"Delivering milk in the summer, we had to ice our load of milk heavily in the morning. Then sometimes during the day you'd have to stop by one of the big ice makers to reload. There was one near 31st and Broadway, another on 75th Street between Main and Wornall.

The hottest days that I ever remember were in 1931 to 1934. We had days when it was over 100 degrees every day, and that made the dairy business extremely difficult. Generally, if a customer wanted a quart of milk they'd set the empty bottle up on the post of the front porch. You would always set it in the shade. Sometimes it was real hot, and maybe they didn't answer the doorbell, so you'd put a piece of ice on top of the glass bottle, and that cold water would run down and help it a little bit.

At home delivery's peak, there must have been 100 milk trucks around Kansas City from various companies." —Ben Zarda, 83, Shawnee

Ben Zarda