Milk bottle tops

We got the malt, YUCK!!, and regular doses of California Syrup of Figs, and Magnesia, which I loved, not milk of magnesia, this was a clear liquid in a large clear glass bottle. I also loved the taste of Fennings powders.

I remember Minadex - it was a tonic containg iron and vitamins.

Yes, cold liver oil followed by Virol. We were also given spoonfuls of something called Minadex, haven't a clue what was in it but it tasted alright.

Ooooh, yes, we had a teaspoon of cod liver oil and the promise of a dessertspoon of malt to help it down, so it always tasted great!

Does anyone remember being given spoonfuls of malt? Yuck!

I can just about remember silver ones with holly printed on them

We had to have a nap every day in the first year of infants, but we didn`t get even a scratchy blanket, just the camp beds to lie on. Woe betide you if Mrs. Oxley caught you talking instead of sleeping! She could see everywhere from her great big high desk, I remember it was painted white.

Yes, I went to a nursery too. I absolutely hated being told I had to go to sleep on a scratchy camp bed with an even scratchier blanket.

Never mind the school milk, which I didn't mind at all even with squashy waxy straws, but does no-one else remember the cod liver oil capsules, brought round by the cod liver oil capsule monitor(!) every morning? Woe betide anyone who tried to avoid taking one or tried to 'lose' it. Fine if you swallowed it quickly but heinous if it burst in your mouth It was also best to avoid burping for sometime after swallowing !!

I mean on, not in!

We had to have a nap at my nusrsery school - my mum went back to work at the post office during the war - and we always had to lie down in these little camp beds, but I hated it, I couldn't see why we had to keep still when there were so many things to do! Boring!

I remember making flowers out of the coloured milk bottle tops they where made to look like little holly leaves and my sister and I used to stick them onto straws and make bunches of flowers for our mum,or we stuck them on cardboard and made a picture for the kitchen,we also washed them and made necklaces and bracelets,we would collect them from all the neighbours in the street.I loved my school milk time once we had drunk our milk we had a nap on one of the small camp beds put up in the class room.

Crafty little bluetits were the main offenders!

I too made pompoms with those cardboard tops. It took ages! You needed two; so as to cut the wool, you pulled them apart.

Remember in the sixties when the small birds learnt to peck in the foil tops to get the cream?

The doorstep bottles were a different shape too - taller and narrower but with a wider mouth.
I didn't mind school milk in winter when it was so cold that i couldn't taste it, but in summer it always tasted slightly cheesy to me, and I have never been able to drink plain milk since, though I love milky drinks such as cocoa.

I loved the school milk and also drank nothing else at home. When I took part in a bone density study a few years ago my reading was off the top of the scale. As an adult I have drunk very little milk, so the childhood consumption obviously stood me in good stead.

The milk would have been full cream and there would be a 1/2 inch top of cream that would have been in the sunshine when it was delivered, so maybe that accounts for the smell. I also loved school milk, but it was always brought to the classroom and left in a corner in the shade for a couple of hours, so tasted lovely.

I loved school milk and took every opportunity to drink mine and anyone else's. I couldn't understand why some children wouldn't drink it. At primary school if there were spares the teacher always asked me first if I would like extra and I never refused. At Grammar school things got even better because the crates were just put out and left for people to help themselves, I just used to drink until I literally couldn't get any more in. I loved the cream on the top too; those days when I was a skinny beanpole are long gone sadly and it's been skimmed milk for me for more than twenty years.

Remember the way when you opened the bottle your thumb would go suddenly through the centre of the cardboard top and shower you with milk?

In our school, Bagitha we had a radiator with narrow metal shelves fixed to the front of it. The milk (a third of pint each) was put on those to thaw and was tepid by the time we drank it. It tasted OK (though I have never been keen on milk as a drink ever since) but inevitable some drips must have got onto the shelves and the radiator, or perhaps the bottles were splashed while they were being filled, because there was a lingering smell of old milk clinging to the outsides of the bottles. It got onto your hands too.

The milk came from a local farm, who also supplied milk door-to-door. This was not in bottles, but was poured into whatever can or jug you had set out ready. It was paid for pro rata, but whenever the farmer's son was on deliveries, my mother reckoned she got about half-a-jug at full jug prices. She suspected he was making his own little profit.

Yes, it was being warmed whilst de-frosting - perhaps that's the explanation. I freeze my milk too, and don't notice a funny smell when having de-frosted it.

I'm really puzzled about the smell of half-thawed milk that has been mentioned. I freeze milk every week because I have groceries delivered (shared car not available most of the time, supermarket twelve miles away, hate shopping anyway, cartons too heavy to carry from village shop) and get enough milk to last the week at once. I often start using a new carton before it has completely thawed. There is no unpleasant smell. Was the school milk actually being warmed by the fires, so the milk was half-cooked as well as half thawed? That's the only thing I can think of to explain an unpleasant smell, except that warmed milk doesn't smell unpleasant either. Very odd! Maybe the milk wasn't fresh.

I enjoyed my school milk and didn't drink much other than milk or water until I was an adult.

Oh annobel so I am strange then!

There was always some strange child in my class who was happy to have my milk!

My primary years at school were made hideous by school milk. I never drank fresh milk even as a toddler and school breaks were a constant worry about how to quietly get rid of milk without drinking it and without being seen.

One school I went to served it warm with lunch and all my lunchtimes were spent having a stand-off with staff as I was kept, even into the afternoon school session sitting at the table refusing to drink it and retching and being in sick if I did. Why I did not tell my mother I have no idea, one just didnt take home tales from school.