sit in there to put on their skates. Of course they sat on milk crates. I hope somebody saves this one.
Homestead Creamery used these some time ago,
& did home delivery until a year or to ago (with newer trucks).
I’d like to find one of their home delivery boxes.It had their logo
on it with one of those trucks.
It’s been over 60 years. I can still hear the clank of the bottles and the milkman slipping the clutch in the early morning. We had George the milkman who worked for Lake to Lake. Veryfine was the other dairy.
Back in the 1960’s in Huntington W.Va. we had Borden’s Dairy. The trucks were light blue with white trim and had a picture of “Elise the Borden Cow” along with the company name on the sides. Our delivery man was Mr. Snyder to the kids but, grown folks called him “Pop Snyder”. He would often let my grandmother ride on the passenger side the two blocks to the city bus stop so she could get to work. He’d say, “There’s no sense you walking, I’m going right by there”.
I’d say this find brought back a lot of memories.
I’m our neck of the woods Borden’s had the yellow trucks with Elsie in the side, while Hygeia had the blue n white with the Q✓ on the side
My family’s last milk delivery was in 1965. Way before Covid. The Fuller Brush guy lasted about another year, til we moved and I guess they couldn’t track our cell phones…
As a kid growing up in the suburbs north of Toronto, we had numerous delivery trucks on our street. Milk truck, bread truck and soft drink truck. About once or twice a month, the knife sharpening truck would come by. He would ring a bell every 100 feet and people would bring out their knives, scissors or lawn mower blades, to be sharpened.
In the late ’60s while in HS, I worked at a service station that had a maintenance contract with a local dairy delivery service – they had about 30 Divcos and we had a regular, nightly service business, kept 2 of us busy for 2-3 hours each night with oil changes & tune ups, brake service, along with filling the fuel tanks of the whole fleet so they were ready to go out around 4am. They were simple and very rugged/reliable trucks. Another thing people sometimes forget is how interconnected small businesses were – we needed them and they needed us.
There was a milk box on our porch right beneath the bathroom window. The milk was delivered every morning and my dad would ask our milkman Bob Freitag how the roads where. Our own milk Delivery weatherman. Miss Bob and the milk
there were two kinds of bottles, one with a somewhat straight neck for homogenized milk and the other with a “bowl” type area in the neck for nonhomogenized. The bowl in neck was for cream to float to the top and be separated by the consumer. We always got the homogenized and my aunt got the nonhomogenized. There was one dairy that even used brown glass bottles to keep the milk better in the porch box. Oh my, all these memories, so good not to keep them all “bottled up”.
Udderly fascinating.
Thanks folks all for sharing your memories. Very heartwarming.
Most of the houses in my area were built in the late 40’s to early 50’s. They had a small door about 4 feet up for the delivery men to use. There was also a door on the inside of the house for the homeowner to collect the product. When kids forgot their key to the house, they would squeeze inside through the delivery door.
Rocco B., My house was built in 1957 and it has a milk door. It’s right next to the garage door. You step into the garage from the laundry room and open it from the inside and there was your dairy products. I’ve been in this house 27 years and I’ve had a lot of fun quizzing people on why that door is there.
But, for full discloser… when I bought the house I didn’t know what it was for either.
Since we no longer have home milk delivery that’s where I keep my extra nozzle for the garden hose.
Most of the ones that I have seen were on side split homes. You enter the house from the side door and there is a small landing. Five stairs up and five stair down. The milk door is beside the main door, on the landing. Therefore you never had to go outside to collect your milk. Nobody on the street had a garage.
Man oh man, I can taste the ice cold strawberry milkshake in the small cardboard container my momma used to get from the milkman.. Those were the simple times in life
Some of my favorite vehicles are the ones with a “face”, like a Sprite, or a Morris Minor, as if the designer also drew cartoons with talking cars. This Divco is one of the best, it looks like it’s smiling, or at least gets me smiling just looking at it.
You might like the faces of some Flxibles. Our 45 Clipper is known as a “frog face”. Some of the Flxs now sport face design and other paintjobs Ours is white with red scallops.
I am 82 and can remember milk being delivered by a horse drawn milk float,Co-oP. Of coarse the horse new the round so would go on ahead to the houses where he knew a treat was waiting. One dairy had a two wheeled cart with two churns the customer dipped his hers two pint quart if you prefer. Hope the jug was only used for milk. In later life our milkman had an electric float in winter the batteries would go flat, I would tow him nearly back to the depot. Keep up with the finds please.
Very good writeup, Jeff. Yes, these were non-refrigerated trucks. Spent a lot of time at the ice house of Turner’s Diary in Penn Hills, PA, shoveling ice (it was actually shaved so the consistency of snow) into the back of the truck while the driver prepped for his route.
