This is an opinion column.

M y momma was in her late 30s when I was born and didn’t have milk to feed me. Apparently, my older brother and two sisters before me had taken it all. The doctor recommended she give me baby formula which was gaining popularity with new mothers in the late 1960s.  

However, the Enfamil ready-to-feed mixture gave me the “colic” horribly and it was said I cried non-stop for days. Momma switched to plain old whole milk trying to soothe me, but said I just couldn’t keep it down for more than few minutes. By the time I was a month old, she said I weighed less than what I did the night I was born which was nine pounds even. She cried and prayed and took me back to see the doctor.  

Old Dr. Finley in Guntersville gave her a recipe for a homemade formula which included Karo syrup, water and Carnation evaporated milk. She said I drained that first bottle dry and slept good for the first time in my short life.  I began to put on a few pounds and Momma said she felt better about my health.  

One day, however, when I was around three months old, my family went to visit my grandpa and grandma Morrow. Momma put my bottle in the diaper bag, but forgot the Mason fruit jar in the refrigerator with my formula mixture in it. She said she panicked when she got to her parents’ house and realized that she had nothing to feed me.  

Grandpa never said a word, she told me. He just took the empty bottle from her and filled it to the brim with whole-fat buttermilk. He took out his pocket knife and cut a larger hole in the bottle’s nipple so the thick liquid could flow through it and then handed it back to her. According to Momma, I smiled the entire time I was drinking that bottle! I loved buttermilk so much she continued to feed it to me until I was old enough to survive on solid foods. Yes, I was a fat, sassy baby but also a very healthy one!

My grandpa drank milk in any form or fashion. He loved buttermilk and whole milk, too. Back in the late 1960s, the PET Company made homogenized milk in half-gallon red and white cartons and that was his preferred brand. He said it “tasted better” than the ones made by other manufacturers. So, of course, that’s the only “sweet” milk I wanted to drink as well because he was my hero. Momma sometimes bought another brand of milk for us at home, but I agreed with Grandpa… it just didn’t taste as good as the PET.  

Back in those days, milk was served at mealtimes like tea and soda are today. It was the customary drink at our house and I loved the pure, white liquid with anything Momma cooked… from beans and potatoes to biscuits and gravy. Like my grandpa, I loved “sweet” milk and buttermilk both.  

Today, there are approximately 9.2 million cows in the U.S. dairy herd and the annual production of milk in the United States is about 17.2 billion gallons. Those numbers are considerably down over the past thirty years because of the decline in milk drinking. Young people today just don’t consume milk like we used to…they reach instead for the large variety of other options readily available to them. 

Harvard University researchers have taken a look in recent years about the relationship with dairy products and general good health. The calcium, potassium and magnesium in milk help lower the risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke. It has also been shown to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, hypertension, kidney stones, tooth decay and colon cancer.  

In the early 1990s, an American advertising team launched the famous commercials of celebrities sporting a white moustache with the phrase “Got milk?” The promotion was intended to not only increase milk sales but to also boost public awareness to the benefits of drinking the dairy product. The Federal Trade Commission, however, put an end to them stating the claims were “false and misleading”. 

Like Grandpa Morrow, I am a firm believer that milk is absolutely beneficial to a healthy lifestyle. It’s packed with important nutrients and just “does a body good”.  

My love of milk has continued on into my adulthood and I still drink it every day. I like a splash of it my morning coffee, a glass of it with a tomato sandwich at lunch and a bowl of it with cornbread in the evenings. Sweet milk is good….but oh, that buttermilk is really, really good! 

Sandy Holsonback in a guest columnist for The Reporter.

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