Does anyone have any info on when and where the term “milk run” was first used? I have a friend who maintains that the term was coined by a reporter at the Washington Star newspaper shortly after the start of the 20th century, but I doubt the accuracy of his statement.
I suggest it comes from the secondary passenger-mail trains which stopped at most small towns to pick up cans of milk and cream (and set off empties) during the time when farmers could market their small production by sending it 100 plus or minus miles to a processor.
I recall the 1960’s when Santa Fe’s Grand Canyon train stopped at small towns in Missouri for just this purpose. It may have started after 1900 when there were dairy product processors located in fairly small towns and when an indivudual cream separator was owned by a farmer with only a few cows.
I guess I should have asked if anyone knows who, or what railroad, or what publication first used the term “milk run.” Kind of like who first used the term “Express” train, or who first used the term “Local.” I know WHAT a milk run is, just trying to find out when and by whom the term was first used. Was it in the late 1800’s in New England? Was it in Pennsylvania? Was it in the Washington Star newspaper talking about the Washington, Alexandria, & Mt. Vernon Railway(interurban rail)?
I wouldn’t be surprised if use of the term “milk run” predated railroads. It’s so easy to assume a “first use” or “first truth” in language.
Mall of America in the Twin Cities comes to mind. Never mind that King of Prussia Mall in Philly or Woodfield Mall in Chicagoland are larger/bigger/greater, what-have-you. One of my Dad’s friends was a high-up exec with Sears at the time it opened its store at Woodfield in the 70’s. He told my Dad that the first week of sales at the Sears store there was so high, it paid for the construction cost of the store.
We may be talking about two different things in a sense.
In everyday (non railroader / railfan) parlance, a “milk run” signifies an easy job, a choice position to get at work. I assume that use of the term comes from the perception (right or wrong) that milk trains were easy jobs for railroaders, just run a few miles along, stop and pick up some milk cans, and start up again til you reach the city the milk is heading to.
However the term “milk run” may have existed for many years within railroader slang for a milk train before someone else (like a reporter) picked it up and turned it into an everyday expression, just like “sidetracked” or “letting off steam” or “derailed” are railroad terms that we use everyday without referring to trains per se.
I think wjstix is “on the right track” when he says that the term, “milk run” was quite possibly railroad slang that was then picked up by some newspaper person. Thanks for the thought.
The only use of “milk run” that I’ve heard refers to a train that stops at all stations and takes a long time to cover the line. It refers to the train that did stop very frequently to pick up the fresh milk cans.
It seems to me that diningcar is right in that the local passenger trains use to pick up milk cans along the way especially in the Eastern States that is where the term was first used and where it caught on. And then maybe thats where the reporter supposedly coined the term Larry[:)]
during WWll our bomber crewsused the term to signify a mission with minimum enemy fighters ans anti aircraft.
This kinda confirms what I said earlier, that the term “milk run” entered everyday language for an easy job - not just for a train that hauls milk !!
Trains don’t pick up milk at stations anymore, but the term can still be used to describe any train that makes many stops. A local rather than an express. It can be applied to commuter lines that run express and local service.[2c]
Milk Run: A local that makes all stops.
Milk Run: Nuisance sorties over Berlin undertaken by Mosquitoes to activate the German air defense system.
We could speculate till the cows come home, but the World War II era seems most likely when a milk run became a piece of cake. Almost everybody served, so the military was like a melting pot for slang terms. Railroad jargon particulary, because railroads had employed a huge chunk of the work force for decades.
Early Moooovement: “Boston was probably the first city in the United States to transport milk by railroad, the first shipment being made over the Boston and Worcester Railroad in April, 1838”
http://books.google.com/books?id=saUaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201
I understood from my brother, a NYC Engineer, that it refered to trains that were loaded with milk and due to the propensity for milk to spoil, the trains were given a Highball.