Roger, the Franklin Lakes Dairy delivery man, drove a Divco.
Don’t remember the name of the Krug Bakery guy but he drove a Chevy-based box… literally. Its windshield was about at the front bumper with a flat panel behind big ’nuff for his “goodies” tray, the one he carried to the front door with the sweets he hoped to off-load along with the white bread and “Peter Wheat” comic book.
We also had a fishmonger who drove a prewar Dodge with a modified panel delivery body that was open-sided. Even had a typical store hanging-pan scale that he’d tether before moving on to the next customer.
Oh, yeah; the ubiquitous United Parcel Service truck in its brown livery and the nifty bow-tied package logo delivering something Mom ordered from some store in “The City.” We were ’bout 19 miles NNW of the Empire State building in a tiny town with a Hackensack Water Co. headwaters reservoir. The town was so small that when the GSP was pushed through the western environs, the sign said “YOU ARE NOW ENTERING & LEAVING WOODCLIFF LAKE” Mostly woods back then, nary a building lot available today. Sigh…
Yes I remember the milk trucks. Do you remember the 1/2 pint glass bottles at school?? Our local dairy went from 49 – 52 Fords to Divco’s in the mid’50’s. This Divco is unusual in that it has a duel tire rear axle putting it in the 1 ton range from the normal single tire 3/4 ton units, so should be saved. There is a national Divco restorers club so getting parts / body panels has some sources. There are always about a 1/2 dozen Divcos displayed the the ATCA National show in Macungie PA every Fathers Day weekend. If a person has a hobby of models or one lung putt putt engines this would make an excellent hauler as well as being a conversation starter at Cars & Coffee.
I see in Double Clutch that there will be a Gathering of Divcos at the ATCA meet in Macungie, PA this year to commemorate 100 years of Divcos. It will be interesting to see how many show up and from where. Someone always brings his two restored Divcos to the annual truck show at the Bethlehem CT Fair Grounds every year. I’ve talked to the gentleman, but can’t remember his name.
I just subscribed to Barn Finds. I am enjoying reading through it. I saw this post. I am the person you spoke to at the Bethlehem CT fairgrounds truck show with the 2 restored Divco’s. I used to deliver milk using a Divco in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I have restored 5 Divco’s and am working on one more. Hope to see you in Bethlehem or Macungie this year. George Parmelee
Hi George, Thanks for replying. My husband bought an old wooden barrel from you in Bethlehem to put in the back of his old truck. Look forward to seeing you and your Divcos again this year. Hope you are enjoying Barn Finds.
I grew up in Miami FL in the 50’s and 60’s. I believe the local dairy was called McArthur’s, or something similar. I can remember glass 1-gallon bottles that when dropped on a hard floor, made a HUGE mess. Don’t ask me how I know. To put in how it is now. I dropped a nearly full 1-gallon PLASTIC bottle just the other day with zero damage and no mess. Progress marches on!
Back in the day we had Sealtest milk delivery. One the driver let me ride in the truck around the block. What a thrill for a little kid
I’d forgotten all about Sealtest until you mentioned it. They had a distribution center somewhere near Flint, Michigan ’cause I seem to remember their Divco trucks making the rounds.
I remember many years ago when I used to install elevators every time I had it up to this one area in Lewistown I would see this big field from the highway, and it always had a milk truck almost identical to that sitting in the middle of the field, the funny part was that it had a power pole right next to it with a transformer and a cable running down to a disconnect and a heavy cable going into the milk truck. I always thought that was funny never knew what that was for.
Growing up rural northern Illinois. We had Dixie Dairy delivery in Divco trucks.We always knew 15 minutes ahead of time when our delivery was going to be made. Our dogs would rush down and wait at the end of our circular driveway. (1/10 of a mile around) when they heard the truck crest the hill. And wait patiently for the truck to complete the 3 or 4 stops before ours. And then once he hit our driveway all the barking would start as the dogs were running along side the truck in anticipation of getting their “Milk Bone”treat! Working at the local NAPA parts store when in high-school. We supplied parts to the Dairy. So we had quite a few Divco parts on the shelf. If I remember correctly. The older ones used Continental engines and the newer ones used Chrysler slat sixes. They used up alot of steering parts. And I don’t remember if they were common with another brand. They were very much like IH/ AMC/Studebaker in the fact that you had to know what brand of ignition and carburation you had in order to get the correct parts. (Holly, Autolite, Prestolite, etc)
One of the best things about BF is that it is a great memory jogger. Besides Thompsons Dairy and Charles Chips many vendors plied our neighborhood in a wide variety of trucks. The ice cream guy and the green grocer. Who could forget the fellow who sharpened anything with a blade right in the back of his truck? You always knew that he had arrived because he would ring a bell. Then there were the guys who dropped off bales of the newspaper for the lucky lad who had managed to get the local route. Delivering the newspaper was a plumb job back then and was usually passed down to the next brother. He was the big spender who could by a couple of nutty buddies from the ice cream guy.
