大象传媒

Everybody who was at school during the war, will remember school milk! At first it was delivered in milk crates containing small bottles and was always left in the playground. In the winter, it often froze in the bottles, and the milk expanded and forced off the cardboard top. The bottles were then arranged near the open fire to thaw out, and the taste of lukewarm milk will never be forgotten! By contrast, in the summer the crates were left in the sun and by the time the children were given the milk, it was 'on the turn'. I never liked to drink milk, but my mother insisted I had it - she said that it was good for me and would make me strong. My salvation came, when owing to the scarcity of glass for making the bottles, the milk was delivered in churns. We were provided with beakers, and the milk was doled out by the teachers. I knew several boys who enjoyed drinking milk - Roy, who later became my husband, was one of them, so using female cunning, I made sure I was standing next to a 'milk lover'in the queue for milk. Having been given our beaker of milk, we had to move to the back of the classroom to drink it, and again, I made sure I was standing next to Roy or one of the others who would help me out! He would then drink half of his milk, exchange his beaker for mine, drink all of my milk and then hand back the empty beaker. I could then go out to play having shown the empty beaker to the teacher. I was married before I told my mother that she had often paid for milk for her future son-in-law!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.