Dear LPG, 

I am pretty confident that any pensioner who grew up and went to school in this country will remember when half-way through each school day morning everything stopped while every pupil got a small bottle of milk to drink.  That became law in 1946 and continued until Margaret Thatcher stopped it in 1971.

Another thing that is missing from our early mornings is the clatter of the bottles as the milkman delivers from house to house in the small hours. I know many a person who used that sound as their wake-up call back in the day, but more car trips to the supermarket and the lower cost per pint available when you get there, has forced so many people to give up entertaining that practise.  Over the years milkmen and women have tried selling eggs, bread, and other things, and during the pandemic the internet tells us that they made a bit of a resurgence, but it remains to be seen if that continues now that ‘lockdown’ is becoming a word assigned to history.

We all know so much more about allergies these days and a bit of internet research informs that dairy products are right at the top of the list.

So now we go out for our milk and there are so many varieties.  Whether we go to the supermarket or still get it delivered, we all have our favourite coloured top if you know what I mean.  I regularly pop to the shops for a couple of my neighbours, and I know which colour each of them like best.  There is the blue top version with its full fat, the green semi-skimmed variety. Then, if you really want to spoil yourself there is always the gold top Jersey & Guernsey milk with the red topped skimmed milk coming in at the bottom of the list.  I always remember school milk with its silver top though which meant that all of us school children got the whole, unhomogenised version.

These days there are so many more varieties.  Me and my tooth (which is much too sweet) are very partial to condensed milk, while for creamier tastes there is evaporated.  It has to be said that the cow never really had the monopoly of supplying it for us with sheep, goats and quite a few other animals sharing their supply, and now we have all manner of plants and nuts getting in on the act with oats, almonds, coconuts, and even rice versions in the shops.   I also doubt that there are many households where there isn’t a jar of Coffeemate, or some other powdered version of milk designed to whiten a nice hot cuppa somewhere at the back of a cupboard just in case you run out of the liquid stuff.

We have always been told milk is good for us so whether you get yours with your breakfast, the cups of tea and coffee you have each day or disguised in yoghurt, custard, or cheese, you can’t go wrong with a daily dose and these days we are spoilt for choice really… 

JW, New Cross. 

JW shares a little of what she learned about milk on the internet…

(►►►)      (►►►)     (►►►)    (►►►)