In the north east it varies over years and locality. Where I live in CT they used more sand then sale 30 years ago then they did a mix for a long time now they use almost all salt or liquid deicer. When I was last in northern Maine in the winter they were still using mostly sand.
Salt (specifically sodium chloride) begins to lose effectiveness below about 25 degrees F. Sand will always provide traction. Also, there may (or may not) have been sodium chloride mixed with the sand, a still common practice.
If you say salt and mean calcium chloride, that’s a slightly different critter and tends to be much more corrosive.
Dad delivered milk to residential customers from the ’50s thru the ’70s for Bordens. His truck was a little bigger than above . Give him an address, and he could tell you what type of milk (skim, 2%, or whole), yogurt, cottage cheese, and butter (salted or unsalted) that was the preference of the customer. If it was the holidays, eggnog was also delivered.
Each time I’m in the dairy section of the grocery, I make a point to look for Bordens products.
I only remember step-thru vans being used by “milkmen” when I was young. Was that the norm for urban home delivery or were there regional preferences? I see an early Econoline in the background which looks like it would be skittish on icy roads.
There is a certain purity about this image–something Thomas Kinkade and the HO model railroaders are trying to capture. The cute milk truck in that wonderful shade of green, the Victorian commercial buildings and their signage, the dusting of snow and the Christmas lights, the earnest look of the men dressed in plaid . . . even the homemade sign (and the round RXR sign, which I haven’t seen in a while.)
Yet the amateur photographer I’m sure was not trying to artistically capture a slice of Americana as it uniquely (and ephemerally) existed at that time. But here it is, now seen around the world.
Looking around on the Google street views, this town is quite well preserved. However, a lot of the 19th c. buildings have had modern replacement windows put in (blank, flat glass, not arched on top because it’s too hard/expensive to replace with the correct kind, and who cares anyway?) These take a lot of the “soul” out of a building.
There are still parts of NJ which look like this, but many are slowly losing their quaintness.
I think a certain part of the charm of this image also has to do with the film used – likely Kodachrome? The same photo taken today, digitally, would not look the same. No photo technology conveys nostalgia like mid-century colour film.
This looks very much like small town Nova Scotia in the same era, with those seemingly endless dreary winter days when the possibilities and the freedom of summer seemed like an eternity away to a kid in school. I can smell the snow, feel the damp air on my face, hear a car tracking through the packed dirty snow on the street. 🙂
I was literally going to post the same thing – Kodachrome for sure. I was weeks old when this picture was taken, and have recently gotten back into film photography. Sadly Kodachrome is no longer available as it used a completely different process than any other film.
(Oddly, one of the latest trends in digital cameras is adding “film emulation modes”, where the camera automatically adjusts the picture to match the look of a particular type of film, including Kodachrome.)
Also: Our house was built in late 1965 as part of a huge subdivision 30 miles outside Philly. We had milk delivery into the very early 70s by Bechtel’s Dairy, in a very similar truck.
It’s seductive stuff. One of my favourite rabbit holes for Kodachrome is Fred Herzog, a German-Canadian photographer, who took hundreds of shots of the seamier side of Vancouver in the 1950’s & 60’s. Some of the pictures you can stare into for minutes at a time, eyes just drinking in the colour.
That small town still looks nice, even in this day and age. Looks like a lot of small town Main Streets in the south. Those old buildings have a lot of charm and character. Good to see
It wasn’t hard to Googlestreet the location. The corner drug is still the corner drug!
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3296025,-78.8684243,3a,75y,80.81h,78.51t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBBSgg1Gz9_Vh6g5ryEKutQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Neat! And amazingly, it seems that the “Corner Drug Store” is still in business:
Looks like they were using sand rather than salt for winter traction.
In the north east it varies over years and locality. Where I live in CT they used more sand then sale 30 years ago then they did a mix for a long time now they use almost all salt or liquid deicer. When I was last in northern Maine in the winter they were still using mostly sand.
Salt (specifically sodium chloride) begins to lose effectiveness below about 25 degrees F. Sand will always provide traction. Also, there may (or may not) have been sodium chloride mixed with the sand, a still common practice.
If you say salt and mean calcium chloride, that’s a slightly different critter and tends to be much more corrosive.
Yum! Fresh creamy milk in a glass bottle! Dammit, why do I have to be allergic to milk?
Dad delivered milk to residential customers from the ’50s thru the ’70s for Bordens. His truck was a little bigger than above . Give him an address, and he could tell you what type of milk (skim, 2%, or whole), yogurt, cottage cheese, and butter (salted or unsalted) that was the preference of the customer. If it was the holidays, eggnog was also delivered.
Each time I’m in the dairy section of the grocery, I make a point to look for Bordens products.
I only remember step-thru vans being used by “milkmen” when I was young. Was that the norm for urban home delivery or were there regional preferences? I see an early Econoline in the background which looks like it would be skittish on icy roads.
A great rabbit hole of photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/people/117891934@N07/
Some local color:
That explains the “Here comes Hank” on the truck!
^^^Isn’t that fun how the clippings personalize the photo?
There is a certain purity about this image–something Thomas Kinkade and the HO model railroaders are trying to capture. The cute milk truck in that wonderful shade of green, the Victorian commercial buildings and their signage, the dusting of snow and the Christmas lights, the earnest look of the men dressed in plaid . . . even the homemade sign (and the round RXR sign, which I haven’t seen in a while.)
Yet the amateur photographer I’m sure was not trying to artistically capture a slice of Americana as it uniquely (and ephemerally) existed at that time. But here it is, now seen around the world.
Looking around on the Google street views, this town is quite well preserved. However, a lot of the 19th c. buildings have had modern replacement windows put in (blank, flat glass, not arched on top because it’s too hard/expensive to replace with the correct kind, and who cares anyway?) These take a lot of the “soul” out of a building.
There are still parts of NJ which look like this, but many are slowly losing their quaintness.
I think a certain part of the charm of this image also has to do with the film used – likely Kodachrome? The same photo taken today, digitally, would not look the same. No photo technology conveys nostalgia like mid-century colour film.
This looks very much like small town Nova Scotia in the same era, with those seemingly endless dreary winter days when the possibilities and the freedom of summer seemed like an eternity away to a kid in school. I can smell the snow, feel the damp air on my face, hear a car tracking through the packed dirty snow on the street. 🙂
I was literally going to post the same thing – Kodachrome for sure. I was weeks old when this picture was taken, and have recently gotten back into film photography. Sadly Kodachrome is no longer available as it used a completely different process than any other film.
(Oddly, one of the latest trends in digital cameras is adding “film emulation modes”, where the camera automatically adjusts the picture to match the look of a particular type of film, including Kodachrome.)
Also: Our house was built in late 1965 as part of a huge subdivision 30 miles outside Philly. We had milk delivery into the very early 70s by Bechtel’s Dairy, in a very similar truck.
It’s seductive stuff. One of my favourite rabbit holes for Kodachrome is Fred Herzog, a German-Canadian photographer, who took hundreds of shots of the seamier side of Vancouver in the 1950’s & 60’s. Some of the pictures you can stare into for minutes at a time, eyes just drinking in the colour.
https://www.equinoxgallery.com/our-artists/fred-herzog/
That small town still looks nice, even in this day and age. Looks like a lot of small town Main Streets in the south. Those old buildings have a lot of charm and character. Good to see
What Make and Model is the Truck? Talk about Curb-Side Classics!