Milkmen, elevator operator, and switchboard operator were extremely common occupations in their heydays, all of which overlapped with my childhood.
I only stopped milkman service here in Palo Alto a couple of years ago (though the dairy downtown shut down maybe 30 years ago). It turned out to be a direct milkman->teenager pipeline which was better than walking to the grocery store twice a day.
I didn’t really go twice a day, what I meant was that a teenager can drink a gallon of milk, eat five square meals, every day and still be thin as a rail.
Given all the other food being bought we didn’t really have to have milk delivered, but milk the doorstep seemed to result in less junk food consumption.
As an empty nester I drink less than half a gallon a week.
I only stopped milkman service here in Palo Alto a couple of years ago (though the dairy downtown shut down maybe 30 years ago). It turned out to be a direct milkman->teenager pipeline which was better than walking to the grocery store twice a day.