Got Milk?
Party like it’s 1899!
So I was working on ideas for Murder on Trinity Place, the 22rd book in the Gaslight Mystery Series. The series started in 1896, and after 21 books, we were approaching the end of 1899, so I thought it would be fun to show the turn of that century. Were people as excited about it as we were in 1999? It turns out they weren’t (which is a different blog post). Where do I go from there?
Got Milk?
By this time, I had an idea for how to start Murder on Trinity Place, even if it wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped. The murder would happen on New Year’s Eve, and I decided the victim would be a man whose legitimate business might be a cover for some sort of illegal activity. I consulted a few of my writer friends (I knew they would help because it’s always easier to come up with ideas for other people’s books). My good friend, Susanna Calkins, suggested that milk wagons could be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes when not actually hauling milk. What a perfect idea! (such a perfect idea, as you will see, that I ended up dedicating the book to her.)
And then the magic happened.
I started researching what milk delivery was like around the turn of the last century, and I discovered all sorts of things about milk that I’d never dreamed of. Did you know that at one point in time in New York City, they had “milk wars”? Did you know that in mid-Nineteenth Century New York City, half of the children died before the age of five? Half of them! And why? Mostly from drinking contaminated milk. Yikes. This was serious stuff. This is why writers love doing research. Truth is often much more interesting than anything you could make up yourself.
“Never cry over spilt milk, because it may have been poisoned.” –W.C. Fields
When the owner of a dairy is found murdered, Frank and Sarah Malloy are asked to solve the case by their very superstitious neighbor, Mrs. Ellsworth, because the victim is the father of her new daughter-in-law. (Can we all take a moment here to lament the fact that the English language has no easy way to describe your relationship to your child’s in-laws? “My daughter-in-law’s parents” is so unwieldy. But I digress.) Since Mrs. Ellsworth once saved Sarah’s very life, they cannot refuse, and they begin an investigation that leads them to some very surprising places.
Milk has long been a staple of the American diet. What are your memories of drinking it as a child? Do you remember home delivery? Do you like milk? Hate it? Are you allergic? Are you surprised to learn that at one point it time drinking it could actually be dangerous?
So I was working on ideas for Murder on Trinity Place, the 22rd book in the Gaslight Mystery Series. The series started in 1896, and after 21 books, we were approaching the end of 1899, so I thought it would be fun to show the turn of that century. Were people as excited about it as we were in 1999? It turns out they weren’t (which is a different blog post). Where do I go from there?
Got Milk?
By this time, I had an idea for how to start Murder on Trinity Place, even if it wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped. The murder would happen on New Year’s Eve, and I decided the victim would be a man whose legitimate business might be a cover for some sort of illegal activity. I consulted a few of my writer friends (I knew they would help because it’s always easier to come up with ideas for other people’s books). My good friend, Susanna Calkins, suggested that milk wagons could be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes when not actually hauling milk. What a perfect idea! (such a perfect idea, as you will see, that I ended up dedicating the book to her.)
And then the magic happened.
I started researching what milk delivery was like around the turn of the last century, and I discovered all sorts of things about milk that I’d never dreamed of. Did you know that at one point in time in New York City, they had “milk wars”? Did you know that in mid-Nineteenth Century New York City, half of the children died before the age of five? Half of them! And why? Mostly from drinking contaminated milk. Yikes. This was serious stuff. This is why writers love doing research. Truth is often much more interesting than anything you could make up yourself.
“Never cry over spilt milk, because it may have been poisoned.” –W.C. Fields
When the owner of a dairy is found murdered, Frank and Sarah Malloy are asked to solve the case by their very superstitious neighbor, Mrs. Ellsworth, because the victim is the father of her new daughter-in-law. (Can we all take a moment here to lament the fact that the English language has no easy way to describe your relationship to your child’s in-laws? “My daughter-in-law’s parents” is so unwieldy. But I digress.) Since Mrs. Ellsworth once saved Sarah’s very life, they cannot refuse, and they begin an investigation that leads them to some very surprising places.
Milk has long been a staple of the American diet. What are your memories of drinking it as a child? Do you remember home delivery? Do you like milk? Hate it? Are you allergic? Are you surprised to learn that at one point it time drinking it could actually be dangerous?
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message 1:
by
Merle
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May 22, 2019 07:36AM
Reading it now.
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Thank you so much for the information in this post. This is one reason I like your books so much. When I was a child, milk was delivered to our home and was on the porch no later than 5:00 a.m. In the winter we loved to see the frozen cream pushing up the tops of the bottles. I use milk on my cereal and for hot chocolate, but I have never liked just drinking a glass of milk.
Loved this interesting background on milk - I've been a faithful milk drinker for all my life. And like Betty, we got it delivered to the front porch very early in the morning. When our milkman retired I was heartbroken - I'd practically grown up seeing him every other day - me in my pjs and he in his natty white uniform.
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