P.E.I.'s last bona fide milkman makes final home delivery

P.E.I's last milkman made his final home delivery Thursday.

Colin Deacon clocked 200 kilometres every Thursday delivering milk, yogurt, butter and juice for Farmers Dairy of Nova Scotia to about 80 Island homes.

The company Deacon works for, Island Milk Distributors of Hunter River, notified customers last month that Thursday was the last day for delivery.

"Oh, it's mixed emotions. I'm going to miss it. You're losing a personal contact with people that you don't get in a big store," said Deacon, who will continue delivering milk to stores.

"Even myself when I was growing up, we had a man come every Wednesday and deliver fish and a man every Monday deliver meat. So that's all gone too nowadays."

'Times change'

Some of Deacon's best customers were seniors. For a few, he put their milk straight into their fridge, and for others his weekly delivery was something of a social event.

"Oh, we feel bad, but we understand. Can't sell enough to make it worthwhile," said Fred Hughes.

Customer Rosemary Hill-Compton says she's sad about the change.

"It's been very nice to have Colin come Thursdays at the door," said Hill-Compton. "Times change though, I guess."

Amalgamated Dairies Limited in Summerside wound down the last of its home delivery service last year. Purity Dairy of Charlottetown stopped in 2007 after 60 years.