Dairy King : Faithful Milkman Collects Sad Farewells on Final Round

Nancy Eisenhart was heartbroken last Friday when she read a handwritten note she discovered beside her delivery of cheese, certified raw milk and fertilized eggs on the front porch of her Woodland Hills home. It read:

“Dear Customer,

Because of health reasons, I am selling my route. I regret that I have to do this as I Love my Valued Customers. You have been good to me, and I will miss you. My last day is July 15th. Hope you will continue to carry on as good customers to the new driver. I will miss you all.

Sincerely,

Jack Sherwin”

“I was very sad,” said Eisenhart, who added that she has “a real soft spot” for milkmen.

“In the days of the Depression, my father was a milkman.”

A little piece of Valley tradition will be lost today as Sherwin, who turns 60 next month, hands over the keys to his truck and officially retires from the milk business. For more than a quarter of a century, Sherwin has delivered dairy products to San Fernando Valley residents and small businesses, first back in 1962 through the now-vanished Green Pastures Dairy, then on to a slew of local dairies, most of which have merged or moved away.

Eisenhart called it “the ending of something wonderful . . . for all of us who remember a time of personal service, of knowing your grocery man, your gas station man, your milkman.”

With Jan, his wife of 35 years, Sherwin is moving to Florida, and he hasn’t ruled out starting up another business there. Sherwin admitted that his doctor had ordered him to retire years ago, but he didn’t want to until now.

The milkman has witnessed the tides of change in the dairy business: from glass bottles to plastic jugs, from the dozen local dairy farms and plants to major corporate operations.

“We now carry a lot of other things, too,” he said, including bread, bacon, bologna, ice cream and Popsicles.

Sherwin said he enjoyed “being kind of free to do what I want” in his last stint, as an independent distributor of dairy products through the Alta-Dena Certified Dairy in Chatsworth.

Sherwin gathered his clientele of nearly 300 customers by knocking on doors, carrying a container of milk to show the residents what he delivers. He has also earned many referrals. “A lot of people don’t know that we still deliver,” Sherwin said.

In fact, 95% of his business is home deliveries, according to Sherwin, with the rest doughnut shops and other small stores.

Starting his day by 4 a.m. at the latest, Sherwin would pick up his orders at the Chatsworth Alta-Dena office by 5 a.m., along with 30 other drivers, then head off in his 14-year-old truck to Woodland Hills, West Hills and Bell Canyon.

At several residences, Sherwin was allowed to go right through an unlocked back door to put the milk in the refrigerator himself, often bumping into family members in their pajamas.

Sherwin tells the story of running into one of his customers at a supermarket, a woman who usually came to the door in her bathrobe. “I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on,” he joked with her.

Eisenhart fretted that Sherwin “might be the very last of what most people thought was already a vanishing breed, the guy with a milk route.”

Not quite. Sherwin has sold his decade-old Alta-Dena route to two brothers, Bharat and Pankj Patel, but his customers have made it clear that they will miss him.

“These people are giving me cards and money,” said Sherwin. After he announced his retirement, “one woman gave me $100, another gave me $50, a bunch of people gave me $20.

“They told me that their kids grew up knowing me as their only milkman and that I’m part of their family.”