Our unpasturised milk was delivered and ladeled by hand by the milkman into a Billycan left out on the front step. When bottled milk was made compulsory it was 4 pence [4 cents] a pint!
We had free apples at primary school and a free 1/2 pint of milk each school day. Our mother baked all our meals at home - we never ever went to a restaurant. On Sunday afternoon walks we knew our fathers mood - if he was in a good mood we got a 1 penny ice cream - if not then we got a 1/2 penny ice cream! Sweets of any king were a rarity in our household. Aunties spoiled us rotten at birthday times. We listened to 2ZB to hear the radio "Auntie" tell us where out presents were hidden - great fun! We had the advantage of vast empty padocks all around us in Lower Hutt - we used to take off and be away playing in the open air most of the day - or swimming in the Hutt River at Melling Bridge. I got a bicycle when I went to secondary school - needed it to deliver the Evening Post newspaper. Borrowed 12 shillngs and 6 pence from Mum to buy the bike - and paid it back a 1 shilling a week from the 2 shillings and 6 pence I earned on the delivery run. Sure, we had accidents - cut fingers, sprained ankles, measles, mumps, scarlet fever and the like. These were treated as "part of our growing up" and treated mainly at home. No running off to the doctor because a toe was sore!

I grew up on the outskirts of inner city auckland, the IGA van came around to deliver grocerys, you dropped your shopping list off thru the week, the vegie mans truck came weekly, the milk came in bottles, in rural areas in holidays we got it in billy cans. Fish n' chips for school lunch on a friday was like the ulitmate treat (we always ate fish on fridays) nearly everything was home made, including our clothes, Butcher shops were much the same as real butcher shops today. 5 jaffas for a penny. McD's, KFC, etc didnt exist.

remember the family outings to pick blackberries & mushrooms in season...off we would go with a picnic lunch (jam sandwiches, & fruit cake), & pick buckets of blackberries...they would be made into jam, or preserved for pies in the winter...the mushrooms would be eaten fresh, or preserved for stews etc later...

Us kids would go to the local milking shed, each morning, with the billy, & get milk straight out of the cow...still warm, with a thick crust of cream on top! Nana used to have a scoop for getting the cream off the top...when she got a milk seperator, we would fight for the privilege of turning the handle & seeing the milk & cream coming out of different funnels...lol

Our bread came each day from the local bakery....still hot from the ovens...we would each get a slice, with butter & golden syrup melting & dripping from the heat...YUMMMMMMM

The butcher would be phoned with an order, & shortly after the butcher boy would pant into view on his bike, to deliver the meat...poor wee bugger would always have bruised & scratched legs, from peoples dogs humping his leg...LMAO

The only packet food I remember was Jelly, which we had as a treat, every Sunday night with bottled fruit & cream!

Biscuits came in large tins and were weighed as requested for customers, supermarkets hadnt yet been invented, flour sugar etc all had to be weighed for the customer. Meat and veg was the norm and food was roasted in dripping or lard not cooked with oil as we do now so probably the fat intake was much higher than today. Wholemilk was the only option and came with several inches of cream on the top. Butter was the only option as no margarine available in NZ anyway. I remember being served yoghurt in my teens when that first came on the market and thinking it was quite exotic. Most mums baked so there was not the wide choice of chocolate biscuits etc we have now. I can even remember my mother mincing up liver and making dog biscuits