For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 03, 2015

Canadians gotta love their bagged milk alright.

We had this in Maryland and Pennsylvania back in the early 70’s. Quart milk bags sold in 4 packs and the plastic pitcher to hold the bag. I remember having to give the pitcher a sharp rap on the table to seat the bag. They proved to be not very popular and I have not seen them in almost 40 years.

In California during the mid-60s, we bought milk in a “10 pack”. It was 10 quarts of milk that came in a cardboard box which had a plastic bag inside filled with milk. The bag had a spigot which you pushed to get the milk out. The spigot could be removed and washed. I guess it was something similar to the boxed wine available today.

Here in South Africa we can buy milk in bags. It is sold in 1 litre plastic sachets. It is very useful if you buy milk once a week or so and store it in the freezer. It is cheaper than the milk in cardboard cartons or plastic jugs. I always buy the plastic sachets because my husband drinks a lot of milk and we do our grocery shopping on Tuesdays when pensioner discount is available. I can remember when milk was sold in one pint and one quart glass bottles and delivered to the front door, We used to put out the empty bottle the night before and the fresh milk was delivered in the early hours of the morning.

LOL…I came to make a comment about bagged Milk..thought it was a mistake..see I was not the only one that picked up on that..I also remember the milk man..Milk boxes outside..summer time ,Milk man delivery man would put ice in box…winter time the cream would be pushed out of the bottle…used the cream on hot cereal but had to be careful not to use all of it..not use to skim and 1% milk back then..remember milk companies started to add orange juice, eggs, bacon to the trucks to increase sales..such memories…

LOL…I came to make a comment about bagged Milk..thought it was a mistake..see I was not the only one that picked up on that..I also remember the milk man..Milk boxes outside..summer time ,Milk man delivery man would put ice in box…winter time the cream would be pushed out of the bottle…used the cream on hot cereal but had to be careful not to use all of it..not use to skim and 1% milk back then..remember milk companies started to add orange juice, eggs, bacon to the trucks to increase sales..such memories…

LOL…I came to make a comment about bagged Milk..thought it was a mistake..see I was not the only one that picked up on that..I also remember the milk man..Milk boxes outside..summer time ,Milk man delivery man would put ice in box…winter time the cream would be pushed out of the bottle…used the cream on hot cereal but had to be careful not to use all of it..not use to skim and 1% milk back then..remember milk companies started to add orange juice, eggs, bacon to the trucks to increase sales..such memories…

I love today’s strip.I can hear Michael saying, “But Mom! It’s all the dog’s fault!”I’ve also really enjoyed the comments.

Here in Connecticut in the 60’s, our milkman offered 1 gallon of milk in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box, which had it’s own plastic spigot.I thought it was a great idea, but it was probably made it too hard to reach other things on the fridge shelf.

Here in England milk comes in plastic 2 or 4 pint screw top jugs usually. Costa Coffee always use the bagged milk though, they bang the jug down to seat it in as well. Waxed cartons are popular here as well, especially for things like soya and lactose free milk.

Surely remember UHT milk from my two tours in Germany (late 70’s, early 80’s). It was common fare while we were on field exercises.

Hey, UHT milk still exists! I’ve not seen it in North America in a long time, but its doing well in Europe. There is also non-UHT long life milk, which comes in similar cartons. Its good for a year or two in the cupboard if you don’t open it, once you open it you keep it in the fridge and it has about the same life as a fresh milk. Good for emergencies, guests, or people who use milk somewhat rarely but in quantity when they do.

I’ve seen bags here and there, but they aren’t popular mostly anymore. I think cans are popular everywhere, milk powder can be surprisingly hard to come by. Milk powder is great for baking or cooking with in place of fresh milk, lasts forever in the pantry or in hot climates and if you don’t drink milk it makes so much more sense.

Can I just say, I love Lynn’s responses to the nasty letters. You can still log IP addresses or send such things to emails, but its not quite the same.

