Créme de la Créme

An elderly man came into our History Centre today with a milk bottle, the fourth one he's delivered to us although I hadn't met him before. He was a little bit put out that the other three weren't visible because he'd hope to see them displayed together. (I found them.) He's used emulsion paint inside to make it look as if they were filled with milk.

The bottles came from his own family's dairy farm which was the first to deliver milk around the town. Ray left school at 14 to help his mother with the milk round, using a horse and cart. That must have been in 1944 because he's 88 now although you'd never believe it. He's fit and active,  and still grows his own vegetables.
He'was in the army for a few years, went to sea in trawlers, did all sorts before starting night classes in his 40s. Passed all the exams and trained as a teacher, taught history at the toughest school in Swansea. Never had any problem keeping order, in fact the worst pupils were sent to sit in on his lessons because it was the only place they would behave. Clearly he had something most other teachers envied: confidence, authenticity and natural authority. If you could put it in a bottle everyone would want  some.

Sunset Boulevard was released in 1950 so this must be when these bottles date from. The smallest one (a gill or quarter pint) was for cream.

Nostalgia for an old-fashioned milk bottle