Who Mourns the Milkman?

When I was a child, my mom would put the milk bottles outside our back door with a little paper pinwheel to let the milkman know what products we needed.

At the intersection of two of the busiest streets in the center of Monroe stood the Clover Leaf plant. Behind the building where the milk was processed was a pair of long piers where the milk trucks parked. The angled parking spaces were covered to keep the Louisiana heat away from the vehicles, and special power attachments dangled from the roof to hook up the refrigeration units when the trucks were at the plant.

It was a fascinating model of distribution efficiency.

Today, the sprawling space once occupied by milk plant is a vacant lot, a convenience store and a chain pharmacy.

Last time I checked, you can still get milk. Pretty much the same stuff today as the late 1960s.

What's missing is the home delivery.

Care to think about another industry who for decades has depended upon the distribution of its product to the doorstep?