Rationing

[maypolebaz]

How I remember when sweet rationing stopped , my favourite were !"Smarties".
paul

I remember when sweet rationing stopped. Everybody went barmy !

I ate half a pound of aniseed balls, (not recommended, one's urine goes a funny colour !).

Maybe it was a local thing but, because of the overwhelming demand, they started rationing again for a while.

 

[paul stacey]

very funny baz, that tickled me pink.
paul

 

[Vivienne14]

Butter rationing ended in May 1954. I remember those Pearks shops.

Can see the attraction of butter, but just don't feel tempted by Stork margarine, Cookeen or Spry. I do remember these products very well. But then I was fortunate enough to not have been around pre-rationing. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

viv thats a cracking pic...i was born just before rationing ended so would not know the hardship folk had to endure for years before this....i bet seeing shop windows displayed in this way was wonderful...must have felt like they had won the lottery...

lyn

 

[jennyann]

Great photo. I remember rationing and Ration Books, etc. Echo Margarine was dreadful. Bright yellow block of greasy fat dyed with natural food
colouring as I remember it. Thanks for posting pic.

 

[jaa]

what a load of fuss about rationing. I was born during the war and all I seemed to want to eat was Weetabix i.e dry Weetabix with butter on or as eaten now with milk and sugar - didn't seem to do me any harm - I survived and only properly started eating veggies when I was 18

 

[Shortie]

I don't think the end of rationing was 'a load of fuss' Jaa. People could then purchase more than 2oz of cheese per week, same with butter and sugar etc. it must have been wonderful. I was born in 1947 so remember ration books, but don't remember having to go without much at all - but then I was a poor eater and could have survived on just cheese.

 

[Astoness]

i agree with you shortie..the people to ask about how hard rationing was is our parents or grandparents if still alive..they were the ones who had to manage bringing up a family on very little not us.. and like most parents if we are struggling we tend to shield our children from our problems and try and carry on as normal....i would like to bet that there were many parents who went without to give their children a little extra food during rationing...i wonder how many of us would be prepared now to go back to those days...very few i suspect...

lyn

 

[Jayell]

I don't remember much about rationing as I wasn't old enough, but I do remember that during the war we seemed to have dried egg powder instead of fresh eggs, and we had minced whale meat made into a sort of hamburger. A lot of vegetables were grown in the garden. We were taken to the sweet shop every so often where our coupons could be used for a bag of sweets and a small bar of Cadburys chocolate etc. and that was a real treat.

Judy

 

[Ray Barrett]

We ate whale meat and horse meat,there was still a horse meat shop in Park Rd.Aston probably after rationing had finished.We had no junk food or sweets, and my opinion is,us growing up during the war were the healthiest fed generation of all.:encouragement:

 

[Shortie]

That is right Ray, statistics prove that the war time food was the healthiest of all. I think there are two reasons for this - minimum fat and sugar, and because of the difficutly obtaining items, portions were small, not huge like people eat today. There was no junk food around, apart from fish and chip shops, but what's the betting if there had have been, some people would have eaten it because they are not interested in preparing and cooking food? I have to say for myself that I find week-day cooking a complete turn-off, but I do love preparing something special for visitors or for special occasions.

 

[Stitcher]

Reminds me of my mom.

 

[Bishopsmate]

I have a ration book of my mother's. I will look for it and scan in some photos. I lent it to a school some time ago but I feel sure they returned it. Will do my best.

posted in response to #47

 

[willey]

Lets salute the stoicism and ingenuity of our mothers as they struggled with the constraints of rationing both with food for ever-hungry children and securing clothing for fast-growing children. They could certainly show the present day "whingers" how to cobble up a healthy meal from bits and pieces. Sorry to moan but its true. Regards. willey

 

[paul stacey]

We will never see the like of this, hard working, and lovable generation again, how I do miss them so.
paul

 

[Bishopsmate]

Following on from post #73
I have found the ration books - they mean nothing to me so perhaps someone can talk us through what happened at the time of issue.
The family ration books are kept in an old folder. It is like a thick wax with thick thread, almost hide like. I don't know if it is plastic or not, slightly opaque and green in colour.


inside are the family's Ration Books and two identity cards - one for my mother and one for my brother - issued in 1940. I am showing the front and back so no family information is disclosed.
Sorry can't upload next pic so will carry on in next post.

