Kevin Read, The Spitalfields Milkman
This is Kevin Read the milkman who has been delivering three pints of semi-skimmed organic milk to my doorstep every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for ages and never missed a delivery, not even during the heavy snowfall last winter. Until today I had never seen him, the only evidence of his existence was the deliveries themselves and his footprints in the snow.
I think he looks pretty good for a guy who gets up at 1:00am every day to deliver milk to three hundred customers in Spitalfields and surrounding neighbourhoods. From his powerful windswept features, it is apparent that Kevin is a seasoned professional, delivering milk over thirty years – since he was thirteen years old. He began doing a round in Spitalfields in the mid-eighties and the changes in the neighbourhood are reflected in his orders, nowadays there are less large Bengali families needing daily deliveries for their children, he says.
Another change is that milkmen are self employed now and their income depends on the number of customers. While Kevin has three hundred customers, he really needs three hundred and fifty. So I am asking you to consider having a delivery. Kevin says no order is too small, you do not have to have a pint every day, and he can deliver between 6-6:30am 0r 8-8:30am depending on your preference.
We have all got to pull together for Kevin and spread the word to send some more business his way. It is a beautiful thing to have milk delivered to your doorstep in the morning and milk tastes better from proper glass bottles with tinfoil tops, I think. Also, re-using glass bottles is environmentally sound – just think of the hundreds of cartons you would waste in a year otherwise.
Call Kevin 07940095775 or email kevinthemilkman@yahoo.co.uk to book your deliveries.
Yes, he’s great, we recommend him too, the reason he looks so well is that he also runs marathons… hard work those early starts….
Now you’ve intrigued me, Jane. All the readers want to know more. Which marathons and when?
Yes, It’s true, I run the London marathon 3 times ’06, ’07, ’08. Not very fast, I consider myself more of a stubburn jogger!! 6 hrs each time. I don’t suppose it helps doing 2 fourteen hour work days fri + sat beforehand. Still, it gets me out of the decorating for a weekend!! Seriously, it was something that I had always wanted to do since the first marathon in the eighties. I have never been a sporty person, but its more of an endurance thing for me, and to exorcise a few ghosts (my ex-wife always said I could never do it, whos wrong now eh!) but I have brilliant support from my fiancee who backed me all the way.
Kev is great, he’s my milkman too. I found him one day when he was delivering to my friend Sam, who lived round the corner from me at the the time. He is very friendly, professional and exceptionally reliable.
He has even agreed to place a postcard advertising my business with all of his customers. Fab!
thanks Kevin, much appreciated.
Kevin does the milk at our office too, semi skimmed organic, lovely stuff and beats the nuts out of Tesco!!
Following in father’s footsteps etc.
I live in the country & milkmen have disappeared!We had one until about 10 yrs ago & ythen he retired & no one would take his place.When I used to get up early 5 am to go to Newcastle to buy flowers I would feel that the milkmen& myself were the only people in the world at that time of day!Miss the milkmen!