Walking Through an Australian Milk Bar in 1972 — Counter by Counter

Sunday, the 16th of January, 1972. Half past ten in the morning on a corner in suburban Melbourne. Every shop on the main road is shut. The butcher, the chemist, the bank. Blinds down, nothing moving. Except on the corner, where one door is wide open behind a curtain of plastic strips. On the step out the front sits a boy of nine with three empty soft drink bottles he found down by the creek. He has been counting on his fingers for ten minutes. He has not gone in yet. This was the shop every one of us grew up around. One room, one counter, one family behind it, and open when nothing else was. We go in through the plastic strips and do not skip a shelf: 🍬 The lolly counter: Freckles, Redskins, Milk Bottles and the agony of choosing 🥤 The milkshake machine, the steel cup, and the spider 🍦 The freezer, the Paddle Pop, and the Sunday family block 🌯 The Chiko Roll, the dim sim, and chips wrapped in newspaper 🗞️ The Sunday paper, The Phantom, and the cigarettes kids were sent to buy for Dad 🍾 Tarax, glass bottles, and the money hidden in the long grass 📖 The little exercise book under the counter And at the end, what came to Oakleigh in 1977, and why the old milk bars are still hiding in plain sight on corners all over Melbourne. What was your milk bar order, and what did it cost? Tell us the suburb and the year in the comments. Somebody else stood at that same counter doing the same sums. New shop every week. Next time: Franklins, 1988.