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Rationing

Was this when large shipments of tinned food started arriving from America? I remember in the 60s a school friend's neighbour - an old lady - still had some in her kitchen cabinet. The plain white labels reminded me.
 
Hi All,

I watched a program on TV last night entitled .Shopping on the High Street during WW11' In my opinion it was complete rubbish. I was alive and kicking during those times and though it was hard we were not on the verge of starvation as the program implied.. I felt that the whole program was a little bit OTT. What does anyone else who remembers those days and saw the program think?.

Old Boy
 
We watched it Chris but I can't comment as I was not around or even thought of then. I couldn't quite understand it myself but enjoyed watching them cook the old fashioned foods like lambs tongue. The looks on the childrens faces when they were given the carott drink and I think the other was cabbage. They wouldn't have said no during the war would they or they would have gone hungry. The only thing not on ration was rabbit and they were cutting mutton into very thin slices and frying it and calling them macon sandwiches. People eating it were quite surprised at the taste. Was not tough either. Jean.
 
Thank you for the photo, very interesting. Fortunately I was not born during the war years but can still remember vaguely the rationing of some things during the early 1950s.I watched the Turn Back Time programme on WW2 last night and my interpretation was not they were starving but eating reasonably well albeit with foods that are not fashionable now.
During the 1980s a huge quantity of EEC corned beef and stewed steak was made available here for distribution to pensioners. I went to the local neighbourhood office to collect my parents share and the queues were far longer than in Lyns photo. The queues I encountered had a far less pleasant disposition than those in the photograph.
 
I am with Old Boy on this because I was born in 1940 and I have vague memories of the air raid siren and the atmosphere in the anderson but I have no recollection whatsoever of being hungry (short of food), We never had the best of anything but we did have what we needed and with dad growing veggies and keeping chickens we were alright. Mom used to turn the cuffs and collars on our shirts when they showed signs of wear, but the shirts were always spotless as were our patched trousers and darned socks.
Ooh Happy Days.
 
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Chris,
I was always hungry then and still am,however, I was known as hungry Horace...just plain greedy.
My belief is,that as a boy growing up during this time,we were fed the best food,of any generation,we just didn't waste anything.
This must stay with you all your life,as an example,passing through Brum a few weeks ago I bought some sea bass in the food hall,as soon as I arrived home I filleted it,and with the head and bones as stock and some leeks and parsley,made a delicious soup.
 
I should admit that i was only just over 2 , when thje war ended, but do remember sweet rationing !!. I think it is correct that the most important thing was that nothing was wasted, whether it be scraps that went to a neighbour's (or in our case relative's) pig, or the fact that you didn't leave anything on your plate. Certainly the records say that no-one starved and people on the whole had enough food. Compared to then, people are wasteful (and , if they really would let the grocer take the communal produce from the garden and sell it back to them, probably stupid). Nothing was wasted then . Anything that might be used to feed people and make life more acceptable was tried. i know from the records that Cadburys , at the beginning of the war had a lot of cocoa butter, which they could not use for chocolate because of lack of sugar, an dfound it made a very good cake. They also found that mangle worzels , cooked to make it slightly less tough, could be immersed in a sugar syrup and ginger flavour to make a passable crystallised ginger - though i think the shortage of sugar prevented this from being carried out. What the program showed was that, people today are so changed in tastes and outlook that thye would have a very big shock if they were dumped into the wartime community
Mike
 
I was born in 1935 and was known in the family as "the mobile dustbin "Id always had a "piece" of something or other inbetween meals most were scrumped, the bread 1/2 inch oneside a full inch the other ,jam,dripping.condensed milk with a sprinkling of cocoa(Id eat anthing that was going)
its only looking back over those years that I realised what a good cook my mother was ,as was other Moms all my mates Moms managed somehow to
feed us kids good meals rabbits ,dupling stews chickens etc .I also remember Mom used to boil the bones and the carcass of the chickens and made glorious soups ,Tom

I never got enough sweets, but Im like that today Tom
 
I lived through the war and remember the garden dug up and veg grown, chickens for eggs, and you had to clear your plate. Ministry of Food had some interesting menus.
I tasted my first banana in 1946, some friends had got it and I was given a quarter of an inch of it so everyone could have some, I'll never forget that first taste.
The local green grocers got some oranges but the queue was 100yds long and only one per person.
There are some photos of 'little me' on the forum and I look quite well fed...:)
 
My parents were married in 1941, they had a cardboard cover over a small cake, as a wedding cake, as there were no ingredients available for real fruit cake with icing.
She had a second-hand dress (my neice still has it) and the rest was borrowed!!
 
As a youngster rationing was still in force and somehow I cannot remember any hardship (mainly I was young I think) but I remember camp coffee in a bottle, spam, stork margerine,powdered eggscramble, I loved them all even carrott cake with carrotts and treakle. Of course I am not trying to say that there was not a great deal of hardship especially in the winter of 47, and of course like many, my dear mom and dad struggled.
paul
 
Hello there, tell you what! people were a damn sight fitter in those days than they are now!!2oz of butter or marg, dripping or lard on your morning toast , I was nine when the war started and "Yes I Remember it Well" Bernard
 
I think this photo is great, I love the little girl on the right with her paper bag,wonder what she was queuing for.
Taken from WE'LL EAT AGAIN by MARGUERITE PATTEN.
 
Bernard67Arnold said:
Hello there, tell you what! people were a damn sight fitter in those days than they are now!!2oz of butter or marg, dripping or lard on your morning toast , I was nine when the war started and "Yes I Remember it Well" Bernard
Click to expand...

