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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.
 
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

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
 
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