Home Dairy Memories

Summer 2011 Photo

I was heading over to pick up a Rosie's Pizza a couple of years ago when I swung down E. 34th Street and saw this unique building, which I later discovered was the former Home Dairy plant.

My parents had Home Dairy products delivered to our home for years. My father was good friends with Ed Lopatkovich, whose family started the company back in 1905, according to the Lorain Public Library System's online History of Lorain.

The first house that I lived in during the early 1960's had that little door in the garage that the milkman could put the milk in. (It was also good to stash things in while playing.) Later, when we moved over to Skyline Drive, the new house didn't have the little door. We still had Home Dairy milk delivered, right into the 1970's I believe, but the milkman left the milk in the garage next to the steps.

Remember the wire tray that had slots for the empty milk bottles? It's strange to think of it now. I can still see that tray sitting there with our empties in it. Once we were playing with some kind of ball in the driveway, and it flew into the garage and hit the tray, breaking some of the bottles.

Having a milkman is another memory that will soon be largely forgotten when my generation is gone. Milk bottles sitting on steps are already something that kids only see on old Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Our milkman was named Bill, and I can still remember seeing him slowly walk up the driveway with our milk, lifting the garage door, picking up the empty bottles and leaving our order. He had a distinctive way of shouting "Milkman!" when he was leaving that I can still hear in my mind; another faint echo of my childhood.

In this age of garage door openers and parental fear for the safety of their kids, I don't think milkmen will be making a comeback anytime soon. In fact, do kids still go through milk like we did as kids, drinking it at several meals and pouring it on cereal every day?

Reusing milk bottles was a pretty environmentally friendly thing to do, though. I wonder if they will ever become popular again?

Thanks to Alan Hopewell for the vintage Home Dairy photo, courtesy of the Black River Historical Society website!