Why is there milk just for PETs?

This won’t be the most long or detailed entry, but I have had a rough week and I needed something to cheer me up. So I was trying to think earlier of funny things about the South, and I tumbled across this silly memory from college. At some point in college I had a crush on a guy named Ryan. I actually can’t even remember Ryan’s last name, but I know we knew each other because we were both student leaders and we were both from the North. I keepwanting to say he was from Pennsylvania, but I think I am confusing him with someone else. Anyway, I digress from my tale. He told me this story a year or so after it happened, but even looking back at it however many years later makes me chuckle.

 During freshman year, Ryan needed some milk. Like most college students, he didn’t keep much food in his residence hall room: Easy Mac, Ramen, cookies, popcorn, drinks, cereal and milk for the cereal. Really, it is amazing the food that college kids can survive on and it is just normal. Anyway, Ryan walks across the street from his residence hall to the convenience store. Granted, it they don’t really do convenience stores in the South like they do in the North, so it was really just a quick stop… chips, beer, soft drinks, cereal, milk and such… all way over priced. Ryan is standing in front of the refrigerator section looking for some plain white 2% milk. All he sees in front of him are jugs and jugs of PET Milk. Ryan found it a bit perplexing that they sold milk just for animals in the store and couldn’t understand why he couldn’t find the milk for himself. So Ryan goes up and asks the cashier where the normal milk is at in the store, the human milk. The cashier points him back to the case… it was at this point that Ryan realized the milk brand name was PET Milk… normal milk for you and me, not the pet kitty cat at home. Actually, I believe it is a Southern brand because I had never heard of it before coming here!

So, picture this 18 year old college freshman, in his ragged khaki cargo shorts, and ripped t-shirts, with longish hair held in place with an old baseball hat. Just picture him there in the quick mart, looking around for the human milk and not the pet milk. And then imagine the look of realization on his face as he realizes how silly he has been. Yep, made me smile to remember.