Re: [ARSCLIST] What is a Milk Box ? (was Moving Sound Recording Collections)

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "D P Ingram" <darren@xxxxxxxxx>
> On 26 maj 2007, at 04.47, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
>
No, I DIDN'T!!
scb
> 
> For the benefit of those who are not Canadian, what is a "milk box".  
> Is it a box used to store milk bottles (?). And how big are them?  We  
> have milk cartons but you'd not get a 78 rpm record in it, well you  
> might, but you first have to send it via U.S.P.S. in a plain envelope  
> (or the postal service of your choice) in a plain envelope sans  
> packaging marked fragile.
> 
> > that exact same order! I moved about 300 milk boxes full of 78's...
> > which had been carefully arranged in label/number order, with some
> 
Okeh...there's the bit that I DID author!

Anyway, a "milk box" (generally better known as "milk crate"...) is a
plastic container...these days slightly less than 12" by 12" (or 3.511
cubic kilopascals/hectare, in metric...) molded in fairly heavy plastic
and used for the delivery of dairy products on a wholesale basis.

They are usually imprinted with the name of the original issuing
dairy...as well, on two to all four sides, strong warnings that use
by any other than the original dairy is highly illegal! The reason
the size was reduced to slightly less than 12" x 12" was to make
them impossible to use by LP album collectors/dealers/users, who
were purloining them left and right for moving or storing records!

Nevertheless, they still work just fine for archives of 10" 78's!
I make a point of NOT stealing them from milk retailers...but should
I see one "out of place," I consider it "fair game" and it accompanies
me at home if at all possible! Note that these are also used in the
US of A, and I have a handful which cite US dairies...! Also note that
these have been "cut down" in strength and durability in recent years,
which has reduced their "useful lifespan!" I pick up full milk boxes
(of 78's...capacity c.125, or 62.5 lbs. of shellac) VERY carefully,
in case the bottom has "died from overloading!"

Actually, it was the "downsizing of milk boxes" which led to my
acquiring most of the ones I now use! I had stopped into a
convenience store (also a Canadianism...a store which sells things
like pop, candy bars, overpriced groceries, and smokes, on an 18
to 24-hour schedule...i.e. a non-franchise version of a "7-11"...)
for a large bottle of Diet Coke. I forget how the subject had come
up, but the upshot was that the store owner had his back room full
of the old red "fiberglas milk boxes" for which he no longer get
the deposit. Since he need the room, he said I could have the lot
for the effort of taking them away. At the time, I was a "cable guy"
and drove a full-size van...so it took me two loads to haul all 
200-odd of them to my house! These were the slightly-larger version,
so would hold 12" 78's (those stuck up past the top of the box)...
but they were made of fiberglas rather than poly-wotever, and
thus were effectively indestructible and coundn't be overloaded!

Thus endeth the story of "the milk box"...

Steven C. Barr