Thread by @zcobb

Fifty years ago this month I had my own milk round, and was a fully trained member of the farm products supply chain, doing daily delivery of milk, yogurt, eggs, potatoes and more; all from a zero-pollution, all-electric vehicle like the one seen here. flic.kr/p/9rFzX3 1/9

To get your own round with Unigate Dairies you had to complete training and a trial period helping on other rounds. I started in January, 1971, having left school in December after securing a place at university for the following October (see Gap Year en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_year#…) 2/9

Taking time out between secondary education and university was a relatively new thing back in 1971 (I don't recall it being referred to as a Gap Year back then). To get my milk round I had to let the company assume it was a possible career choice, not just a short term gig. 3/9

For me, getting a job as a milkman to fund some time out between secondary education and university turned out to be a good decision. It was a time full of life lessons and experiences that shaped my future. 4/9

When I applied to be a milkman I was unaware that I'd be personally liable for all the milk I took out of the depot each day. It was a cash-only business and if—at the end of each week—you didn't collect all the cash your customers owed you, it came out of your wage packet. 5/9

My milk round was in a low income area of Coventry that had a high percentage of families who received tokens from the government worth one free pint of milk per day per child or pregnant woman (for US followers, an English pint is 20 fluid ounces, not 16). 6/9

In 1971, all bookkeeping for milk delivery was pen and paper and pen, from inventory to billing to payments. That included accounting for government milk tokens and shrinkage (theft, breakage). About 2 weeks after I took this on, the currency changed. npr.org/2021/02/15/968… 7/9

So, you can see why having a milk round was such a great learning experience. I'd just turned 18 and was making some money while learning how the real world works. One thing I was not happy to learn at the time: the man whose round I took over had been cheating customers. 8/9

So that's the next thread: How I used decimalization to end the scamming of welfare mums in one small part of Coventry when working as a milkman in 1971, thus saving my employer's butt while also acquiring valuable skills for a later career in auditing and #cybersecurity 9/9