And milk came in bottles

to the front door.

My good friend A... who lives in Upover was wondering what had happened to the blue tits who used to peck through the foil tops on the milk bottles. She seems to think they have disappeared. I hope not - but they did make me wonder about milk bottles.

I think there is still a milk bottle in the laundry cupboard. It was put there years ago when my mother washed it out and I have not used it since. You see we don't get milk in bottles here now. Milk is no longer delivered to the door.

We used to get milk delivered to the front door. The milkman would stagger up the path with six pints of milk (for a family of six) each day. Where we lived I would hear the clink of the bottles at around five-thirty and know it was about time to get up. Yes, the milkman was that regular. He had a small electric powered vehicle. We actually knew him. His family had a small grocery store on the other side of the railway line. 

All that stopped when the state government decided we would get milk in cartons and plastic bottles. I can now go to the supermarket to get milk at any time the supermarket is open. What is more there is a variety of brands and types on sale. I can get "no fat","low fat" or "full cream" or H2 or.... just forget it please. Where is the "ordinary" milk?

None of these bear any resemblance to real milk straight from the cow. We had three glorious years when my brother's job each morning was to go to the dairy down the road from the school and get the milk. He would take a "billy can" and, using a "dipper" would take the milk straight from the churn. It was not even pasteurised. Mum simply poured it into a pan which she put on top of the wood burning stove. She heated through, skimmed the lovely clotted cream from the top and we drank it. We drank gallons of it - and we came to no harm. 

You would not be allowed to do that now. Now milk has to come in plastic lined cardboard containers and plastic bottles. The government is working on that as we are supposed to be "doing away with plastic" but the idea that we might go back to actual milk bottles....? We won't go back to milk deliveries. They have gone the way of newspaper deliveries, fresh bread deliveries and more. You can get your supermarket items delivered - at a cost. My neighbours get their groceries delivered to the door on Sunday mornings. I am told "it saves hours". Perhaps it does. 

It has been so dry here I am still putting out extra water for the birds. I wonder what they would make of milk bottles with foil tops. Would they like the milk underneath?