Sunday, January 31, 2010

Milk Cartons

I do still buy my milk in cartons, rather than the plastic bottles. I usually have three kinds of milk in the refrigerator: soy milk, nonfat milk and 1% milk. The house we live in (where my husband grew up) still has the little door where bottled milk and other dairy products would be left by the milk man! We Gold Country Girls lived "out in the country", and I don't remember ever having milk delivered. But we did used to buy milk straight from the cow from our friends the Mosbacher family. When we lived near them, Lori and I remember carrying home the gallon jars - we didn't want the cream at the top to get mixed in with the milk- but usually it did. We could skim it off and make whipped cream, if we were so inclined. I must confess that I AM old enough to remember when milk cartons were waxed. See the top with the flip-up spout on the smaller cartons, below? I think I even remember when some cartons had that kind of opening.
Yes, I'm old. (The picture below is from a Kellogg's ad. Since they show it as sort of a bank - may I just say that I WISH I had a milk carton full of quarters! I'd use them all to shop at the thrift stores!)
Sturdy milk cartons could be used to craft with. We made canisters out of them years ago, and covered them with papier mache - wish I had a picture of one of those!
Pure-Pak - "Your personal milk container"
Maybe the wax-coated cartons were bad for some reason? I don't recall - but it was considered a big-enough deal when they no longer had it that Pure-Pak advertised about it a LOT in the magazines:
And I DO remember these candles that people used to make, too!
Since I do still have cartons in the fridge, I am rather fond of my Handi-Holders. If I recall correctly, all of them were here in the house when we moved in. I left the original label on the tan-colored one, because I like the yellow ones best, and use them daily.
They are indeed handy, and they make it easier for my (old) little hands to pour out my milk!

7 comments:

Tina Dawn said...

I loved the milk with the heavy cream from the Mosbachers. If you had gotten the cream mixed in during your walk home it would rise back up again. Maybe you didn't realize that at the time. Very interesting post. I don't know what the problem with wax cartons was either. Maybe sometimes it came off into the milk? The handy holders are great. I think Lori found one too at a thrift store. Love T

Lorlore said...

I do have one in aqua that I use every day. It helps with hands that just 'don't grip like they used to' from years of Postal work!!!! Love it!!

Heidi Ann said...

Morning, Tina! I did know that the cream will "rise again" - it must have just been a game with us- see if we can get it home without it all getting mixed - can't remember for sure.

yosemite faith said...

we lived above my dad's office - very close to downtown. being on the main 'drag' - washington avenue - we were the last to have delivery - by horse! we had a silver colored box on the front porch. they would deliver milk, cream, & cottage cheese. for some reason i think they would deliver orange juice as well. the dairy was sealtest. i found one of the glass bottles in the cottage after my mom died. the modern glass bottles were brown. i remember the spouts on the wax containers & the candles - though we never made them we never had the 'holders' but i remember them as well. in the old fashioned glass bottles my mom had saved - she would mix starch in them for ironing. my brother john thought it was pear juice and took a big swig. maybe that accounts for what a jerk he is - i'm not sure.

Twyla and Lindsey said...

I don't think our store even sells milk in cartons anymore. Of course, I grew up with these and I miss reading the carton. Twyla

Barbara said...

I forgot all about milk carton candles! As I recall, my creations had little sequin sparkles in the wax.

walterworld said...

I grew up in Modesto in a subdivision, and we had milk delivery until about 1972 or 73.

A typical delivery would be 2% milk ("skim" milk when it first came out I think). Orange juice and half-n-half.

I like regular old paper milk cartons too :)