Sag Harbor Dairies

Man, I was just in King Kullen buying a quart of milk and it was a buck and a half, or six bucks a gallon, depending how you look at it. Back in the 1960's in Sag Harbor, there were two dairies, Head of the Pond and Cilli's. Head of the Pond was run by Bill Nolan and the Cilli brothers operated the other. Most people bought from the milkman, instead of buying at the A&P or Bohacks in the village. We had Head of the Pond, my next door neighbor on Garden Street had Cilli. Both would operate a pickup truck and deliver quart sized milk bottles to your porch, sometime between 3 am and 6 am. We had one quart delivered daily except Sundays, as there was no delivery that day, and they would bring two bottles on Saturdays.
I don't know what transpired prior to the 60's, but the milk from Cilli's cows were transported to Schwenk's Dairy on Rt 114 in East Hampton, where Riverhead Building Supply is now, where it was processed and bottled and the Cilli's would deliver it to Sag Harbor homes. The glass bottles sometime froze in cold weather and broke on your porch. I remember the cream was always on the top of the bottle. As late as 1965, I can remember seeing the Cilli's at their Glover Street farm, washing the milk bottles on a mechanical machine rack. Many times the cows would get at loose at night and the police would call the Cilli's to, click link: corral them. By 1980, I guess competition from grocery stores drove both milkmen out of business. I always wondered in these times, if I had not already made my millions, I would bring back the milkman service, complete with a step van, selling high quality dairy products such as cheese, butter etc. along with the milk, door to door. It might work!
A Pre 1960 Head of the Pond Bottle