School Milk

[Stuart0742]

Found these 2 yesterday, they seemed a lot bigger when you were young and at school

Should bring back memories for DaveH, apart from these are Sheffield and Ecclesall, whereas we used to have Brightside and Carbrook at school.

So when were third pint bottles discontinued and can these type of bottles be dated

[lysander]

Could be disgusting stuff. Smelly and almost undrinkable when left outside in the hot sun and, equally, when left outside in the icy blast, too cold to drink in the time allotted for milk drinking. I was a milk monitor and drinking it probably made us healthier than we might have been and, of course, in one of her first acts as a Minister, Maggie stopped it!

[Guest ianb]

Yes I remember those. I used to get them at Hucklow Road School and used to brag that my Dad used to work for B & C. I used to enjoy them you couldn't drink milk at home it was too expensive

[Bayleaf]

I reached the exalted heights of milk monitor too! I used to enjoy the milk (and the job!). In winter some teachers allowed people to put their bottle on the pipes so it would have warmed up by playtime. You had to put your initials on the lid without piercing it. Personally I've always hated warm milk, I still preferred it even if it was chilled.

[syrup]

At Hatfield House Lane Infant and Junior there was a choice of milk or orange.

[DaveH]

Should bring back memories for DaveH, apart from these are Sheffield and Ecclesall, whereas we used to have Brightside and Carbrook at school.

Yes, you guessed it, me and Stuart were the milk monitors too.

We had to stand on Craddock Road in the freezing cold and snow missing Man Everatt's maths lesson (algebra usually) waiting for the delivery, get a crate, preferably one of the ones with round section handles and not the square ones that cut into your hand, load it up with a full class load of bottles (+ a few extras if you could wangle it) and then carry it all the way up the drive and up stairs into the classroom.

As I remember it, Stuart was the original form 1A milk monitor with another kid who was such a weakling he couldn't lift the crate up and carry it so Stuart asked me to help him so that he wasn't doing the job single handed.

We also had a monitor job of going round the school every Monday morning loading up the blackboard chalk holder in every room and filling up a dish with "Chalk eraser / blackboard cleaning fluid", - don't know what it was but it wasn't water, - which would have been cheaper and done the job just as well.

[lysander]

ian b....I was milk monitor at Hucklow Road in 1952 ish and remember sliding the crates down the side of the corridor steps...until caught by Miss Tose ( Toze? Tozer?) who gave me one of her piercing looks which, 60 years on, I can still see!

[hilldweller]

I was never milk monitor, I don't think we had them at our school. The crates used to appear by magic just outside the classroom doors. Perhaps the dinner ladies or the caretaker used to distribute them.

One job I had and which I hated was Ink Monitor .

This entailed working at a sink on the staircase and filling a large glass carboy with several scoops of dry ink powder followed by filling it with water and standing there like a muffin shaking the bottle to a calypso beat.

You had to keep doing this until there was no evidence of ink powder left in the bottom of the carboy.

This was then carefully decanted into several smaller bottles with glass tube spouts.

You then had to traipse round the different classroom filling all the inkwells. Biro's and fountain pens were not allowed, only scratchy steel nibbed pens with wooden handles.

The worse part was explaining to your mother why your shirt was always stained blue/black.

HD

[Stuart0742]

We had metal crates, you were ok if you got one with "Round" handles, however the "Square" one had sharp edges and cut into your hands

[DaveH]

We had metal crates, you were ok if you got one with "Round" handles, however the "Square" one had sharp edges and cut into your hands

I mentioned that in my earlier post (#6) along with other things you may remember, - I think the other kid was called Terry.

[SteveHB]

I was a milk monitor, can recall how awful the bottle returns stunk, especially in the warm weather,

when the milk dregs often resembled cream cheese.

[Stuart0742]

We had metal crates, you were ok if you got one with "Round" handles, however the "Square" one had sharp edges and cut into your hands

oh yes, did not see that

[DaveH]

I was a milk monitor, can recall how awful the bottle returns stunk, especially in the warm weather,

when the milk dregs often resembled cream cheese.

Looks like anybody who was anybody at our school had to be a milk monitor then, - must have been part of our education.

[Stuart0742]

Looks like anybody who was anybody at our school had to be a milk monitor then, - must have been part of our education.

I think everybody on SH was a milk monitor except HD

[DaveH]

I think everybody on SH was a milk monitor except HD

Benny Hill was a milkman called Ernie, and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west!

[DaveH]

Benny Hill was a milkman called Ernie, and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west!

 

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[DaveH]

Hmmm.

Videos not embedding properly again

[SteveHB]

Hmmm.

Videos not embedding properly again

[History dude]

School Milk ceased in the 70's. Mr's T was Minister of Education at the time, she became branded "Thatcher the milk snatcher". But to be fair most councils had abolished it before she took office, as much of it was waisted and wasn't being drunk.

Mr's T however can be blamed for something else. Increasing the school leaving age to 16. That caused most of the problems that Thatcher later went on about. Ironically she was fulfilling a broken Labour promise, when the school leaving age went up to 16.

[lysander]

And with a lack of jobs for school leavers the leaving age will, effectively, be raised again.