Creeksong

They all appear to be Brookfield Dairy bottles.... Good sized collection =) Though they need to get the cobalt blues into it. The bottle people are all Baby Top bottles.... Kinda of a hallmark of the dairy and very recognizable.

Nice capture =)

You askin' if I'm an antique? =P

That era in US history is well before my time.... In Europe, however, where I spent some of my childhood, glass milk bottles were the only type there were..... And the "state" had these bottle return centers where you would take all your glass bottles, jars, etc. for "return".... They would then be disinfected at really high temps. and processed, etc. before being made available to various farms, businesses, etc., for reuse. Some industries -- like dairy farms -- would have someone go out once a week to pick up bottles belonging to them.... It cost them VERY little compared to having new bottles made. And in the age where people were responsible and did their jobs correctly, no one ever came down with a case of food poisoning or any such thing either.

Now, my grandparents lived in very small rural villages where folks still lived off the land and indoor plumbing was still rare..... There, folks kept glass cars and bottles and such and circulated them in the community through their trade activities. For example, my grandmother didn't have a milk cow, but she had lots of fruit trees.... So, she would make jams to trade with another neighbor for milk..... When she would go pick up the bottle of milk for the day, she would usually take two clean, empty glass bottles to return to the neighbor providing the milk and would get one full bottle of milk in return..... The same thing would happen with other folks in the village who provided goods in glass jars or bottles.... People would bring back the empty ones to the neighbor they got the goods from.

It was all a means for recycling, but in a much more efficient, low cost, low energy way and what wasn't taken care of by the state was dealt with at a local level as people traded goods, services, and skilled labor. The only types of glass jars or bottles that were sent out for recycling as we know it today were, mainly, those from imported goods. Since businesses had to register with the state, all glassware they used for their produce had to be "branded" so that the glass could easily be sorted at the return site after it was processed for return to the business. Only pieces they didn't get back were ones deemed to be damaged or otherwise unfit for reuse --- those would go to the recycling plant.

Incidentally, did ya know.... Milk keeps longer in glass bottles? It also tastes better from glass bottles.... I actually transfer milk I buy from the store container into a glass bottle when I bring it home.... Plastic has an insulating property, as we all know... Well, that same property keeps the contents from being cooled as effectively in the 'fridge. Here in NYC, we've noticed a resurgence of the glass milk bottle... Mainly in the higher priced organic arena for now.... But, it definitely is making a comeback as the majority of organically sourced milk is no longer available in plastic containers. Makes a major difference in the taste and shelf life of the milk.... When you're at the store, check out the expiration date on organic milk in a glass bottle vs regular non-organic milk in a plastic bottle -- you'll be amazed.

So. now that I've taken the most circuitous route to answering your question.... No, I'm not an antique ;) You've got a good 30+ yrs. on me =P