Charles Chips, there’s another Flashback!!!
We had milk delivered for awhile, ending maybe in my late Junior High or maybe early High School years. Cooling for the truck was provided with dry ice. I know this because (and I don’t remember why) we asked for and got some from the milkman. He also had ice cream bars, not for individual sale, but a box of 6 or 12, again I don’t remember. My brother and I would pay cash on the spot for them so they weren’t added to the bill. Didn’t want our parents to find out. If thet did they didn’t care as long as we were paying.
I have seen a few Divcos, Metros, and other delivery trucks at Hot August Nights and other shows. They are usually modified in the drivetrain and suspension department. The exterior either left as found, or painted to look old with signage typical of the era, with some personalization. There is at least one ice cream van that looks all original right down to the menu still displayed on the side. The interiors are sometimes converted to a camper. In all pretty cool(even without working refirigeration) in my opinion.
THE LETTERING LOOKS LIKE ENTENMAN’S BAKED GOODS.
Did milk and pop taste better in bottles then in cans or cardboard containers or milk bags for that matter? Is it just my imagination?
Yes!
Recently ì wasnt feeling well. I requested white soda, no high fructose, no artificial sweetners and in glass. He brought exactly what I wanted and it was just what I needed.
Get the Propel drink with no sugar. It also provides electrolytes. Being diabetic for some reason I get low on electrolytes and feel a little light headed. Doctor told me to try the Popel sugarless. It did the trick. So I now buy the mix from Costco. (Not Propel brand. They have it with and without sugar) A glass in the morning and at lunch time and the energy stays in check.
In the 50’s-60’s our milkman was a refugee from WW2,he drove a old Studebaker pickup.It was raw milk in a glass bottle with cream on the top,cardboard lid.Another guy sold shoes out of the trunk of his car,a fish guy that came around also.Even a old Gypsy guy selling crap.It was big deal deal for a hamlet of 800 folks in rural S.Jersey.
Lovely DIVCO truck.
You started your writting with reference ti COVID…I can’t believe you didn’t realise the brand DIVCO uses the exact 5 same letters as in COVID. I don’t miss covid.
Nice writting.
Certainly jogs a lot of memories for many folks.
We were on the last horse drawn milk delivery route in Montreal in the 1950’s.
I remember the melt water dripping out the back of the wagon and being able to approach the horse and pet its’ nose..
The horse knew the route, and where to stop , so the delivery man could go from house to house while the horse would stop and wait and proceed automatically.
Full circle, with your vision of robot trucks ?
Anyway , I remember my mom cancelling delivery and she always felt guilty , because the horse always stopped in front of our house out of habit.
So much better than a robot , even though he couldn’t be reprogrammed.
Glass bottles with a cardboard cap inserted in the top , no worries about safety caps and all that stuff.
Lovely times.
I drove a Hood ice cream truck in the early 70s while still in high school..I didn’t love the job,but I loved the truck
About a 70 Chevy with a big cooler in back.I used to amaze the kids when I did wheelies down the 1/4 mile driveway at school. I finally got stopped by the local cops for hauling 10 friends and 5 cases of beer to the beach.They said “It goes back. You ain’t 18 yet”
I either missed it or it was not stated. But I believe these were built in Canada. The ones I have seen that have been refurbished have removed the “ice boxes ” and have welded in replacement panels after removing the rusted out sections. These were well built units! Definitely have a place in our American history. (Even though built in Canada.)
A lot of us have a lot of nostalgia about these trucks but this one at $11k for a rust bucket. I’ll pass.
Back when I lived on Long Island, McCarrick’s Dairy in Rocky Point had 3 or 4 of these parked out back of the store in various states of disrepair. Been years since I was back there, I wonder if they still exist? A friend of mine who owned a brewpub nere in the Albany area had one of these, but I do not know what happened to it after he passed away a few years ago. Cool little vehicles, and this one looks ripe for a sympathetic restoration.
Hello, Jack. Thank you for your memories. I grew up in Willowdale, a northern suburb of Toronto and I remember all those delivery trucks including the ice delivery trucks. For people who still had an ice box cooler to keep food cold. Yhe bid cubes of ice that the delivery guy would struggle with.
And my aunt, who is 92, still in her own home since it was built in 1956, has a milk door next to her side door into her house. I remember seeing the delivery trucks on her street, anx getting the milk, and bread from the inside door of that opening in the wall, when I stayed at her housevon summer holidays a few times. Grateful memories to share over time.
Thanks you to you Jack, and author Jeff of this “DIVCO” MEMOIR !!!