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Ration book britain

Saw an episode tonight and it was great................ mock duck pie, woolton pie and all the "Dig for Victory" films.

A great, great program. If you can catch it it is a must.
 
GER22VAN, Lived in Ration Book Britain from start to finish how did we survive hope it never happens again. Len.
 
How frustrating when you had used all your sweet coupons up and had to wait for the next colour batch of coupons to come into force. Surviving on Locus beans, licorice root or 1/2 penny packet of cocoa.
 
Len,
Having given this matter some thought,a reintroduction of rationing might be a good idea.
We at the poorer end of society,made gains,we had as much as anyone else,for the first time,our diet was well balanced,us children were probably the healthiest generation ever.Also Len,we never wasted anything,(i still don't).:)
There are town halls all over the country who think they invented re-cycling,they ain't got a clue, we did it instinctively,and for survival.:rolleyes:
On a lighter note, the ration rule that could always make me smile was the one where a bloke having a new suit,had a choice of turn ups,or a waistcoat,but not both...who would give a damn?:)
 
You are right Ray, our diet did improve and sad to say it took WW2 to do it because the millions of unemployed got work on the war effort and the standard of living rose, thankfully it continued to rise for those who survived the death & injuries. Len.
 
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I was talking to my grandchildren about this some time ago and just to illustrate the point, I put out on the table the rations were were allowed per week for a family of four (I still have our ration books my Mum kept everything) - they would not believe me, now they know why I use leftovers etc and still can make a decent meal out of "cheap meat" etc. I also have some receipe books from my Nan unfortunately they do not have covers etc so I cant tell you their names, but they were given out by the Ministry of Food and give all kinds of receipes and alternatives, in these times of belt tightenting they are worth there weight in gold. I never eat meat sandwiches with butter/marg in our house it was either meat or butter and to this day I cant eat both. How many of you remember "dripping" on toast with a liberal sprinlking of salt, I have tried it since and it does not taste the same for some reason.

Dyan
 
Dyan,
There has been a recent book published, full of wartime recipes,my daughter has a copy,shall look up the title and compiler,and let you know.
Dripping is a "delicacy",I still enjoy,but I make my own, usually from pork,well sprinkled with pepper,it's one of my cholesterol fixes.:rolleyes:
 
Dyan, I still like bread or toast with dripping it was a staple diet when i was kid pre WW2 with "hello"! stew ( you said "hello"! if you found a bit of meat!)for midday dinner. Len.
 
Dyan,
There has been a recent book published, full of wartime recipes,my daughter has a copy,shall look up the title and compiler,and let you know.
Dripping is a "delicacy",I still enjoy,but I make my own, usually from pork,well sprinkled with pepper,it's one of my cholesterol fixes.:rolleyes:

'We'll Eat Again' was a good one Ray, I bought it at Duxford about 15 years ago lads took it to school for a project never seen it again now its 3 times as much to buy
 
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Ration books. I remember them well.
My best pal at school lived in Cattells Grove Nechells and his house was opposite the paper mill.
Every so often we would hop over the wall and get a handfull of loose coupons.
Shopkeepers were supposed to cut them out of the book when a purchase was made.
My mom was known to the grocers and butchers on Nechells Green and they would take the loose coupons or if I went on an errand I would say that mom didn't want me to loose the book.
The problem was that while we had coupons we didn't have any money.
Bob
 
Saw the programme this evening very good. Seen some of it before but still worth it.:)
 
Hi Ray

Oh I liked the beef and lamb dripping particularly if it had the "jelly" with it, I am convinced that NZ beef and lamb are not the same as we had - I gave up worrying about the cholestrol years ago - take my pills and pig out if I feel like it seems to work.

Oh yes I remember "Hello" stew too - we were a iittle bit lucky as we lived in Wales during the early part of the War on a sheep farm - now here is a silly story. You were allowed to kill so many sheep a year for your own use and so many had to be kept for breeding etc They used to have an inspector come round to check that you had your required number of sheep - now I dont quite know how it worked, as a child I was not privey to all the "goings on" but lets say the Inspector was due at Jenkins place but he was a "few short" then Pops would lend him a couple (cos we were the end of the valley - Jenkins would lend some one else some to make sure the quota was maintained by the time it got to us we had our own sheep back, bit tired but none the less had done their duty!!! it was worked out with military precision - did the Inspectors know I am sure they did - Nan would send them off with a few lamb chops!!! Perhaps this was the"Blackfaced sheep market"

Dyan
 
I found the attached in an old file. Rationing in all areas went on for quite a while after the war ended. My Mum wanted to spruce up a couple of rooms ready for the arrival of yours truly in September '47 but still needed the right 'bits of paper' before she could buy what she needed.
Coupons & Permits (2).jpgCoupons & Permits.jpg
 
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