Home Dairy Lenten Ad – March 1955

Home Dairy in Lorain has been a favorite topic on this blog. The owner of the dairy was a good friend of my father, and in fact was his best man at my parent's wedding. So we had Home Dairy milk delivered to our house for years, right into the 1970s. Our house on W. 30th Street even had the little milk box in the garage wall.

Here's my older brother Ken at the table, circa January 1960, with a bottle of Home Dairy milk in the foreground.

Note it has the "Morning - Noon - Night" graphic on it, as shown in the illustration at the top of this post.

Seventy years ago this month, Home Dairy ran the ad below in the Lorain Journal on March 15, 1955. It has a Lenten theme, suggesting to those who might be on a restricted diet due to their religion to eat more dairy products.

March 15, 1955

Home Dairy ran a lot of ads in the Journal in the early 1960s with great illustrations, encouraging people to drink more milk. Maybe it was because the west side of Lorain was exploding with new homes and new kids (future Baby Boomers). Here's an ample sample.

Sept. 20, 1960

October 18, 1960

Feb. 20, 1962

Aug. 7, 1962

Sept. 25, 1962

July 21, 1964

Aug. 11, 1964

The Home Dairy ads must have worked, since my siblings and I drank milk at breakfast and lunch, as well as a glass before bedtime with our snack.

I haven't been over to the former Home Dairy building to see if it is still there, but here's a view from 2019.

Home Dairy Phone Book Ads 1950's-60's

Here's a couple of Lorain Telephone book ads for Home Dairy. The above ad is from 1956 and the one below is from 1961.

I must have really studied the bottle graphics as a kid (probably why I ended up in graphic design) because I really remember that 'Morning Noon & Night' tagline. I didn't know what it meant, but I remember it!

I also see that the ads push the company's origin date back to 1901, compared to the Library's online History of Lorain's date of 1905.

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!