Ernie the milkman....

I remember that the Reader's Digest used to have a series about "the most fascinating (or memorable) character", where they would share stories about interesting, fascinating, memorable people.  Every now and then we are blessed to meet such a person.  I knew one. He was my mother's third husband, and he had a good number of interesting, and fascinating stories from a long life, well lived. Not a man of "means' his wealth was in the form of experience.  We asked him many time to write it all down, but, being a very humble soul, he never did so.  That is our loss, my friends.

Anyway, Ernie was a hard-working man all of his life.  For many years he worked three jobs, getting little sleep, but supporting his wife and daughters at what was, at the time, considered a middle-class lifestyle. But that is neither here, nor there.... the point is that Ernie worked many hours a day to provide for his family.  One of his jobs, in the wee hours of the day, when most folks were still asleep, was driving the milk wagon. He was a milkman, though he only ever called it: "driving the milk wagon".  

GENERIC PHOTO, PERSON UNKNOWN

I heard him tell the story many times, of the night (morning) he was so exhausted that he fell asleep at the helm of the milk wagon.  He spoke gently of the horse, and I know that he spoke gently to the horse.  The horse that knew the route by heart, and that horse kept to the route, unaware that the man in the driver seat had been lulled to sleep by the gentle sway and hypnotic creak of the milk wagon.

The horse made all of the usual stops, and apparently more than a few folks waited for the milk wagon, in the early morning hours.  For what was found by Ernie later, was that most of the deliveries had been made, and all the required funds were accounted for.  The horse made the stops, and those kind, gentle souls along the route took the milk they needed and placed the money in the box, and let that poor man sleep.

Thus was one of the adventures of a good, kind, and gentle man in a simpler time.




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