DELIVERY TRUCKS OF YORE

 

Ye auld milk delivery van

This isn’t the actual milk delivery truck and milkman that came to our house in the 1940s & ‘50s, but it closely resembles what I remember the truck looking like.  And I remember the bottles of milk the milkman set on the porch or handed to my Mom with the cream floating on the top.

 

I also remember our milkman/men as smiling, jolly fellows.  There’s a funny story about that.  When I was a toddler, toddling around I always held onto or at least touched something as I walked around.  My folks knew I could walk without holding onto things and had been trying to get me to let go and just walk to them freely, but I wouldn’t do it.  Then one day I was standing in the dining room holding onto the table when the milkman came.  Mom opened the door and took the milk from him.  He saw me standing there and with a big smile and a “Hello sweetheart”, crouched down, opened his arms, and I let go of the table and walked straight to him!

We also had eggs delivered to the house, but not this way.

Nor by this crazy egg-shaped truck.  Actually, I don’t remember what the truck our eggs came in, looked like.  I only remember the eggs came in a square gray box with blue lettering, the eggs in three rows of four.

This truck delivered eggs to places across the bay from us, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t come to our house.  I think I would have remembered this truck!

Years later when I was married and living in Groveland, Calif. a Schwans truck used to prowl the neighborhood and I sometimes bought things from it.

A truck with fresh fruit and veggies also came around the neighborhood once in a while which was nice.

A 1907 Cadillac delivery van from the "Emporium".

Another historic delivery van - from the '20s?

An early U.S. Mail delivery wagon.

A horseless carriage U.S. mail truck in the 1920s era?

Another 1920s mail delivery van?

A 1970 U.S. mail delivery truck

United Parcel Service - UPS – began service in 1907

In 1929 they tried expanding to air service.  It only lasted for a short while, but in 1953 they tried air service again and the rest is history!

In 1936 UPS decided to try using electric vehicles for delivery and today they still do – using electric hybrid trucks in some areas. 

Federal Express was the idea of a graduate student at Yale University.  I went online to Wikipedia to find out more about it, and here, in brief, is what it said:

“In 1971, the company was founded in Little Rock, Arkansas as Federal Express Corporation by Frederick W. Smith, a graduate of Yale University. He drew up the company's concept in a term paper at Yale, in which he called for a system specifically designed for urgent deliveries. While his professor did not think much of the idea, Smith pressed on. He began formal operations in 1973, when he moved operations to Memphis. Smith said he chose Memphis International Airport for being near the mean population center of the country and for its placid weather.

The company grew rapidly, and by 1983 had a billion dollars in revenue, a rarity for a startup company that had never taken part in mergers or acquisitions in its first decade. It expanded to Europe and Asia in 1984. In 1988, it acquired one of its major competitors, Flying Tiger Line, creating the largest full-service cargo airline in the world. In 1994, Federal Express shortened its name to "FedEx" for marketing purposes, officially adopting a nickname that had been used for years.^”

The sort of FedEx delivery truck that usually comes around our neighborhood.  Can you see the white arrow within the lettering? J

A horse drawn moving van in the early days.

A moving van in the 1920s?

A moving van in 2010 moving us from Groveland to Soulsbyville, California.

An early van & storage company wagon.  Is that fellow sitting on a piano?  Reminds me of our pickup moving days.  When we lived in Gasquet, Calif. we had to move 3 times over the 7 ½ years we lived there.  We moved by pickup brigade with friends helping us.  One time the last pickup to head to our new digs was carrying my piano and the fellow in the bed of the pickup to keep an eye on it during the move was sitting on a stool, playing the piano as the truck drove out the driveway.  I wish I’d taken a picture of the scene but I’d been too busy directing everyone to have a camera in hand.  Shucks.

The horse & wagon movers immediately above reminded me of this picture of the furniture items we couldn’t keep when we moved from the house in Soulsbyville because we were moving to a smaller house: a large dining table & 8 chairs plus a small cabinet and a loveseat sofa stacked in a utility trailer my youngest daughter was taking to her house.  Kind’a neat, actually, because the family usually gathers at her house during the holidays, so I still get to see my lovely table & chairs & cute little cabinet and loveseat at least once in a while. J

And that’s all I have In the way of the history of delivery trucks associated with me for the nonce.

:->

La Nightingail

P.S.  I just had cataract surgery a couple of days ago & my good eye is still a little blurry so I hope I got this done up correctly. :)