To say Clinton Roberts lived in a simpler time is understating things a bit.

Roberts, who died at 87 Friday at the Gosnell Memorial Hospice Center in Scarborough, was a milkman on Peaks Island for about 10 years in the 1950s and early ’60s, his son Gary Roberts said.

Additional Photos

Clinton Roberts, seen with his Oakhurst milk truck, later started a fish store in Portland and drove a cross-country truck route. Family photo

For those who don’t remember milkmen, Roberts’ job was to pick up milk, butter, cheese and other dairy items from Oakhurst Dairy at the Peaks Island ferry dock and then drive his truck around the island to deliver the items to homes.

For most milkmen, residents would leave a note with their order in a small box by the door and the milkmen would leave the items in the box.

But that’s not how it worked on Peaks Island at a time when there were only a few hundred year-round families.

“He walk into the houses and open the doors and he’d just look in the refrigerator and see what they needed and put it in the refrigerator,” Gary Roberts said.

At least that was the case with the year-round residents. Summer people still left the note.

Roberts was active in island life, helping to found Peaks Island’s first Boy Scout troop and organizing church clubs. He was also one of the founders of the San Souci Square Dance Club on the island, his son said.

He also started a fish store with his father-in-law, Everett Marston, on Spring Street in Portland, moving the market to Peaks Island after a couple of years. Roberts had a reputation as the top fish cutter in the city, able to filet a fish quickly and efficiently.

When the family moved off the island to South Portland, Gary Roberts said he was happy because the island got to be a bit confining for teenagers, although he recognizes now that it was an idyllic life for the family. He said his father got another milk route in Portland, but found it was quite a bit different from the island.

“He knew everybody on island and they paid him,” Gary Roberts said. “In the city, people wouldn’t pay,” and having to chase after people behind in their bills for milk and cheese ate into both the profits and the enjoyment of the job.

So Roberts went on the road, becoming a cross-country truck driver until he retired and gained a reputation as someone always willing to help out a neighbor. In retirement, he and his wife, Elizabeth, continued to square dance regularly and often visited family and friends in Machias, where Roberts was born.

A highlight of his father’s life in later years, Gary Roberts said, was family gatherings, usually either summer cookouts or get-togethers at the holidays.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com

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