The Sixties

        Bob and Marge welcomed a late arrival to the family when Julie Christine was born September 14, 1961. That Christmas, Louie and Louise came to visit from Chicago and, like everyone else, fell in love with her. They’re seen here in the living room of the Bishops’ house at 1008 Milky Way Drive in Skyway Park, a suburb of Colorado Springs.

    The whole Bishop family accompanied Louie and Louise to the Santa Fe railroad station in Colorado Springs to see them off: Tom, Julie, Laura, Rob, Betty, Marge, Louise, Louie. Some memories of Louie the Bishop kids would remember always: his pocket knife which was always handy when it came time to unwrap the Christmas presents, and the little box of pink and white mints that always lived on the dashboard of his car.
   "They were always there for us," Betty remembered. "It made me see what an important role grandparents can have on their grandchildren. They can have a role that parents can't."

    Louie was the last person in Chicago to drive a horse-drawn milk wagon like the one pictured here. He worked for Borden for at least 40 years. He carried the rack with milk bottles up and down stairs all day for all those years. He told the story of how he would go to construction sites and sell a bottle of milk to a worker which he had to throw two or three floors up and hope the worker would throw the nickel down to him, which he would deposit in the coin changer he kept on his belt. Between this tough job and his high-drive personality, he developed ulcers in mid-life that required surgery to remove about half his stomach. In his lifetime he never weighed more than a hundred pounds.

    Eventually Louie modernized to a motor-driven milk truck like this, which he stocked with cartons of milk bottles before dawn every day.

    In 1962 Louie retired from the Borden Company. This photo shows his final sign-out, flanked by his fellow employees.

    Borden threw Louie a retirement party, which included a cake and a hug from a buxom gal. A couple of years before his retirement, this article by Ronald Chizever appeared in the Chicago Daily News, November 17, 1960:

A Far-Off Whinny Echoes Over Years For Milkman, 63
Borden Veteran and 600 Pals Recall Old Horse, Wagon Days

    In some far-off heavenly pasture, Louie Poltevecque’s horse probably whinnied Thursday. For Poltevecque, 63, and a Borden Co. milkman for 35 years, reflected on his old partner as he and about 600 other members of Borden’s Quarter-of-a-Century club were honored at a Palmer House dinner. There were cartons of milk for all on the tables Wednesday night.
   Poltevecque's route, the business district west of the Loop, has included the Daily News since the newspaper moved to 400 W. Madison in 1929.
   Today he drives a truck. But back in the '20s he rattled along in a wagon pulled by Pat, his brown horse. "Pat was so tall I had to stand on a box to put the bridle on him," the 5-foot-8 Poltevecque said softly. "At noon I gave him his nosebag full of oats. Sometimes I fed him sugar lumps, too. In the summertime I hosed him down."
   They were building Union Station in those days. Workmen dangling from the girders were always glad to see Poltevecque and his horse. "The ironworkers would toss their dimes down and then I’d toss my bottles of milk up to them. If anyone missed—well, he’d have to toss me another dime."
   And then one day Pat went to a glue factory. Other signs of progress came, too, such as cottage cheese and eggnog.
   Through it all, the smiling Poltevecque had remained a believer of "there’s good in everybody." Panhandlers often tap him on West Madison. He usually hands them thirst-quenching cartons of milk, then squeezes his own coins into the money-changer strapped tightly around his waist.
   His job also takes him into a Canal Street girdle factory. "Once," he said, "I saw what I thought was a mannequin there, in briefs. Only it moved when it saw me. That's when I found out they use live models."
   The milkman and his wife, Louise, of 732 W. 82nd St., recently marked their 42nd wedding anniversary. They have a son and four grandchildren. Poltevecque drinks one and a half quarts of milk a day.

    Upon Louie’s retirement, he and Louise decided to move to Colorado Springs to be closer to Bob and his family. They found an apartment in the Cheyenne Arms on Cheyenne Boulevard on the southwest side of Colorado Springs, in the top floor apartment Louise marked with an X in the photo.

    Retirement from Borden didn’t mean retirement from Louie’s Santa duties. Donning some pillows to fill out his always slender frame, he’s shown here making time with some lovely young gal at the new Bishop residence, 17 West Oak.