From 1959 to 1973, Nicholas Tisch was a welcome visitor along
the residential streets of Warren, MI. as he delivered Twin Pines milk and dairy
products to hundreds of milk chutes along his route. Throughout the 1950s and
60s Twin Pines dominated the home delivery dairy business in metropolitan
Detroit and sponsored the kid’s TV show Milky’s Party Time.
Before World War II, 80% of all milk was sold thru home
delivery, but by the mid 1970s convenience stores caused Twin Pines and other home
delivery dairies to close their doors forever. Also, stay-at-home moms were now entering the work force,
leaving no
one at home to receive the morning milk delivery.
Nearly 75 % of all milk trucks in the United States were manufactured
by the Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company (DIVCO), but by the end of the 20th
century, most Divco trucks had met their fate in the cold steel jaws of the
junkyard crusher or left to rust along the back roads of rural America.
Fast-forward thirty years. Nick Tisch. thought it might be fun
to restore a vintage Divco truck like the one his father drove on his milk
route. Unfortunately, Nicholas Sr. passed away before a truck could be located,
so Nick decided to forge ahead and restore a Twin Pines Divco truck in memory of
his father.
In 2005 two 1948 Divco trucks were located; one in Indiana and
another in a junk yard in Marysville, MI. Unfortunately,
time and rust had taken their toll on both vehicles. It took Nick and his
brother Gary three days to pull the Marysville truck out of the dirt and haul it
home for restoration. The running gear and engine were salvaged from one truck,
and the upper sheet metal was used from the other. Over 3,000 hours of labor and
three years went into the restoration.
While Nick was busy with his Divco project, brother Gary
decided to scour antique malls, yard sales and online auctions for Twin Pines
memorabilia. Gary now owns the largest collection of Twin Pines collectibles in
the country, including a milkman’s uniform, vintage product containers and the
original Creamy the Rabbit puppet from TV’s Milky’s Party Time.
Nick completed his truck in August 2008, just in time to
participate in the 14th annual Woodward Dream Cruise, the world’s
largest one-day automotive event.
The beautifully restored Divco Twin Pines milk truck took
first place for a vehicle built between 1936 and 1948 at the 2009 Autorama, held
annually at Detroit’s Cobo Hall.
The Tisch brothers sold the truck to a private collector in 2011.
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