• Sunday-What'sUP June 26 - 09:21 pm

On last week's Pasty Cam the artesian well at Norway sparked discussion about this famous milk bottle building. This 65 foot structure housed the offices of Asselin Dairy, and used to attract thousands of visitors to the U.P. In 1942 it appeared in Ripley's Believe It or Not. We thank Betty Catalano for the scan of today's photo, which she dug out of an interesting collection of vintage shots around the Iron Mountain area.

After the operation changed hands, the structure went downhill and was finally torn down in the 70's. Here is a shocking photo after it fell into disrepair.

I want to express our gratitude to the hundreds of Pasty Cam Guest Gallery contributors, especially those who have scanned old pictures of the U.P. It is my privilege each Sunday to explore these Shoebox Memories and select one to share with you. It's an endless parade of subjects which I always find fascinating.

Speaking of parades... remember this coming Saturday, July 2, is the big Pasty Fest celebration in Calumet, which will kick off with a parade downtown at 10 a.m. Bring along the coupon from the Gazette or the Finish American Reporter, and if you are among the first 400 in line at the Pasty Central tent, your lunch is on the house.

Have a good week :0)

Good Morning from Florida...

Charley and Mary; Great pics. Thanks for the follow thru to show this nostalgic sight. I love your pictures, but the Sunday stuff usually hits a special spot for old timers. Keep up the good work.

Woo hoo!!

You found the giant milk bottle! Thanks for sharing this shot!

How big were the cows?

A bit of history of the Upper Pennisula is educational. We need to know what happened back then and remember what it was like. Great pics!!!

i can still remember when we used to get milk delivered to our door step when we lived in copper city.

Milk delivered in glass bottles with a paper cap. If they got left too long in the shed winter time, the milk would push the cap up off the bottle.

Jilbert Dairy in Calumet would deliver milk and other dairy products to the door until the late 60's. It saved Mom a trip to the store.

I missed the Friday discussion--my great-grandparents, Joe and Mary Jane Rowe, came to Norway in 1882 from England. They ran a tavern/hotel there from the 1880s to at least 1915, when he died. One of their sons, Henry, married Mamie Oliver who was connected to the Oliver Mining Co. family mentioned in the artesian well marker. Another son, Christopher (my grandfather) moved to Amasa and became a miner (and later a bookkeeper) there. So interesting to see this history preserved

John, MI., I was thinking the same thing about that big cap popping up when the bottle froze!

I guess it would be the milk, not the bottle, that froze! Sorry about that.

I second Charlie's comments with heartfelt thanks for all the pastycam contributors.

Was this Asselin Dairy any relation to the Asselins Grocery which was on Sixth St in Calumet just north of The Michigan House ?

Milk was delivered by horse drawn wagon in our area of Flint by McDonald's Dairy until about 1950. Delivery man always stopped by our side yard to eat his lunch and I got to help feed the horse! Remember the glass bottles with the bubble top and little curved spoon to dip out the cream in the bubble? Wonderful memories of not so long ago!

Judy, two days ago I was relating to my grandkids on how we had our groceries delivered to the house by horse in the 1940's in Hubbell...They really were rolling their eyes with that one, and they still dont believe me when I tell them i played for the Tigers, Lions and Pistons!!!!

I sure remember those days with the milk being delivered. When we lived in Trimountain, way too long ago, the ice man came around and the bakery truck. Us kids would sit on the snow bank and wait for the bakery truck and hope that Mom could buy us some goodies.

I worked at Asselin's market in Calumet after I graduated from Calumet High School for one summer. The produce guy always teased me about spiders being in the bananas but I never saw one. My husband remembers the time he found a black widow spider in the banana box when he worked at the Co-Op store in Hancock. That is the site of our "high rise" building now.

My very first job, as a kid, was delivering milk to homes back in the fifties. I would get up at 4:30 in the morning and help the driver load the Divco milk truck. We would then "run the route" till about 8:30 A.M. when he would drop me off at school. On Saturdays I would help the driver with his commercial route delivering dairy products to stores. I well remember the glass bottles and the cardboard caps! I had to memorize the route so that prior to each stop I would grab the bottles and cartons of eggs, butter, cream, milk, etc. jump off the truck as it was still moving, maybe have to juggle everything to open a gate, run to the door of the house (dodging a mean dog some times) drop off the delivery, pick up the empty bottles and run back to the truck (still dodging the vicious, barking and snapping chiwawa) The truck, by now, would be moving towards the next stop. I would race after it and jump aboard as it was still moving, deposit the empty bottles in the crates and grab the next order all the while cursing the dog that had chased me back to the truck. The driver would smile, nonchalantly, flick the ashes off his cigar and comment: "Hey, ol'man Muellers' dog almost gotcha today". Ahh yes, fresh air, exercise, heart stopping excitement, all for ten bucks a week! Those were the days!

