Thank you Thatcher
The worst ever is the free milk we used to get at school in the mid seventies.

Small foil topped bottles that came with a straw that you pierced the foil with and supped up the goodness inside. The milk was delivered in crates that would be left outside.

I hate milk, can't stand the taste. To me it tastes a bit like vomit. I will have it in tea, on cereal etc, anything as long as the taste is disguised.

But the worst thing was we used to get given the milk late morning. In the summer this would mean that the milk had been sat in the sun for maybe up to six hours. Going off and curdling. The taste was appalling.

If you didn't drink it you were told off (sometimes smacked, this was the seventies after all), even sent to the head teacher. No human rights acts in those days. No parents who would phone the school up and say "Now hang on a minute . . "

But then it stopped. I've heard the rhyme "Thatcher Thatcher milk snatcher". Not sure if this is true or not, but if it is then I salute her.
(Bitter and Twisted, Fri 27 May 2011, 0:59, 15 replies)

left outside in mid winter as well
so the snow-hidden crate would contain fungus-like rising columns of iced milk with a foil cap at the summit crowned by a perfect cone of snow.

Not nice warm yet even less nice when defrosted and 'separated'.

I did however find that if you weren't allowed to go out to play until you had finished your milk, if you bagged two 2mm bore straws instead of one you could suck it up very quickly indeed. A potent symbol of Ohm's Law that I would come to recognise in later life.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 27 May 2011, 1:45, closed)

I'm the same
Well, worse maybe, because I don't have milk in anything, even cereal. I still have a memory of my younger brother vomiting warm school milk. Put me off for life.
(McChinaman banned, Fri 27 May 2011, 2:37, closed)

Same here!
Thanks to vom inducing thatcher milk I'm now mid thirties and I drink my coffee black, have cereal dry and never ever have cream or anything similar on puddings.

Have you ever tried explaining to a minimum wage foreign waitress that you're sending the apple pie back to the kitchen because you specifically asked for it not to be covered in cream!? Sometimes its easier to miss pudding and get a mars bar on the way home!
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 27 May 2011, 10:19, closed)

Starving Africans
I was put through the same ordeal in the mid to late seventies too.

I didn't get smacked, the teacher just shouted at me then ordered me to pour the barely sipped udder juice down the sink while screaming "There's children dieing of starvation in Africa you know".

As I never saw the sink in the corner of the classroom used for anything else, I became convinced that this was the way we sent our undrunk milk across the globe to help feed the world.
(gruntycunt cock off you cocking cockster, Fri 27 May 2011, 7:38, closed)

You deserved the smackings.
You pathetic wimp.
In the summer our milk used to get put in the shade and was drunk straight after assembly.
In the winter, having icy milk just toughened us up.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Fri 27 May 2011, 7:51, closed)

I LOVED the school milk as I wasn't allowed to drink milk at home.
True story.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 27 May 2011, 8:21, closed)

She stopped free school milk in about 1971.
The stuff you got in the mid-seventies was after that (and probably under a Labour government) so either you were very young (I think it was still free to nursery/reception kids), on povvo vouchers, or you paid for it.

/dull history lesson of the day
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 27 May 2011, 8:56, closed)

Didn't know that
I was born right near the end of 1972 and remember those milk bottles at school. Unless the whole class was on povvo vouchers then I guess the 'rents must have paid for it.
( Afinkawan Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango, Fri 27 May 2011, 9:38, closed)

Weird
I was born in 1977 and the whole class had the naff milk at nursery and reception years which would have been 1980/1981, no way my parents would have paid for it as I didn't like it!
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 27 May 2011, 10:27, closed)

Hmm
This would have been 76/77 ish. My parents would not have paid for it. Mind you this was in the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire so maybe the council paid for it.
(Bitter and Twisted, Fri 27 May 2011, 19:51, closed)

Not in Scotland

(McChinaman banned, Fri 27 May 2011, 15:49, closed)

Nonsense!
I was only born in '73, and the whole primary school class got free milk daily all the way through juniors (age 8 or 9). England.
( Fronds are waving gently on, Sat 28 May 2011, 18:13, closed)

Our crates got left on the radiator in the winter so we had the lukewarm stuff all year round. Disgusting.
To this day I will not drink milk unless it has been heavily disguised with some other flavour, usually strong coffee.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 27 May 2011, 9:38, closed)

The silver top was all right, except in mid summer
The gold top was retchworthy all year round. I still can't go near the stuff without gagging, and drink skimmed milk these days.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 27 May 2011, 13:44, closed)

I never understood the "eat/drink this or else" mentality. My mum tells the school milk story thus: every morning she was forced to drink lukewarm, separated milk, and more often than not she would have to excuse herself from class to go throw it up again. Surely in this day and age it would be considered child abuse?
(Burnside79, Sat 28 May 2011, 8:13, closed)