Milk bottles on the doorstep

Transcript: Milk bottles on the doorstep

Owen Connors: So, we’re talking about our milk floatMilchwagenmilk-float memories. Now, Inez, what are your particular memories of milk deliveries and milk floats?

Inez Sharp: OK, so, we had a really nice milkman called Ben. Actually, that isn’t his real name. I had to change that, and you’ll find out why in a moment. He was always whistlepfeifenwhistling and singing, and the sound of him clatterklappernclattering with the milk bottles and whistling a tune in the morning was part of the theme musicTitelmusiktheme music of my mornings. My mum liked him. I think my mum thought this was really cool anyway because she was German and she didn’t know this kind of milk-delivery service. Anyway, we were having a party one day, a family party, and my mother said that she had never, ever checked his bills because he was such a nice guy, and he was so reliable and so lovely. My English relatives just turn on sb.auf jmdn. losgehenturned on my mum and they berate sb.jmdn. scharf kritisierenberated her and criticized her. I was still quite young, and I felt really bad for my mum. She tried to defend herself. Then years later, it turned out that he had been fiddle the books (ifml.)die Geschäftsbücher frisierenfiddling the books. Everybody who didn’t look at his bills, they basically had to pay a bit extra. So that was my milkman Ben milk-float story.

Lorraine Turner Akcakaya: Your poor mum.

Inez: It was so horrible. She was so trustinggutgläubigtrusting.

Lorraine: The milkman was a bit like the postman: it’s somebody that you implicitlyvorbehaltlosimplicitly trust.

Mae McCreary: We had a milk delivery. I don’t know if it was a milk float, but it certainly was delivered. The milkman would put it in these two metal crates right next to our front door. He would drop the glass bottles into the crates. Right before Valentine’s Day, my dad made this huge, heart-shaped Valentine’s Day card for my mom. It had little cut-outAusschnittcut-outs in it and, like, “Pull here” and something would pop out. 

Lorraine: Wow! KudosHut ab!Kudos to your dad.

Inez: Absolutely!

Lorraine: Incredible!

Mae: Where do you hide a card this big that my mom wouldn’t check? Because, of course, she would find it if he hid it in the house, so he put it in the milk crates. Unfortunately, Valentine’s Day and the milk delivery were on the same day, and the milkman got the card first. He thought it was for him! It did say, “Love, Bob,” on it. The next week, when we got milk, the milkman dropped off a very romantic thank-you card for my dad.

Lorraine: But he still kept the card? That’s quite impressive.

Mae: He kept the card. He thought it was for him.

Inez: Brilliant. 

Lorraine: So he did actually think it was for him? He didn’t realize it was for somebody else?

Mae: Yes, according to the thank-you note, he thought that he and my dad had a little something something going on. My poor mom never got to see the card.

Lorraine: And nearly lost her husband to the milkman.

Listen to the entire conversation on Spotlight Audio 10/26.