Remember the Cloverleaf Dairy? ca. 1959

A2ers: Steve Stricklen (AAHS, '66) grew up in his family's dairy, the Cloverleaf Dairy at the foot of the Broadway hill in lower town.

Yes, the workers at the dairy wore white clothes, top to bottom. Except those who produced the chocolate milk, they wore dark brown.

Steve recalls his dad would lure him down to lower town with a fictitious story. Once he stepped into the dairy, however, he faced the challenge of shoveling coal into the furnace. Soon, his father invested in a contemporary non-coal burning unit and Steve was spared.

In the attached photo (circa 1959), worker Jack Roth places the glass bottles of milk very carefully into a delivery crate. You can see the bustling milk assembly line behind him.

Ann Arbor used to have a host of small neighborhood dairies and now nary a one unless you count Zingerman's, who package their own brand of milk.

And the small family businesses downtown continue to fold up shop. They include: Ehnis & Sons, Fiegel's, Quality Bakery and the Mayer Schairer Company.