THE GALLERY MILKMAN
From my point of view, one of the best things about living in The Gallery is being able to have a conversation about something from my childhood or teens and even early adulthood knowing that it’s very likely some other resident will add their recollections on the same subject as well.
My good friend Cheryl Haynes (who moved in last year) and I have talked about Len Murdock – the cute milkman – who delivered our milk. Now to be honest, I really am not sure if it was Len who delivered our milk, but I am sure the milkman was cute and Len certainly is cute.
1955
Len got started in the milk delivery business while still attending High School in Milton. The owner of the Georgetown Dairy – Mr. Irwin Noble - heard about Len through a family friend and needed help on the weekends making deliveries and picking up milk from the local farmers.
Every Friday after school Mr. Noble would send a driver to pick Len up in Milton and bring him to Georgetown for the weekend where he stayed with family friends.
Len initially worked at the original site of the Georgetown Dairy which was located where the current Godfathers restaurant is now on Main Street in Georgetown – see below.
He would be up early at 6 AM on Saturday morning to wash the bottles and help with the processing of the milk. He would harness the horses to prepare for them to go on their delivery routes and quickly learned that the horses would not move until he gave them a pail of water.
After getting all the horses and drivers on their way, Len would do his milk pick-ups via truck from the local farmers. He picked up milk from12 local farms.
One of the farms he would go to pick up milk was the Garvin’s. It was there that he met the farmer’s daughter, his future wife Eva.
This past July they celebrated 65 years of marriage.
After high school, Len joined the Dairy full time. He moved into Mrs. Brown’s boarding house on Draper Street. The Dairy moved into a more modern building at the corner of Guelph Street & Maple Ave. (see picture below) which was a popular spot for lunch and ice cream.
In the course of time, Len enrolled at Guelph University, attending part time in the evenings. After 2 years he became the 1st licensed Milk Grader in Ontario.
Len worked for the dairy for 35 years. He had asked Mr. Noble for a partnership in the business but was turned down so left to work for Metropolitan Life Insurance which later became Manulife.
Thanks for sharing your story Len!
Gloria Sinclair
January 2025