By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
Remember when the milk man used to deliver the milk right to your back door?
Well, the people who collect the trucks our milkmen used to drive are getting together in WNY next week.
The Divco Club of America will be holding it’s 2018 convention in Hamburg starting next week, and their trucks will be on display at the Hamburger Festival on July 21st.
Divco trucks were seen all over WNY and all around the country starting in the 1920s, and used for milk and bread deliveries.
It was in March 30, 1982, that Carl Heim made one last era-ending trip through the streets of Buffalo.
The cartons shown being loaded into this truck were the last home-delivered milk from Upstate Milk Cooperatives, the area’s largest dairy supplier.
Upstate, which sold the Sealtest brand, was the last of the big dairies to end home service, though several smaller dairies vowed to continue.
The biggest factor in dropping service to Buffalo’s side and back doors was the growing disparity between the premium cost of delivered milk and the increasingly cheaper prices being charged by large grocery stores.
