One of life's little pleasures

In those days it was very appropriate , child malnutrition was widespread in some areas

Probably strengthened our immune system!

In primary school in NSW you used to get a small bottle of fresh milk every morning. I worked hard to be a milk monitor so I could ensure the kids I did like got warm milk. We also had favoured paper straws. The chocolate was the best, the strawberry one tasted like rat poison.

Agreed

Iā€™m glad Iā€™m not the only one who remembers them

My grandfather owned a milk delivery business back in the 50s and 60s, some of my childhood memories are early mornings going with my mother in the lorry to the creamery to deliver the local churns and collect the crates of milk and bizarrely large jugs of some milk that would be poured into the customerā€™s own jugs. Being in Wales profession names are given to the whole family, to this day people old enough give my family that suffix, so to some Iā€™m known as ā€œColin milkā€

I was quite poorly as a child and didnā€™t attend primary school for a couple of years.
The family doctor urged mother to get me out in the fresh air as much as possible.
I had a milk round with horse and float. Sunday afternoon was tb free milking and bottling.
A green grocery round with a trailer behind the car.
Helping the baker with bread deliveries.
Not all on the same day.
Together with a small egg cup of motherā€™s Mackeson stout each evening it must have worked .I amstill here.
N

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Apart from remembering school milk in 1/3 bottles and wire milk crates, my dad was a milkman for a good chunk of his working life and I would go with him some days I can recall.
Later as young teenager I had a Saturday milk round.
Such a shame the industry has mostly faded. However such a huge price difference compared to supermarkets was always going to win out.

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I think the fresh air and milk may have been the key , but Iā€™m sure the Mackeson helped.

My own introduction to the health benefits of Mackeson didnā€™t come until a little later in life. Cider and Mack kept me strong in my teens. :crazy_face:

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There was always the chance with the free school milk that it had gone off by the time it was consumed. Crates used to be stacked near radiators, as I recall.

A good accompaniment for the tuck shop wagon wheels and jammy dodgers !

I remember the paper straws that came with it too. Good chance that the box would run out by the time it got to you.

I know - but I was curious as to whether you meant getting milk or sitting quietly for 15 min.

To the best of my recollection we used to get ours at morning break, which was only 15 minutes long. In the secondary school I do remember that it was grab a bottle and swig it as fast as you couldā€¦30 seconds entire process perhaps?

Does anyone remember those polyethylene bags that were used instead of bottles in the 60s for a while? Nightmare!

Yes morning break, nothing in the afternoon as I remember

It is strange the odd things that the brain can conjure up.
I can still smell *or think I can (75 years later) the smell of my slightly warm 1/3rd morning milk. I think it was served in a plastic mug (would that have been possible in 1945)? If so it was an orange coloured mug.
Fascinating what must me stored on the many sd cards that compose our memories.
N
*covid free then.:pray:

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My father was born 1928, at some stage before moving to grammar school he was admitted to hospital for a whole term for ā€œfailure to thriveā€. The whole family were exceptionally tall, grandmother 5ā€™ 10", dad ended up 6ā€™ 4", his brother 6ā€™ 7". The treatment was five meals a day and a pint of Guinness.
Whilst I was young, he never drank alcohol, except a sherry at Christmas. He hated beer, even in a shandy!

I remember an elderly uncle, who was suffering from dementia, being told by his doctor to drink a small bottle of Guinness each day. He resisted at first, being a strict teetotaller, but doctor persisted. It became one of those fixed events each day, that always brought a smile, especially when the Guinness baseball cap someone bought him often made an appearance.

A palatable way of getting much-needed nutrition (and iron) Apparently offered after blood donation (as an alternative to tea and biscuits) in Ireland until around 2009.

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My grandmother was told to drink a bottle of Guiness a day - for iron apparently. However, whilst Guinness contains more iron than the vast majority of beers, sheā€™d have been better being directed to have a glass of red wine a day! Or better still, eat kidney or liver.

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Mackesons. Was produced in the small town I now live in. Brewery long gone. Its a car park now. Orignal brewery offices are still standing. Lots of references to it in the town. Absorbed and shutdown by Whitehead in the 1970s I think.
But still a feature at the west end of the High Street hereā€¦

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How true. Although my memories of primary school are a little more recent (early 1960s) I can still recall the smell of the caretakerā€™s room. A combination of coke stove, Jeyes fluid and unwashed milk bottles combined with his suspect personal hygiene. Happy days.

@Thegreatroberto Ha! Surely not another person from Hythe. I was born and have lived here pretty much all my life. I remember the brewery as a going concern before the car park.

Small world.