 

[Bishopsmate]

sorry as a newbie I haven't really found my way round here yet! lol
Identity cards
I presume there is a picture here!

 

[Bishopsmate]

and the ration books

 

[Bishopsmate]

inside pages
- page 4 will no doubt bring back some memories - I have never really looked at these and when I saw the name and address - oh!yes! some good memories there!









the paper is very thin, brown and has been cut in places - I presume these small squares are the coupons, must've been a nightmare for the grocer to keep track!

 

[Bishopsmate]

and the rest ..........










I hope someone can follow in with some more information about these .......

 

[paul stacey]

I remember as a kid my mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table for ages working on those books about 1950/51, or even slightly earlier.
paul

 

[oldMohawk]

Bishopmate - thanks for sharing your interesting photos, I think the shops cut out the coupons.
I lived through rationing from start to finish and as a small child remember queuing with my mom to get the ration books from the 'Food Office' which I think was in a large white building by the Hall of Memory.
The weekly ration was quite small by today's standards, but I don't remember feeling hungry and seem to look quite well nourished in family photos which I put in another thread. I remember eating thick slices of bread cut from a 'National Loaf' and spread with real dripping. Rationing seemed to work quite well but I remember hearing talk of certain shops keeping items 'under the counter'.
oldmohawk

 

[Jayell]

I can my Mom taking me to Mrs Payne's sweetshop at the top of Villa Road in Handsworth on rare occasions when I was a little girl to buy some sweets with our Ration Book coupons. Don't think we were allowed much. I seem to remember Cadbury's 2d bars for some reason.

 

[trevor bow]

Judging by post #543 and #554, a lot of Cadbury’s chocolate was shipped over to Europe in 1944/5. In 1945 the press cutting is more specific in that it was headed for ‘civilian administration’. Not too clear about what form that would take, but presumably there was some sort of arrangement for its distribution in Europe. Seems to have been a government initiative. Wonder how it operated ? Via the Red Cross ? Viv.

Could anyone confirm that the reason there was rationing after the war was because we had to keep West Germany, West Berlin and perhaps Austria, supplied with food, petrol, clothing, fuel etc, etc. The theory was that if we didn't, then the Soviet Union would step in and supply them instead. That would then give them a big chance of turning the populations I've mentioned, over to communism. The Iron Curtain would then have started much further west than it eventually did.
This post moved to this thread

 

[Richard Dye]

Could anyone confirm that the reason there was rationing after the war was because we had to keep West Germany, West Berlin and perhaps Austria, supplied with food, petrol, clothing, fuel etc, etc. The theory was that if we didn't, then the Soviet Union would step in and supply them instead. That would then give them a big chance of turning the populations I've mentioned, over to communism. The Iron Curtain would then have started much further west than it eventually did.

Trevor, that's a very large & good question! After the war industry in general had to change over from the war effort supplies to civilian. What I do know is that there were shortages of many things like paint, building supplies etc. I'm have an opinion on the politics but I will defer to opine to someone more qualified.

 

[mikejee]

It is certainly true that much was spent in Western Europe to aid recovery, in part, probably, for the reasons you state, but this mostly came from the US. The reason for rationing in this country is that the cost of the war had almost bankrupted the country. We owed enormous amounts to the US borrowed to cover our costs in the war, and this had to be paid back. Repayment was only finally completed in 2006. In addition to this the country still supported a large military force , mainly in the case of possible soviet aggression, and this cost many millions. Immediately after the war most quality items were exported to obtain money to help pay off these debts and support the large military expenditure.

 

[Eric Gibson]

Some information here:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marshall-plan.asp

 

[Pedrocut]

Birmingham Gazette, January 3, 1940….Rationing on Monday.

 

[Pedrocut]

 

[Radiorails]

Bacon slicers were dangerous machines if not used with care.