The Milk boys

Iremember those days well, me and my brother getting up around 4 am in the morning to deliver the milk and rolls to the door steps – 7 days a week.

Our main route was Markinch, but we did have some customers on the way to that village.

Then on a Friday night we used to go and collect the milk money and hopefully the customers would say ” Keep the change”.

I can not remember how much money we made, but it was enough to take us to Glasgow and order our new Arther black shirts – Arthur Blacks Shirts and Slacks was an establishment in St Enoch Square where handmade clothes were produced to your own specification.

They specialized in western yoke shirts and at Arthur’s you could choose your own color combinations as well as how many buttons, pleats, zips, epaulettes and pockets you wanted – God knows how many of these shirts we had.

I never really got a good education at school- fell asleep most of the time – no wonder getting up so early in the morning.

It wasn’t just milk we delivered – we delivered bread, yogurt, juice and eggs and I think I could carry 4 milk bottles in one had & the faster we went- the faster we would get back home and back to our beds for 1 hour before going to school.

I loved being a milk boy, getting up so early in the morning didn’t bother me & it was great exercise for us – as we were competing in the Judo & and running and jumping over hedges was getting us into shape for our next competition.

Besides delivering the milk in the morning, we were out selling newspapers at the weekend ( the sports pink ) – it was the sporting newspaper & we used to go into the pubs and sell this newspaper.

I loved the smell of those places – every pub had the same smell and it also looked fun to be in there – just seemed everybody was happy & it won’t be long until I was in these pubs having a pint and not selling the sports paper ( but that is another story )

At one time, our Dad was our Milkman and we were his milk boys  – but this job didn’t really suit him, one day some one stole some bread from his milk float- he chased them down the street – I for one, wouldn’t like the Australian Judo Champion chasing me down the street.

Plus he didn’t like going to the doors and ask for money – I could just picture him when some customer said ” Can I pay you next week ? ” – we tried to keep him in the milk float and we would go to the doors instead.

These childhood memories will stay close to my heart.