El Lechero

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This is so friggin awesome! I’m guessing it’s from the 30’s or 40’s! I found it on a house exterior. The Milkman would open this little door……

[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/los-matematicos-el-lechero.mp3]

…and you’d indicate your milk order on this little dial. here is the little door, usually would open towards the kitchen…and the milkman would leave your order here….

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and additional shots of the Milkman delivery bay!

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This entry was posted in architecture, Greater Los Angeles, history, Pendejadas, Personal, Photos, Uncategorized by AlDesmadre. Bookmark the permalink.

About AlDesmadre

Al Guerrero, Artist/Humorist. Los Angeles, CA. Born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in East Los Angeles from the age of two, Al Guerrero grew up just steps from the famous Chicano strip, Whittier Boulevard. His youth experiences include witnessing and participating in the 1970 Chicano Power demonstrations, cruising cars on Whittier Boulevard, and graduating from Garfield High School. After dropping out of UCLA (with honors), he drew upon his lifelong passion for art and cartooning and pursued a career in graphic arts. During this period, he traveled overseas and found artistic inspiration from the masterworks he discovered within the European Art Museums. His career blossomed when he was eventually hired by the Walt Disney Company in 1995, where he worked as a creative artist for a number of years. Although the artistic work was rewarding, he eventually grew weary & disillusioned with the bureaucracy of the entertainment business, and left to work briefly in the educational field. His credits include producing a feature film with actor, Conrad Brooks of Ed Wood fame, founding and performing with the Punk Rock group “The Psychocats” at numerous L.A. & Hollywood venues during the 1990’s, and in 1999 he founded and created a hell-bent puppet cabaret show aptly named: “The Puppets from Hell”. As a long time active member of the Los Angeles Cacophony Society, Al “Quaeda”, as he was known, was involved in countless Cacophony Society pranks and events throughout the city. He also produced the “Incredibly Strange Cinema” cult film series as well as themed events such as the now infamous “Pornothon Movie Nights” and the satirical “Mexican Night: Noche De Tequila & Putas” shows at local nightclub venues. Throughout his art career, he has exhibited his canvas paintings at various local galleries, and has also written & illustrated numerous comic strips and Graphic Novel stories. Today, he lives in Silver Lake, California and works as a freelance artist and writer with numerous multi-media projects under his belt and in the works. His personal hobbies include collecting vintage toys and comic books, cinema history and Los Angeles City history. Contact: alguerrero@earthlink.net Al Guerrero P.O. Box 29697 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0697 www.alguerrero.com Myspace.com/thepuppetsfromhell

11 thoughts on “El Lechero

  1. I had one of those little doors in the previous house I rented. I always thought it was so cool. My kitchen also had one of the old time iceboxes that was built into the cabinetry. The place I live in now (built 1917) also has a built in icebox.

  2. This reminds me of the house I grew up in that had an incinerator in the backyard to burn your trash. I remember many a pyromaniac memory as a kid burning stuff. These days a fire pit has the honors. Spending summer vacation in Tijuas as a kid I also remember burning old tires, plastic milk gallons, and old “tenis” as all the psychedelic colors flamed and puffy fumes hissed letting out all kinds of “funny” aromas. Life is a lot simpler and pleasant when the PC, FDA, ABC, KFC, MLB, and all the other “acroymnous” agencies turn a blind eye, as “they” say, for a little fun once in a while. All in moderation of course. Most people now would be appalled that some of us still drink whole milk and spread real butter on our pan tostado. Bring back the Milkmen of old. We need thick, fat-filled whipped cream and buttermilk in our diets once again.

  3. My old house in Studio City had one of these little milk doorways too. Part of the inside was covered with sloppy old paint but you could see what it was about with the same kind of instruction dial. It was called “Milk-O-Matic,” so there must have been competing businesses installing these in houses for the convenience of milk vendors and consumers. Now I wish I had taken a picture of it to compare. That house was built in the 1930s.

  4. AL- Great find!!! What a picture!! My experince as kid (60’s) probably doesn’t go as far back as that door, but I do remeber our “Foremost” milkman back in the day,( a nice white man named “Clarence”) he had bottles of milk, chocolate milk, orange juice, and fruit punch all in glass bottles, when you opened the cap on a milk bottle there was always some sweet cream just under the cap. Milk today just doesn’t taste like that anymore, I guess it’s the difference between glass and plastic containers. We also had a “Carnation” Ice Cream Truck back then also, a little old white man with a leather apron would come out and open the little door on the back of the truck!!

  5. I remember the Carnation/Foremost milkmen and their delivery trucks from my childhood in the seventies. The milk use to come in a thick glass bottle and you’d return the empties when the milkman bought a new delivery. I remember my dad and I would drive the South Central route with his milkman buddy,Arturo while my dad recovered from a workplace injury.

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