With the holiday season upon us, many homes around the region are anxiously awaiting a visit from a man loaded down with goodies to make the yuletide bright.
Not, not that visitor, but close.
“Well, he goes through a lot more than me,” said Terry Gillihan, a driver with Kent-based Smith Brothers Farms at the mention of his job being much like the jolly old elf who goes from home to home spreading joy this time of year.
Gillihan drives one of the big Smith Brothers trucks, delivering milk, eggs and other products – like eggnog and cookies during the holidays – to homes around the region.
Gillihan and the drivers of 60 trucks like his are continuing on a long tradition of home milk delivery, dropping off a fresh supply of dairy to dozens of homes each day.
“We had a milkman when I was a kid,” Gillihan said during his drive Dec. 17 on his Federal Way route.
Gillihan said he enjoys his throwback job as a milkman, running from home to home to drop the week’s order in a metal box usually located on the porch.
“A lot of people like it. A lot of kids really like it,” he said. “They get really excited when they see the big truck pull up.”
According to Chief Operating Officer Dave Dorn, orders for the 90-year-old dairy increase during the holidays, as more people order additional milk, eggs and cookies for holiday baking and family gatherings.
“We absolutely do see an uptick, as people are cooking more,” Dorn said.
Dorn – and Gillihan – also said deliveries go up for the dairy’s eggnog, which runs seasonally from October into early January.
Dorn said the home-delivery aspect is a bit nostalgic, but also serves to get the freshest milk to the customers, because there is no time spent at a warehouse.
“It’s always been the core business of the company,” he said of the door-to-door delivery. “Now it’s nostalgia. It’s a wonderful throwback.”
According to Dorn, the company makes deliveries to approximately 40,000 homes in Western Washington, stretching from Olympia to Mount Vernon and from Snoqualmie Ridge to Poulsbo.
Customer Pauline Sphung of Federal Way said she used to get deliveries 30 years ago and said she definitely prefers the milk delivered to what she can buy at supermarket.
“I prefer their milk to the store,” she said. “It’s better milk.”
But on top of that, she enjoys the brief visit with Gillihan, who said Sphung often comes out to chat with him while he delivers her weekly order.
“You’re able to communicate with people,” she said, adding of the drivers “They wouldn’t be delivering milk if they didn’t like people.”
Gillihan said he enjoys when he gets to chat with customers. But mostly it is him and the truck, which is also fine with him as he is kept busy enough sprinting up one walkway or another with an armful of milk cartons.
“I never get bored, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m always glad to help a customer as much as I can.”
Dorn said the company has no intention of ending its run of home deliveries, which is just fine with Gillihan, who sees his role as continuing a longstanding tradition and one with a lot of meaning to those who remember the milkman coming when they were children.
“The tradition’s going to keep going,” he said, before pulling his truck back out on the road to finish his route.
For more information of Smith Brothers Farms visit http://www.smithbrothersfarms.com/
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