Indeed Bernard though I was not born until 1951. I think the general fitness was due to activity rather than the lesser consumption of animal fats and sugars. There were far less cars and sedentary employment,folk walked and cycled and were far more active than today. Diet and inactivity is the only cause of obesity and I have doubts as to whether the 5-7 years of lesser fat consumption had significant impact on the onset of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.
 
John
I think it had some effect, on children at least, as very often early habits stick. My early habit has certainly stuck, though not necessarlly a healthy one, in that i don't like to leave food on my plate . This undoubtably helps to maintain my "comfortable" figure. That said, taking children in the car to school, even only half a mile away is scarcely heathy, apart from being a waste of fuel and depriving children of the pleasures of not being supervised all the time.
Mike
 
Hi Mike
Though a child of the fifties I was always encouraged to clear my plate and like you this conditioning has maintained my comfortable figure to this day. The inference of Bernards post was that the population was fitter on low fat diets, advice that is still valid today though my point was that the period of rationing had little overall effect on lifetime health. Certainly the children would be healthier as they generally are now but the adult population were suffering from much the same diseases as now. I am sure statistical data would show this was less so but there was no NHS and little health surveillance to detect early illness.

How hungry you feel depends on 2 factors, a neurological feedback to the brain from stretch receptors in the stomach telling how full it is and a biochemical one of blood sugar levels. I have noticed those that eat slowly are as a rule of thinner dimensions than those who gulp their food,the former group benefiting from blood sugar levels earlier in the meal. After working in the NHS for 34 years and being controlled with the "bleep" I am a dedicated gulper, perhaps another reason for my ample proportions.,

John
 
John
I'm afraid a eat fast also. Despite the fact that i ought to know better, I don't very much like "healthy " foods. fortunately I hate/ am not keen on a number of very unheathy ones such as bergers, shish kebabs (as served in the take aways) and stodgy puddings. I'll keep quiet about chips, roast potatoes and bagon sandwiches !
Mike
 
Mike
So at the bash when all of the bacon butties, chips and roasties have disapeared very early on we will know where to look...thats if you get to the table before me that is.

John
 
Going along with "a little of what you fancy does you good"is one way, and apparently your taste buds define what is good for you,of course it all needs to be taken with enough exercise,which seems to be laking.
As an aside, on wartime rations,I once went to a lecture by Magnus Pike,(him of the waving arms) well,during the war he was on a commitee that decided what was good for us by the M.o.F.And he said that they had a serious proposal,that black pudding could be made with human blood...it was only turned down on religious grounds...yuk!
 
johndavies said:
Indeed Bernard though I was not born until 1951. I think the general fitness was due to activity rather than the lesser consumption of animal fats and sugars. There were far less cars and sedentary employment,folk walked and cycled and were far more active than today. Diet and inactivity is the only cause of obesity and I have doubts as to whether the 5-7 years of lesser fat consumption had significant impact on the onset of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.
Click to expand...
Hi John, in my childhood it wasnt so much fat, or lack of, the amount we had to eat was far
smaller, my parents spent more on booze than on food, it was no fun going to bed hungry,
when I joined up at 17 and a half, I was six foot and and weighted in at 10stone, the MO said
"Theres not much of you only lengh!!I have been told many times, you can choose your friends
but not your family.My life changed for ever in 1954 when I was lucky enough to marry
a wonderful lady called Enid Turville which is why its so difficult getting over her loss in 2008,
Bernard
 
Old Boy said:
Hi All,

I watched a program on TV last night entitled .Shopping on the High Street during WW11' In my opinion it was complete rubbish. I was alive and kicking during those times and though it was hard we were not on the verge of starvation as the program implied.. I felt that the whole program was a little bit OTT. What does anyone else who remembers those days and saw the program think?.

Old Boy
Click to expand...

OB

Totally agree as I was around at that time as well. I stopped watching the programme after the third one.:)
 
Struth Ray, that proposal begs the question where they intended getting the human blood from. There was a huge shortage of transfusion blood which means there was only one other source...the dead! Illogical reasoning perhaps but Im now off the Black Pudding for life.
 
Hiya uncle alf,
Just read your thread on rations,yes,our mom's were truly magnificent,bless em'.:)
It's interesting there was no points required on fur coats,but there was on frilly knickers...so we must conclude from this that the old saying "she's all fur coat and no drawers"does contain an element of truth.:rolleyes:
 
Like a good many other families, dad grew veggies and reared fowl for food and we were always expected to clear our plates at mealtime. I will never know if that had anything to do with my attitude towards food all through my life. I do and always have eaten slowly and I am always the last one at the table to finish a meal. I have never had a full feeling and can always eat as much as I am given. If I feel hungry I can be quite volatile but if I do not feel hungry you will never annoy me. I have seen so many specialist in my life because I was always verging on overweight when younger, even though I trained regularly at The Austin works and Wilmot Breedon as an amature boxer. I have also had hypnotherapy all to no avail and Since retiring my weight has increased and I have type two diabetes. I have always eaten decent food but in large amounts. Stomach stapling and the gastric band were never possible because they stop you from eating rather than preventing the feeling of hunger. I now use a new drug called Byetta, administered via an injection pen and this kills the appetite so much so that I feel very, very uncomfortable if I eat a meal larger than that which a child would eat.
 
I seem to remember Coconuts and the fact they were only in reach of us at Pat Collin's fair although of coarse we did not stand a chance of winning one.
 
When the war with Japan ended,I was camping in Tewksbury,and the American servicemen in the area had a party in the next field,( the field belonged to the Birmingham Angling Association ) it lasted a week.
They had food we had never seen before,I remember having a case full of oranges....but didn't know what to do with them.:rolleyes:
 
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