Remember when...

[Viktoria]

A bit short on the fruit and veg.

Well we had a greengrocery shop ,closed during the war as Dad worked at Avro’s .We did not need to buy once it opened again in about 1946.
Rationing carried on for some years after the war ,indeed it was 1952 I think before sugar was de-rationed.
The things I mentioned were in the ration book every person had.
You took it with you to the grocers ‘and there was one for the butchers and little square coupons were cut out as you bought your weekly allowed amount,such as the two ounces of cheese a week the maximum per person allowed.
Other people could get vegetables fairly easily .
Onions were like gold and needed for the very bland food we had with very very little meat.
Oranges  were rationed and we did not have any bananas throughout the war at all.
Such strict control but it meant everyone in the country had the same basic foodstuffs every week.It was fair.
Surprisingly, even with such meagre amounts poorer people were healthier
than in the preceding years of the Great Depression of the 1920’s and30’s .
Viktoria.

[DianaCanada]

This reminds me of my mother saying she made herself sick gorging on bananas after the war.  She left England as a War Bride in Feb 1946 so wondering if they were available by then or this happened once she got to Canada.
I still have her ration book.  I took it to school when we were doing something about WWII.

[Gadget]

This reminds me of my mother saying she made herself sick gorging on bananas after the war.  She left England as a War Bride in Feb 1946 so wondering if they were available by then or this happened once she got to Canada.
I still have her ration book.  I took it to school when we were doing something about WWII.

Here you are Diana -Dec 30 1945.

https://www.ft.com/content/c275b5b2-7a73-11de-8c34-00144feabdc0

Add - and this will take us all back to Pathe News

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/yes-we-have-some-bananas

 

[Mike in Cumbria]

My dad was born in 1936, so was nine when the war ended. He grew up in an off licence corner shop and his aunt and uncle (who brought him up) were able to get bananas when they started becoming available. Of course, they were a real rarity so the first thing he  did when he got one was to dash out in to the street and casually peel and eat it, hoping to be spotted and envied. His pride took a fall though, when a couple of girls passed by and said in a loud voice "That's the second banana I've seen today."

[ThrelfallYorky]

Our school uniform knickers were bottle green - with that pocket, of course.

[DianaCanada]

This reminds me of my mother saying she made herself sick gorging on bananas after the war.  She left England as a War Bride in Feb 1946 so wondering if they were available by then or this happened once she got to Canada.
I still have her ration book.  I took it to school when we were doing something about WWII.

Here you are Diana -Dec 30 1945.



https://www.ft.com/content/c275b5b2-7a73-11de-8c34-00144feabdc0

Add - and this will take us all back to Pathe News

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/yes-we-have-some-bananas

 

Thank you, Gadget, just thought of something - I might have her old diary from that period, will have a look.
I wonder if milk was rationed?  She spent the war years with her aunt and uncle, who had a dairy.

[Jebber]

Sweets and sugar came off ration in February 1953. Meat was the last thing to come off ration 4th. July 1954.

Bread was not rationed during the war, but owing to shortages it was rationed in 1946.

[youngtug]

And milk was rationed

[louisa maud]

That  has  reminded   me, I  have  my  mother's  diaries  from 1925 when  she  was  15, I  will  have  a  look to  see  if  there   is anything intersting in  them, she  told  me  I  could  read  them  but  I wish we  had  read  them together  before  she  died, the early  ones , they  are  very  interesting, she  also  did  a small 6  week diary  of  when her  twins  were born during  the  war, one  not  expected  to  live, but  her  I am with  plenty  of  life  in me

LM