Wow! I love learning something new from unexpected places! Just googled “milk in a bag” :)

Was visiting Hamilton, Ontario, once and went to the grocery store. Very surprised to see milk in plastic bags. To each their own I guess. I sure felt uncomfortable trying to get it into a pitcher.

I still buy my milk in bags today! Just like Lynn states, 3 bags in a larger bag, works out to approx 4 litres for $3.99.

why in the world would you want to complicate milk like that?

We bought milk in a bag in Israel. Cartons or plastic jugs of milk were available, but they also cost a lot more.

I remember the first time I saw the bags, I hadn’t a clue what to do with them or how to store an open one! Fortunately I had a friend show me how it all works, banging the pitcher on the table to seat the bag, A small clip to close of the corner of the bag after using.

I really miss those bags now that I’m back in the US. I’d love to be able to buy bags of milk again.

I also remember little cartons of UHT milk. They were available in Germany when I was there in the 1980’s. And they were also in Israel. I used to keep a box of two in the house for those early mornings when I discovered the kids had put an empty pitcher back in the fridge without telling me there was no more.

Milk in a bag was available in the US for restaurants (commonly seen in cafeterias and diners). They had a plastic straw that was pinched by a weighted gizmo. You lifted up a stainless-steel knob to start the flow. Don’t see them much anymore; milk as a drink in restaurants isn’t as popular as it once was. However, they are still around:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=norris milk dispenser

The bagged milk was one of the things I found hardest to get used to when I moved to Canada. I thought “You have to be kidding!” but my husband who was originally from Canada said they’ve always done it this way and they’re not about to change. Over the 6 years I’ve lived here I’ve gotten used to it. But what was so funny was the first day we were here we went to get groceries and got that bagged milk. I said surely the bags will spring a leak and sure enough it did right on the conveyer belt. I said, “I told you so!” We’ve just had to learn to be more careful. You can get jugs but they’re way more expensive and only available at certain stores.

Hey, I live in Dearborn MI—where we are able to get into Windsor Canada before you can say, “Eh?”Can I purchase a bag o’ milk in Windsor?

I remember as a child in school having to have ‘milk money’ so we could have a pin of milk mid-morning. Milk was delivered to school before school started and left to sit on tables until ‘milk time’. It came from certain dairy co. Didn’t like the taste of the warm milk(still don’t) asked my Mother not to get our milk from that dairy co. because I thought that was how their milk tasted !

I remember eons ago a three sided bag of milk in Brazil. It was quite clumsy. Disliked them intensely luckily they did not last very long.

I wonder if it’s ultra-heat treatment (UHT) milk. That all that I buy now and I can store it for up to 9 months on the shelf. It has a slightly burnt taste to it but when used on cereal and in recipes you don’t even notice it, and once I open it and refrigerate it, it will last for 3 weeks.

Bagged…. milk? That does not sound like a sane idea.

The only time I’ve ever seen bagged milk was when I worked in a daycare center and they would get large bagged milk delivered. The cafeteria staff would put the milk into these machines that I would use to fill the milk pitchers for the kiddos in the morning and once again in the afternoon for snack time. That was the coldest, freshest tasting milk I ever had.

The “last panel” in my story would be me trudging to the store again, with tears running down my face because my mother had just spanked me.

The only place I’ve ever seen bagged milk is in one of those dispensers in a buffet or cafeteria. The bag is inserted inside the cooler and a plastic tube sticks out the bottom which is held closed by a very heavy weight. Lift the weight and the milk flows into your glass or pitcher.

Where I grew up in PA there was a dairy way out of town that sold milk in bags. I remember the light blue plastic pitcher in our fridge with the corner pinched off in a slit near the top of the spout. They also had Chocolate Milk and juice in bags as well. My sister and I were given a sturdy plastic straw with an angled pointy tip much alike an giant orange hypodermic needle to poke the bag and drink from it.Fond memories, and It was also there first time I ever drank a whole quart of chocolate milk by myself paid with my allowance.It was worth it!

Pour it into pitchers while you still have some left. You should at least fill one!

If you learn something new every day, I suppose I can go back to bed now. I had no idea milk came in bags. Interesting.

