Waking to the sound of the milk horse
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 8:02 am
I used to wake to the sound of the milk horse clip-clipping down the road outside. This was in suburban Melbourne, not the bush. The horse was a gentle old Clydesdale.
The milkie didn't have to give the horse much by the way of instructions - it was the same routine every morning, and the horse seemed to know from habit what was expected of it. It always stopped and started at the same places - roughly.
Having said that, it was not a perfect system by any means. We lived at the bottom of a fairly steep hill, and the street ended in a T-intersection. We lived on the corner. On the opposite side of the intersection was a house with a high brick wall. On two occasions that I recall the horse lost control of the milk cart, and careered through the wall. The owners started to get a bit sick of having to replace it. I doubt if the horse could have survived an accident like that, so we probably had at least three horses. They all looked pretty much the same, though.
Nowadays, of course, I pick up my milk from the supermarket on the way home from work.
The good old days? Well, yes and no - mostly no!
The milkie didn't have to give the horse much by the way of instructions - it was the same routine every morning, and the horse seemed to know from habit what was expected of it. It always stopped and started at the same places - roughly.
Having said that, it was not a perfect system by any means. We lived at the bottom of a fairly steep hill, and the street ended in a T-intersection. We lived on the corner. On the opposite side of the intersection was a house with a high brick wall. On two occasions that I recall the horse lost control of the milk cart, and careered through the wall. The owners started to get a bit sick of having to replace it. I doubt if the horse could have survived an accident like that, so we probably had at least three horses. They all looked pretty much the same, though.
Nowadays, of course, I pick up my milk from the supermarket on the way home from work.
The good old days? Well, yes and no - mostly no!