The Good Ole Days
By Juliaacv
@Juliaacv (78215)
Canada
March 15, 2023 6:38am CST
We often refer to years ago and the things that we enjoyed but no longer do, as the good ole days.
I grew up on a family farm. We lived about 10 miles from the closest city and a few miles less from 2 small towns.
In those days most families were self sufficient. Many items had to be picked up from a weekly shopping trip into town. Especially the groceries.
Not all things that we consumed were hauled home in the trunk of the car from town though. I distinctly remember that twice a week, the milk man would pull into the yard. He offered a variety of dairy items, mostly milk, as well as milk tickets. The milk tickets were put into our lunch pails so that we could submit them at school and get a mini carton of white or chocolate milk. The rules at our home was white milk only.
We also had the breadman who stopped by once a week. He always came during the afternoon, sometimes my mother would not be home when he called because she would be gone to town to get her groceries.
I remember my older brother ran away from home one afternoon. He was only about 4 years old, and made it about half a mile down the road when the breadman spied him and picked him up and brought him back home again.
That week my mother was home when he called, and she was very happy to see that he brought home her eldest.
28 people like this
27 responses
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
@LadyDuck I remember learning to bake fresh bread and fancy tea rings when I was 12 years old in the 4-H club. I still have the cookbook that we used. I can no longer knead the bread as it is too hard on my back, my hubs has helped me with that process in the past, he loves it when I bake fresh yeast products.
4 people like this
@DaddyEvil (127395)
• United States
15 Mar
I grew up on a family farm. We milked our own cows and bought groceries in town once a month. We grew most of our own veggies that mom canned for the winter. We had fruit trees and mom canned the fruit to eat over the winter. We raised our own pigs, chickens and horses.
I think I had a pretty good childhood.
4 people like this
@DaddyEvil (127395)
• United States
15 Mar
@popciclecold There are too many people that would kidnap kids off the farm if they had the same freedom I did when I was growing up.
4 people like this
@popciclecold (32800)
• United States
15 Mar
@DaddyEvil Things have really changed.
3 people like this
@popciclecold (32800)
• United States
15 Mar
You bring back a lot if memories, the milkman and bread man. We had those also.
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
They are sweet memories of a kinder time.
I remember a lady down the street from our second home, had a little door on the side of her home which the milkman used to put the bottles into it decades before.
I haven't thought of that in years.
Its a sweet memory like a laundry shute I don't know if they build new homes with those in them any longer.
3 people like this
@popciclecold (32800)
• United States
15 Mar
@Fleura Yeah, those were good days. I thought about our milk man Jimmy.
3 people like this
@JudyEv (312266)
• Rockingham, Australia
15 Mar
I lived on a farm too and we would go to town (13 miles away) once a week for groceries. There was one shop in the small town 4 miles away. Bread was delivered there several times a week and the school kids would pick up loaves ffrom the shop and take them home on the bus. If we were brave enough or very hungry we would pick some of the bread out of the middle of the loaf. 
4 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
You had more 'rope' than we did while in school.
We were not allowed off of the school property until we boarded the bus for the long ride home.
The breadman stopped coming around in the early 70's as more and more housewives were going into town to work. My mother never ever went back to work after she married my Dad.
4 people like this
@celticeagle (146976)
• Boise, Idaho
15 Mar
We had the milkman at my grandmother's and one when we lived in Pocatello. So much better than what we get today. And there used to be a wonderful bakery in town that made the best bread.
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
Really?
I know that when I was a child my Grandpa built a single car garage for his car, and there was no power in it.
That was in the 60's and the garage was literally only to park their car, they had 2 workshops with power for working on farm equipment.
3 people like this
@RasmaSandra (65475)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
15 Mar
My mom had the joy of having a diaper service. Dirty diapers away and clean ones in place, It also saved her a lot of expense since these days disposable diapers cost so much. How does your family managed on the diaper situation with the twins? They sure would have been glad for a diaper service,
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
16 Mar
I considered getting a diaper service when our son was born 33 years ago.
Instead I did my own cloth diapers.
In those days the disposible diapers were just paper and not at all soft on their skin.
Today our son and his wife use disposables, but they are not hard paper, but no where near as soft as the flannel ones that I used on our son.
3 people like this
@RasmaSandra (65475)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
16 Mar
@Juliaacv they have many interesting options these days like in the link below but there are many other as well just letting you know in case your interested
https://healthybaby.com/products/diaper-and-wipe-subscription?utm
3 people like this
@1creekgirl (37121)
• United States
15 Mar
What a sweet story. Did he ever try that again?
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
Apparently after my grandparents told us about their trip to Florida, he and I were striking off together one afternoon. I was seated in the wagon with a bag of our clothes and we were running away from home.
When asked where we were going we said to Florida, to see our grandparents. When asked what we would eat, we told them we would climb the trees and pick the oranges and grapefruit like our grandparents brought back home for us.
Oh yes, we had all of the answers, but we never left the yard.
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
@1creekgirl Isn't it funny what we remember all of these years later?
3 people like this
@1creekgirl (37121)
• United States
15 Mar
@Juliaacv What a sweet, funny story! The only time I tried to run away was when I was at Grannie's and a chicken running at me changed my mind.
3 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (76445)
• United States
15 Mar
Even today I can remember our Milkman Mike. Those were the good ole days for sure. My grandmother had a bread man who also delivered all sorts of cakes, donuts, etc. I loved being at her house when he came by She would let me pick out something sweet and maybe that's where my sweet tooth started. Even now I still love all sorts of cakes, pies, cookies, etc.