I used to help a relative deliver Twin Pines to Walled Lake, Novi, South Lyon etc. and yes we started at 4:30a.m.

My dad sold Diversey Products - cemicals and cleaners for dairy farms and such - this was one of his customers

I remember when Dolkey delivered milk in glass bottles up in Bumble Town.

I can remember having our milk being delivered in glass bottles in the 30s in Copper City. It was delivered by a horse drawn sled in the winter, driven by Elmer Lamppa of Trap Rock. He was very good with us kids and would let us ride the runners of his sled out to the edge of town on his way back to the farm. Good times to remember.

Downstate near Detroit there is a dairy named Calders that still delivers milk and other dairy to your home. Guernsey cows and the cream would stop your heart! Wonderful ice cream and butter! Back in the 1950s I remember getting Johnsons Creamery milk in the winter and licking the frozen column of cream on top. Does anyone else read the Ziggy comic strip? The artist is an architect and uses little bits of Americana in his backgrounds. He would have loved the milk bottle building. And does anyone remember the big Whipped Cream container in Dearborn on Telegraph near Michigan Ave? Is it still there? Oh my God, I am getting nostalgic for Detroit!

When we lived in England 25 - 30 years ago, they still delivered milk in glass bottles to your door. The bottles (20 oz pints) were capped with shiny aluminium tops which attracted birds. The birds would peck a hole in the cap and dip into the cream on top. (non-homogenized).

The delivery guy never got the message to leave the bottles in the milk box with the lid.

I just asked my husband - who has lived around Detroit for 76 years - he does not remember a Whipped Cream container -- but if you are familiar with the Detroit area -- the East Side an West Side are like two different countries - the Big Wheel is still here and has been up graded and the Big Stove is at the fair grounds

The whipped cream can is gone. It's been at least 20 years since I remember seeing it.

The Reddi Whip Can on Telegraph Rd., under the Michigan Ave overpass. there is a website called DetroitMemories.com with all kinds of good memories on it.

Cindy--Wasn't Dolkey the postmaster in Allouez in the early 60's?

Charlie at Pasty central.....How about those of us with a big shoebox filled with old pictures and no way of creating a gallery??........what to do???

Mary Lou
I recently had to replace a scanner on my daughters PC. I picked one up at Staples and after rebate it was only $50.

Bob...Thank you but some of my pictures are very large...example: is a panarama of the Hancock Navy Reserve about 1916....about 12 inches x 24 inches long..I use a webtv and I don't think it is compatible with a scanner.

Charlie and staff
How about a dedicated "shoebox gallery" under the guest gallery section for everyone to put all older pictures . the older pics now in each private gallery are fantastic but so spread out and hard to find..Maybe it is just me..
I bet some would like to be able to find just "older pictures" at times..say divided by "decade" or "Copper country" and "other U P pics" ETC. Just a thought ..Thanks for all you do.

Ed, My dad had a milk route with Twin Pines in the 60's. I remember being his helper on his route and my jump seat was a turned over milk crate. I remember sitting on my milk crate and watching the road through the drain holes on the floor of the milk truck, as my dad drove.

Therese, that is one thing I miss the most about Monroe County...Calders Dairy. I loved going each weekend to the dairy for my milk, eggs, and butter for the week...and of course an ice cream cone.
And yes, I remember the huge Whipped Creme can on Telegraph Road. Oh my, we are aging ourselves. ;)

I'm an Asselin. Thanks for the picture.

I remember horse drawn milk wagons in the early sixties in Lansing. As a boy I rode to high school in Battle Creek on a milk truck and had fantastic out-dated chocolate milk at the dairy man's house on the way home from school. You can't get that on a school bus.

The Dolkeys were my Dad & uncles. I presume they delivered milk before I was born, cool to know. My Dad, Wesley, went to Detroit after the war so I grew up there, he served in the infantry. Clarence was postmaster from late 50s to the 80s.

OK, I'm joining the I remember crowd, I remember
when I went to Charles Briggs School in Laurium in
the 1950"s and we'd go downstairs in the basement at
lunchtime to get our half pint of milk in the glass
bottle with cardboard cap. Amazingly I still
remember the price, 10 cents a week for white milk,
12 cents for chocolate. What inflation?