I’m curious how milk in a bag tastes…. does it taste fresh or processed? I’m in Europe now and we hate UHT milk because it tastes burnt. From friends, the milk in Sweden is quite good, but not in Spain.

Where do they sell bags of milk and a milk store is new to me too!

Never had bagged milk in the US, plus DSS would seize Michael for going to the store unaccompanied, at least these days.

There was a recycled plot where Elizabeth is sent to get milk; then she breaks it because she was goofing around, just like Michael was. The punchline in both cases is that Elly’s kids are unreliable and lackadaisical, and Elly is left with extra work to clean up their messes. This could also be seen in the final panel where Elly is in a stinky mood because Michael made extra work for her, as well as sunk costs. The difference when Elizabeth did it is that she attempted to lie her way out of it by claiming thugs stole the milk. Elizabeth is basically up the creek without a paddle when her mother starts an investigation into the “mugging”.

When I was a kid milk came in bottles, but they stopped that because it was too hard for the cows to sit on the bottles.

I rather have cartons than bags…

Bag of milk? is that something like a bucket of beer?

I happen to know bags of milk are very common throughout the planet. Here in the States they’re known as udders.

I expected an interesting discussion and got it. I first encountered bag milk in Rosenberg, WA, around 1975, and it wasn’t long before it hit Vancouver. Vancouver Sun editorial cartoonist, Len Norris, one of the pioneers in funny editorial cartoons, had four-spigot milk bags (two for goat’s milk) and a man shyly holding a glass quart bottle. “Fenster here has come up with an interesting concept.”.We had a three litre bag break in our kitchen before we could get it in the pitcher. Our dog and cat were coming down with tongue fatigue trying to mop it up..nathan schneider: The boxes were mainly to keep animals from getting to the milk. I never saw bacon delivered, but the rest were. Horse-drawn milk wagons were common through WW-II, the horse keeping up as the deliveryman made his way down the block. There was a Jimmy Durante comedy made about the transition..rhonda90402: 1960, El Campo, TX, there was Moo Moo Milk Store. Their gallon glass jugs had a 2 1/2 inch lid, over which you could fit a rubber hemispheric cap with a spout and vent. It poured without splashing, but I have never seen that design before or since.

There is still milk available in that fashion. I often buy a quart of Gossner Foods’ 1% or 2% UHT milk at the Dollar Tree. Good stuff, and you can’t tell the difference. They have shelf life lasting months and months, and then two weeks more after you’ve opened one. A lady working there told me the trick is to NOT refrigerate the container until a few hours before it’s opened.

I remember milk in one liter plastic bags in the early seventies (Germany). But they were not very popular, because they had a tendency to burst. One could not put them in the shopping back together with other items. The cardboard cartons are more popular.

I’ve never heard of milk bags. Milk containers yes.

Milk in bags, with the pitchers, is available in southern Minnesota, northwest of Rochester.

Here in Ontario we have bagged milk, as well as cartons, etc. The huge advantage of bagged is that each litre is completely sealed with no way of being contaminated until the actual bag is opened. Not to mention that pouring is far easier and accurate as we can make the hole large or small. I’m a definite fan!

In Wisconsin, at least up until I moved to Toronto 10 years ago, you could get milk in bags from Kwik Trip – a gas station/convenience store chain. And you could get nice plastic pitchers with a notch in the top to hold the bag “closed” in the fridge. When I came to Toronto, and saw the main source of milk was bagged milk (3 1-litre bags inside one package), I couldn’t believe that the plastic pitchers you can get to hold the bags do NOT have that handy notch in the top, and the bags just stay open to absorb the fridge smells. I improvised, & cut my own notch in the pitcher.

“…we would probably have seen Elly use a milk bag opener.”

aka: scissors

Can’t remember ever seeing bagged milk. I do remember leaving the glass bottles out for the milkman tho.

Dairy farmer’s kid here: of course milk comes in bags — attached to cows.

Only time I have ever seen milk in a bag, it had a cow attached to it.