Down Memory Lane

How many of you remember school milk?  How can some of us forget?  It arrived from the dairy in third of a pint bottles and we would each gulp down a bottle at the morning break.

Or at least that was the theory. At my secondary school a few of us took great exception to being expected to do the work of school staff, particularly on wet days.  We had to move the crates from the drop-off point by the school gates to allocated locations around the playground.  At the end of the morning break bottles had to be collected and the crates returned to the school gates.

It became apparent that a wheeze was on. Some mornings we would be a few bottles missing, one morning we were a complete crate short.  The crate 'disappeared' as we worked on the assumption that the dairy did not count the empty crates.  However after a few weeks the dairy noted that it was missing a lot of bottles and at school assembly there was a stern message from the Head that bottles had to be returned.

Of course the dairy had no idea where the bottles were being lost and similar messages were delivered to pupils at other schools.  Were we all at it?

It was decided that we should end our little prank.  No more was said.  However, a few months later at the height of a very hot summer a dreadful smell emanated from under the floorboards of one of the wooden huts.  The caretaking staff sprang into action and over four hundred milk bottles were liberated and returned to the dairy.

Not a word was said, but after the discovery pupils never again transported the crates.