Sunnyside Dairy wagon project off to a rolling start
Up until the 1970s, amid the clip clop of hooves, bright and early every morning Sunnyside Dairy wagon No. 24 would head out laden with bottles of milk, tempting kids to chase the horses that pulled it.
Bradley Ulch was among the children who chased the wagon, or another in the fleet, on the streets of Welland, likely to the chagrin of the milkman who drove the horses. Times changed, however. Home milk delivery went by the wayside as people started buying milk in bags at the grocer.
The milkman’s wagon became a part of history, along with wagon No. 24, relegated to sit in the barn of antique collector and Wainfleet farmer Bill Podolyak, at least until now.
“I’ve had it about 56 years,” said Podolyak, 81, describing how he purchased it off a friend as a unique addition to his collection of tractors and farming equipment.
Sunnyside Dairy once served Welland from Seventh Street, under the leadership of its owner, and former mayor, Allan Pietz. Podolyak, a third-generation Wainfleet farmer, remembers the wagons heading out early in the morning as he would get to the task of farming.
“You used to go to the market on Saturday morning and this thing would be rolling down the road,” said Podolyak, noting at No. 24 in the Sunnyside fleet the wagon was likely one of the last produced for the daily task of delivering milk via horse-drawn wagon.
This week he parted with the piece, and on Monday Ulch picked up the wagon, building on his own fascination with the little slice of Welland history.
Ulch got turned onto the idea of finding and restoring such a wagon after coming across a photo of a restored Sunnyside wagon — No. 10 in the fleet — from the Milton museum.
“Why didn’t we have one,” said Ulch, who has spent months looking for a wagon to restore in the hopes of it finding a home at Welland Museum.
It was automotive appraiser
Ken LeBlanc who first discovered Podolyak’s wagon and connected the two.
“This is like a dream,” said Ulch, who was able to scoop up the wagon thanks to a quick and successful GoFundMe campaign.
He plans to do some quick mechanical checks on it so it can be displayed in the this month’s Welland Rose Festival parade in an effort to generate interest in a full restoration of the wagon. It’s a labour of love, according to Ulch, for his city and the local history represented in the wagon.
“There’s so many people in Welland who know somebody who drove the cart,” he said, adding, “that cart was delivering milk to my house, to your house.”
Ulch is in discussion with Seaway Mall and Niagara Catholic District School Board to push for a partnership in the complete rebuild of the wagon, hoping students can learn from and assist in the process. The ultimate goal is for the wagon to find a home at Welland Museum.
“For the museum, it would become one of the largest pieces of the collection,” said curator Penny Morningstar, explaining, while funding and planning are in the early stages, the plan would be to display the wagon in front of the King Street museum for all to see. Given its connection to the city, and the link to so many memories of people who came of age up into the 1970s, it would make a perfect piece.
Ulch is hoping to gather more history on Sunnyside and the cart by engaging with former employees and milkmen. For more information on the project, visit the Bring her Home Sunnyside Dairy Wagon Facebook page. Ulch invited anyone with more information to call him at 905-708-7901.