Wendy and I are certainly part of that immediate post war generation. WWII ended 1947 and I was born approximately five years later. Rationing was still in force and the government was concerned about the health of the nation.
Oranges and citrus fruits were in short supply so the government provided bottled orange juice. I can still remember the slightly strange taste of it.
Also, I remember having to be spooned some sort of malty/vitamin syrup but I cannot for the life of me remember what is was called, even though I can still remember the taste. Anyone any ideas what it was called?

fabindia wrote: ↑ 23 Dec 2020, 06:04
Also, I remember having to be spooned some sort of malty/vitamin syrup but I cannot for the life of me remember what is was called, even though I can still remember the taste. Anyone any ideas what it was called?

I can remember the three of us lined up every morning each with a teaspoon. Mum scooped out some of that brown gungy stuff and we had to lick every bit of it off the spoon. It was horrible. Can't remember what it was called.
ilona

Was it Minadex?
They were still issuing the orange juice free on the NHS when I had babies, think i was given it while pregnant, with free milk, and almost sure the children did.
It's odd how peoples age can be told by what they remember - OH remembered the war, I was too young but I do remember the Coronation, Everest being climbed, and the 4 minute mile. But I don't think they'll ever get to the moon - not in my lifetime.

Mo wrote: ↑ 23 Dec 2020, 13:57 Was it Minadex?

I remember Minadex, which apparently you can still buy, but I don't think it was the brown sticky stuff we used to get before we started with Minadex.

Mo wrote: ↑ 23 Dec 2020, 13:57 with free milk

Yes we had free school milk even in senior school. I remember being a 'milk monitor' in junior school, which, if I remember correctly, really involved carrying the crates of milk from outside into the school - even in the winter when they got covered in snow

Mo wrote: ↑ 23 Dec 2020, 13:57 Coronation, Everest being climbed, and the 4 minute mile.

I don't remember them but I was a baby at the time!

I hated school milk, in summer it stood outside in classrooms it crates going sour and we had to stay in at playtime till we'd drunk it. In my first job I had a house-share with a teacher who thought the money would be far better spent on text-books etc. At secondary school we collected the bottle tops for recycling. If you went into the biology room (which had a Belfast sink) you could smell the ones that hadn't been properly washed.
At least at secondary school you had a choice, the milk monitor counted up the numbers each morning.

I wonder if it was rosehip syrup you used to get? I'm a 60s baby but we had the warm and creamy school milk, rosehip syrup and haliborange tablets - but I'm not sure if the last two were school or just us. The syrup was lovely but then we didn't get sweets very often.

I remember Liquid Paraffin, yuk that was soooooooooooo awful it made me reach. That according to Mother was to ease you into going and if that did not work then you had some other equally disgusting stuff as well.
I always, always, always, always fibbed and said I had been and as no check was made I usually got away with it.
I remember the warm milk at school too, still hate warm milk to this day. On the rare occasions I stayed school dinners it was nearly always on the day they had prunes and custard for pudding. Now as a child I ate almost everything that was put in front of me, but prunes and custard!! Never in a million years.

Mo wrote: ↑ 23 Dec 2020, 16:34 At secondary school we collected the bottle tops for recycling

I was only in infant school in the UK in the mid 1960s for a few short months before we moved (I was also off school a lot with tonsillitis so I don't have many memories of being there) but I remember there was a huge loosely woven / or netted orange sack pinned on the back wall of the classroom. If you put foil in the bag, you were treated to a balloon from the teacher. I remember putting some in ... of course, no-one saw me put the foil in the sack so I didn't get a balloon when everyone else in the class did and I was so upset when I got home. It wasn't long after my mother had come into school to let them know that the family was moving away and she told me to hand over the teacher the biggest bag of foil that all my aunts and uncles had collected specially for me which filled the sack (I think my mother told the teacher off too because I was given a big handful of balloons as an apology)
Was foil really in short supply in the 1960s?
As for milk in school - I vaguely remember crates waiting outside the classroom with what looked like mini pint-shaped bottles but I don't remember drinking it. I wonder if it was an optional thing by the 1960s? I didn't stay for school dinners either because my brother would collect me and we walked to my granny's house which was just round the corner. The one meal I remember getting was sardines on toast - I'm not overly fond of it now.

They were a third of a pint. We still had them for Playgroup in the 80s though they were stopped in 1970 for other children.

Did a bit of looking round on the internet and it looks like we had 'Virol'. Anyone remember that?

fabindia wrote: ↑ 26 Dec 2020, 05:52 Did a bit of looking round on the internet and it looks like we had 'Virol'. Anyone remember that?

Yes, that rings a bell with me. I woke up this morning with it on my mind. I did think of a couple of possibles but have now forgotten them, a bit like when you can't remember what your dream was five minutes after you have opened your eyes.
I think you may be right, horrible brown sludgy gunge with no taste.
ilona

Cannot remember that, but with a name like that I am sure the taste was going to be bad.