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Back in the 1950s, our little town saw a wonderful innovation called the Milk-O-Mat. It was a refrigerated vending machine that could produce a quart of fresh milk at any hour of the day or night.
It doesn't sound like much now but, at the time, it was seen as a great convenience. The few shops we had closed around 6 PM and only the baker near the churches was opened on Sunday because people needed yeasty, sweet goodness after services.
We lived near a State Park. It was a wonderful place to spend a summer day. In the park there were places to camp, places to hike , places to fish, places for families to swim and cook meals or rent row boats for a very low cost an hour.
Along the road there was a business that catered to all that. At Matt's you could buy sandwiches if you didn't want to cook lunch on the grills in the picnic grove off the beach. You could buy children's toys that could be used in the water or on the sand. You could buy all sorts of things needed for fishing.
Matt's made a shrewd move. When the Milk-O-Mat went out of fashion, they bought an old machine. The Milk-O-Mat was on the porch and, instead of dispensing quarts of milk, it was now dispensing bait. 25 cents would deliver a quart milk carton full of soil and night-crawlers. It made sense because the family could make money when early-morning fishermen came out before the place was open. When we drove by Matt's on our way to go swimming at the lake, Dad always provided a bit of fun.
He told the tale of a guy who'd been to a drunken beach party on one of the lakes and was making his bleary way home after Midnight. He sees the old Milk-O-Mat light and thinks, "Ah, a quart of cold milk will help me sober up."
He puts in his quarter and, when he tries to take a slug of milk, he gets a horrible surprise.
It doesn't sound like much now but, at the time, it was seen as a great convenience. The few shops we had closed around 6 PM and only the baker near the churches was opened on Sunday because people needed yeasty, sweet goodness after services.
We lived near a State Park. It was a wonderful place to spend a summer day. In the park there were places to camp, places to hike , places to fish, places for families to swim and cook meals or rent row boats for a very low cost an hour.
Along the road there was a business that catered to all that. At Matt's you could buy sandwiches if you didn't want to cook lunch on the grills in the picnic grove off the beach. You could buy children's toys that could be used in the water or on the sand. You could buy all sorts of things needed for fishing.
Matt's made a shrewd move. When the Milk-O-Mat went out of fashion, they bought an old machine. The Milk-O-Mat was on the porch and, instead of dispensing quarts of milk, it was now dispensing bait. 25 cents would deliver a quart milk carton full of soil and night-crawlers. It made sense because the family could make money when early-morning fishermen came out before the place was open. When we drove by Matt's on our way to go swimming at the lake, Dad always provided a bit of fun.
He told the tale of a guy who'd been to a drunken beach party on one of the lakes and was making his bleary way home after Midnight. He sees the old Milk-O-Mat light and thinks, "Ah, a quart of cold milk will help me sober up."
He puts in his quarter and, when he tries to take a slug of milk, he gets a horrible surprise.
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