She would let me pick out something sweet and maybe that's where my sweet tooth started. Even now I still love all sorts of cakes, pies, cookies, etc.3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
I think that our breadman must have had alot of sweets also in the back of that orange truck, because us 4 kids were never allowed outside of the house nevermind past the fence (part of the yard was fenced in to keep us close to the house) when he drove into the laneway.
3 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (76445)
• United States
15 Mar
@Juliaacv my mom would have done the same thing but my grandma was a softie
3 people like this
@Fleura (26216)
• United Kingdom
15 Mar
We used to get milk delivered every day, and the baker came twice a week as well. Strangely enough, once at school we were studying a book in which the author described the baker doing deliveries and the teacher said that was what used to happen in the 'old days'. When I said that we still got our bread delivered twice a week he accused me of lying! And we only lived in a village four miles away, in fact one of the other teachers lived in the same village. Ever since then I have wondered if he ever found out he was wrong 
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
Maybe the teacher lead a sheltered life and did support the breadman.
Back then teachers spoke out about things they knew nothing about also, I remember a teacher slamming a thick text book over my head. Today that would be the end of their career.
Back then teachers spoke out about things they knew nothing about also, I remember a teacher slamming a thick text book over my head. Today that would be the end of their career.3 people like this
@porwest (65355)
• United States
15 Mar
We never had a milk man, or any delivery guy for that matter. But for the latter part of my childhood we did live in a private subdivision called Holiday Shores on a lake that was about 10 miles from the main town, and close to a couple of other smaller towns.
Not that the main town was very big. At the time it had a population of 13000 people. Today it is closer to 70000. But it was still bigger than the other two towns nearby.
3 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
We had a milkman and breadman during the 60's and 70's.
I remember when my hubby, who was only my boyfriend at the time, came home from work one day in the mid 80's and told me that a guy that he worked with claimed to know his girlfriend's family quite well as he was our milkman. And he was! 
3 people like this
@snowy22315 (155119)
• United States
15 Mar
My dad was a milkman at one time. I wish we still had milkmen. It would be better than having to run to the store all the time. My grandparents had a dairy farm, and that fresh milk always tasted so good...nothing like it. We always drank it from the cooling tank.
2 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (104195)
• Wheat Ridge, Colorado
15 Mar
We had milk men in England when I lived there, never here.
And we had the lovely old ice cream station wagon, not car, not truck but the old station wagon on our street growing up.
The diary products back then were delicious in both cases.
Now it is like water.
2 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (104195)
• Wheat Ridge, Colorado
15 Mar
@Juliaacv Oh Julia..that milk was the real deal I understand
Yeah I have had the warm milk off the farms in Ireland..blah dont like warm. I get it.
Yeah I have had the warm milk off the farms in Ireland..blah dont like warm. I get it.2 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
@RebeccasFarm I remember crying about the taste of that warm milk.
2 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
Since we lived out in the country there was no ice cream truck, but I do remember asking my mother how she managed to get home from town with ice cream, as there was no a/c in the cars back then, without it melting. I remember she explained to me that they would pack it into thick paper bags made for ice cream products.
When I stayed at my mother's parents farm, I used to cry for milkman milk, it was cold and came out of the fridge, but their milk was always warm and came in from the barn. That was a little too fresh for me.
2 people like this
@TheSojourner (70950)
• United States
15 Mar
I remember the milkman coming. It was when we lived in an apartment. I must have been 4 or 5 yrs old. I also remember him bringing cottage cheese.
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@TheSojourner (70950)
• United States
15 Mar
@Juliaacv I remember the paper caps and the little paper inserts that you had to dig out the tab! LOL
2 people like this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
@TheSojourner Yes, I remember those little individual ice cream servings, they came with a little wooden flat spoon. The hospital gave them out when you had your tonsils removed.
Today they just give pain meds-that isn't as much fun and does not provide for the memories.
3 people like this
@Tampa_girl7 (51538)
• United States
17 Mar
In Germany we had many vendors come by every week. There was a fruit and veggie man, ice-cream , pretzel, baked potato one, bread etc…. In the United States I only recall the ice-cream truck.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
17 Mar
That is interesting, we never really had alot of ice cream trucks in the cities in our area.
They may have been in larger cities.
There was usually one parked in the parking lot beside the small town's swimming pool and community park, there was also a little snack van where they sold candy and candy bars.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
17 Mar
@Tampa_girl7 That is more of an American thing than a Canadian thing, we had to go out to get ours at the corner store if you lived in town.
@Tampa_girl7 (51538)
• United States
17 Mar
@Juliaacv the ice-cream man came through the neighborhoods and played music so you knew he was coming. The sound of that music brought children running.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (78215)
• Canada
15 Mar
No, he didn't go to that extreme.
The next time that he wanted to run away from home, he decided to take me with him.
He packed me in the wagon, and a bag of our clothes.
When we were asked were would we sleep, we said on the beach (our grandparents just retuned home from a trip to Florida so we knew it was warm there), when we were asked what we would eat, he said that we would climb the trees and pick the oranges and grapefruit, like those that our grandparents brought back for us to enjoy.
We didn't even leave the yard on that attempt I don't recall really wanting to go as badly as he did.
2 people like this
@LindaOHio (123655)
• United States
12 Apr
What a great story. I remember the milk man. We would (the kids in the neighborhood) all go to his truck and get a chunk of the clear ice that he carried. I also remember Charles' Chips. I don't remember the bread man.
1 person likes this
