What is a "milk run?"

[pezwookiee]

Okay, this is a question for my roommate who’s doing some research, so for any clarification I’ll have to go and chat with him.

Does anyone know the definition of a “milk run?”

Does anyone know a history of said milk runs?

Thanks in advance.

[Crispy]

At my house it’s similar to a beer run. It’s a late night run to the store to buy milk so the kids can have it with breakfast. Chances are we’re talking about two entirely different things.

[Aro]

Sometimes its an fund-raising event (including an actual run) sponsored by a local diary, to promote milk drinking as healthy. Sometimes.

[Bob_Scene]

In Catch-22 the bomber crews used the phrase to describe an uncomplicated mission, where they could fly straight to their target and drop their bombs and fly back without anyone shooting at them.

[Wendell_Wagner]

According to this site, it’s an airline route that stops at small cities:

Top-Themen von A-Z: News aus allen Bereichen

I guess the analogy is that, like going to the store for milk, it’s a short trip making minor stops. Incidentally, you can find definitions yourself easily. Put the phrase you want and the words “definition” or “etymology” into Google. There’s also some online dictionaries out there you should put into your bookmarks. Didn’t you find this term in any dictionaries (you know, ordinary books, not online ones) you checked?

[Bryan_Ekers]

Merriam-Webster says milk run is “a short, routine, or uneventful flight”, probably derived (circa 1925) “from the resemblance in regularity and uneventfulness to the morning delivery of milk.”

In other words, a simple commonplace task with no expectation of surprise or difficulty.

[Jonathan_Chance]

I have a two-year-old.

What?

[cantara]

When using the phrase “milk run” I’ve always heard it in the context of Wendells airline routes.

I assumed that it came from the daily milk delivery of days of yore (or days of now in UK). A “milk run” was a route that had many stops along it. It may be a simple route, but the length of time to finish it is long due to the stops that must be made.

I refer to some of the the commuter trains schedules as “milk runs”. The train that I try to catch every day is an express to my station. If I miss it, then I’ll have to take the “milk run” which stops at all stations and ends up taking an extra 20 minutes to reach my stop.

[Dinsdale]

In my mind (as a daily commuter) it is what cantara said in his/her 3d paragraph.

[Floater]

*Originally posted by cantara *
I refer to some of the the commuter trains schedules as “milk runs”. The train that I try to catch every day is an express to my station. If I miss it, then I’ll have to take the “milk run” which stops at all stations and ends up taking an extra 20 minutes to reach my stop.

We have “milk trains” in Sweden too. However, they have nothing to do with delivering milk, but the stops made when collecting the milk from the dairy farms.

[Sofa_King]

I’ll bet our pal David Simmons has something to say about milk runs. I have the impression that a lot of those missions which were originally percieved to be easy didn’t turn out that way at all. Therefore I suspect that there may be a post-WWII thread of cynicism woven into the meaning of the term.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I’ve tried to research this question myself. My best guess is that it does indeed date back to the 19th century, when trains brought in milk to cities from the surrounding farms. These would be short and normally uneventful trips, very routine because they would take place every single day on a regular schedule.

Later usage in airlines probably does relate at first to their usual, routine flights and in WWII to flights that were considered safe and easy compared to combat runs. No doubt, though, that Sofa King has a point in that some of these turned out less safe than others, leading to a cynical take on the phrase.

Here area couple of cites that reinforce this interpretation, without shedding much light on the origination of the term.

http://lackawanna.hypermart.net/page3.htm

A pecial type of “reefer” was the milk car. The first milk cars were refrigerated boxcars. Molk cans were hauled into the cars. Later, old boxcars and reffers were lined inside with special glass. Milk was pumped into the cars, where it stayed at 39 degrees. The old milk cars were usually painted green. Railroads and dairies owned fleets of these cars. They would stop at each station along the way to pick up milk, and then brought it into the city. The slang term “milk run,” which means an easy journey, came from the milk trains. In the 1950s, dairies used trucks. There were fewer milk trains. Today, railroads do not do milk runs any more.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~pavenang/train.htm

He was engineer in 1909 on a milk run north of Youngstown when his train was wrecked. he was cut and brused in this mishap.

http://www.ku.edu/~medieval/kansas-l/1997/09/msg00005.html

Thousands of miles of railway linking small towns were abandoned and their “jerkwater” and milk-run" trains disappeared.

And a usage from Canada:
http://www.sussexdowntown.com/

In addition to the regular trains, there was the “Milk Run”, which ran between St. John and Sussex. These “short line” trains stopped at every station and siding to pick up the cans of milk brought there be the farmers for shipment to the city."

[pezwookiee]

Thanks everyone! I think the “short, easy mission” definition is what my roommate was looking for. You guys rock.