Our Pet Dairy milkman in the Slater-Marietta area was Mickey Allman. He lived over on Baker Street, and he knew everybody on the mill village. He knew who worked in the mill, what shift they worked, how many children were in the family, and how much milk they needed for a week. He had to know because it determined when he arrived and what he left at the front door.
If the adults worked the first shift in the mill, he would arrive at daybreak to catch them before they left for work. The milk would spoil if he left it on the porch and there was no one to bring it in. If you needed to change your order, you just left him a note like “Dennis wants chocolate milk this week,” or “We’re going to the beach next week.” One way or another, he would fill your order, pick up the empty glass bottles from last week and be on his way.
Roy and Kate Whitmire ran the only grocery store on the mill hill and also offered home delivery. You just called Roy or Kate and told them what you needed. Roy would cut pork chops or steaks 2 inches thick if that’s what you liked. They always had a delivery boy on standby. My uncle Alton was one of their delivery boys. He told me that Roy provided the bike. It was a “girl’s bike” for easy on and off and had baskets front and back. Alton not only delivered your groceries, but he would also take them inside if you wanted. Roy would write a note showing how much you owed. You could either pay the delivery boy or Roy and Kate would just put it on your tab.
Then there was the Jewel Tea man. He arrived once a week in a big brown panel truck. He carried a variety of products, but I was particularly fond of the egg custard mix. It came as a dry powder in a small box like the ones Jell-O comes in. You just added milk and eggs and cooked it on the stove. I still consider it the gold standard for egg custard.
You never knew when the Charles Chips guy would show up. Seems like it was about every two weeks. The chips — plain, barbecue or sour cream and onion — came in a huge yellow can with brown lettering. You just exchanged your empty cans for new ones filled with the best potato chips ever. They were so good that nobody could eat just one.
The milkman makes a home delivery in the 1950s.We also subscribed to the Rich Plan, which provided an assortment of frozen, breaded butterfly shrimp, fish sticks, assorted steaks, burger patties and other meats on a monthly basis. You had to buy their commercial-grade freezer, but it was worth it. Until recently, our old Rich Plan freezer was still running.
Home delivery has come a long way since the 1950s and ’60s. Now there’s Grubhub, the pizza guy, FedEx, UPS, Omaha Steaks and others. But for my part I miss Mickey the milkman, the Charles Chips guy, Jewel Tea’s specialty products, and especially Roy and Kate Whitmire.
Dennis Chastain is a Pickens County naturalist, historian and former tour guide. He has been writing feature articles for South Carolina Wildlife magazine and other outdoor publications since 1989.
