City’s sole milkman not cowed by it

By Brian Ojanpa
The Free Press

July 04, 2009 12:38 am

— Got milk?
Does he ever. And as in days of yore, he’ll deliver it right to your door.
Milkmen like Les Allen are supposed to be long dead, figuratively speaking.
Yet there he is, still toting his dairy wares to an elderly customer here, a busy young family there, and at peace with the decision he made several years ago to become Mankato’s sole home-delivery milkman.
“I’m not totally broke yet,” jokes the 59-year-old Allen, who in 2003 took over for the community’s former sole milkman, Rollie Kopp.
Kopp had died a few years before, and in the years preceding his death had urged his good friend and golfing buddy to take over the business.
At one point, Kopp had more than 400 customers on his route, but those numbers steadily dwindled as milkmen went the way of wooden tennis rackets and cassette Walkmans.
Family members ran the business for about 18 months after Kopp’s death, and by the time Allen took over, the customer roster had declined to 17.
Here’s the rub: Allen’s home-delivery stops now are barely into double digits. He makes his hay delivering to convenience stores and schools.
Also assisted-living centers, where he’ll walk in, yell “milkman,” and set up his dairy products on a table for residents to pick and choose.
He says he’d love to get up to 100 stops, but acquiring the services of a milkman in 2009 isn’t foremost on most people’s to-do lists.
In the days before refrigeration, milkmen were commonplace. But by 1963 home delivery’s share of U.S. milk distribution had sunk to 30 percent, and now it’s barely a blip.
Kevin and Ann Haggerty and their four children are among Allen’s Dairy Fresh customers, and Ann Haggerty says she learned of Allen the old-fashioned way.
“I saw his truck one day on the street and I pulled over. I told him, ‘I didn’t know anybody still delivered milk in town.’ We started it purely for convenience, but now it’s because of him, plus I like the idea and the nostalgia that goes with it.”
To drum up business, Allen says he ran an ad three years ago, worded to the effect, “Remember the milkman? Here I am.”
He received two phone calls.
Not that he’s complaining. He delivers four times a week — 4 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. during the school year.
In summer his day runs 6 a.m. to noon. And then he golfs. All of which suggests that being rich is a relative term.

Brian Ojanpa is a Free Press staff writer. Call him at 344-6316 or e-mail bojanpa@mankatofreepress.com.