GOING, GOING, GONE: DIAPER SERVICES

(Source of picture: Florida State Archives)

CLICK HERE for another van photo.

"We Follow the Stork," asserted the sign on this van.  You don't see many vehicles like this anymore, and you also don't find a lot of services like the one advertised.  The van belonged to a diaper service based in South Jacksonville, and the picture was snapped in 1948 at Jacksonville's Duval Motor Company.  This vehicle probably helped clean up after many infant baby boomers who are now well into their middle age.

DEDICATED TO THE STORK -- Dirty cloth diapers were the bread & butter of the diaper services.  For a fee, they picked up soiled diapers from mothers, laundered them, and returned them ready for reuse.  They tried to prove themselves to be a stork's best friend. 

There used to be many diaper services.  Jacksonville was served by four such enterprises in 1949, even though its population was less than 1/3 of today's.  Due to disposable diapers, however, the diaper service industry has bottomed out (no pun intended).  Across America, the fleets of diaper service trucks have been dwindling.  According to the 2002 BellSouth directory, only one diaper service now serves Jacksonville.

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