When I moved away from home in 1980 I took board & lodging in a couple of different residences with different landladies. One provided breakfast & dinner, the other breakfast & sandwiches for lunch. The 1st one didn’t believe in fresh milk, quite a rude shock for a young fellow coming straight from a dairy farm. She would mix Carnation evaporated milk with too much water, it was really horrid. You put this on your cereal each morning and it went soggy & sloppy far too quickly.
The 2nd lady served oatmeal porridge but made it thick with water, oats & a pinch of salt, leaving us to thin it out/cool it with skim milk, evil & horrible stuff.
On the dairy farm I came from we made it properly: the liquid component was ⅓ water/ ⅔ whole milk and it was served with cream & a choice of sweeteners: cane sugar, honey or golden syrup.
Proper thick, creamy & rich in taste & texture.