Roemer’s Dairy

During 1950 my Dad delivered milk for Roemer’s Dairy which was located out on the Airline Highway. His route covered all of Gentilly and was so large that the route had to be split into 2 routes called “A” route and “B” route. The “A” route was much larger and took longer to deliver on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. “B” route was much smaller and was delivered on Tuesday and Thursday. Saturday was collection day.

I worked during the summer with my Dad to help him out and in return he taught me how to drive that old milk truck. We always started around 2:00 AM by loading the milk and shoveling ice over the cases of milk in the back of the truck. It was a long drive out to Gentilly from the Airline to start our first delivery at the Faculty homes at Dillard University.

A Naval Air Station was located where UNO is now situated and Navy personnel lived all up and down Paris Avenue and that section of Gentilly. They were the majority of our customers. We covered the total area that was bordered by Bayou St John on one side, DeSaix Blvd on another side, the Industrial Canal and then Lake Ponchartrain was the final border of the milk route. We finished “A” route around 1:00 PM and then call in to see if we missed anyone.

“B” route would be finished around 10:00 AM so that was the one I liked best. On the way to our first deliver we would always stop at one of the many A&G restaurants that dotted New Orleans. My favorite one was located at Elysian Fields and Gentilly Blvd. They had the biggest, best biscuits that this 12-year-old had ever eaten. With apple jelly you just couldn’t beat those fantastic biscuits.

We would trade chocolate milk to the bread deliveryman that was in our delivery area for donuts off his delivery truck. We also traded the newspaper man one quart of chocolate milk for a newspaper. Those were fun exciting times around that area of New Orleans for a 12-year-old.