It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

sammy_kaye18

I'm loving reading all the stories form the war - as a child of the 80's - I was born into more comforts which I am grateful for but my thinking and living old style is always more thanks to my grandparents I believe.

I do remember my great grand father still had his bomb shelter in the garden and it always fascinated me - he lived to the ripe old age of 84/5 I believe and grew all his own veg, never saw waste and was a proper gentleman - I know he served his country and was captured and put in an Italian POW camp and his family believed him dead. He somehow escaped and use to hide under a little girls bed and she would feed him any scraps she had! :eek: I know he was one of the soldiers who use to hide in the Cathedrals roof too. Anyway his family presumed him dead, and posted in the paper he was deceased etc and one day a military patrol was driving past him and asked directions and that's how he was found and brought home - my nan still has the newspaper clipping about him being found and returned home safely.

My aunt dolly was also the rationing type - she had a modest sized garden which i can always remember as a figure of 8 path through it. In one half of the 8 - so technically an o - there was her vegetables and in the other half was her fruit, potatoes were in a box thing in the corner, and she had trees around the edge of the garden. I can remember sitting on her back doorstep at about 5/6 years old shelling peas. :T I loved that - her fire was never lit until early evening and she didn't have any central heating - and she had one bedroom down stairs and the loft was converted into two more separate bedrooms. I remember staying and me, my mum and sister all sharing a bed for body heat whilst my grandad slept with his dog Stalin :eek: If you needed the toilet in the night then you either froze or learnt to hold it in until morning and even then you prayed someone else had been before you so the seat wasn't so nippy!

I do think once holly bump has made her appearance then I will be looking to go back to the world war rationing way of thinking - along the lines of making more food ie bread/cakes/etc , more fresh veg, less meat, and we don't eat a lot of spices/herbs etc so sticking to British produce would be no worries - only wish i had a garden so i could grow some bits and pieces myself! Have also told Ben that once holly comes in the summer we will be walking into town (it takes about 30 minutes) to go to the market on a Tuesday morning if the weather is nice and we got him a bike yesterday (it was his 6th birthday - proves how long I've been a site member - I joined when he was 4 months old!) and he can ride his bike whilst I push Holly's pram and all he asked for was if we could buy some strawberries and he would carry them in his backpack. :T:T:T

maryb

ceridwen wrote: »

That would have been quite easy to do - I've read of doctors in recent times putting a more "politically convenient" cause down on a death certificate - rather than the real cause of death. Hence I'm sure this would have happened to an even greater extent in wartime and shortly thereafter. All they would have had to do is put down an illness that the person had at the time of death anyway and that could POSSIBLY kill someone - knowing very well that the person would have probably survived this illness if they had had a good diet in the first place. Easy to cover up and no need for the Government to get involved in lying at all - all done for them.

Also it would have been 'shameful' to have starvation as a cause of death. I know that TB was more often thought shameful than romantic because it was associated with poverty much more in real life than with beautiful young girls wasting gently away. Doctors often used to do what they could to spare the feelings of the relatives

maryb

Has anyone read the Thrush Green and Fairacre books by Miss Read? She was brought up in Chelsfield in Kent, not far from us and I read her autobiography out of interest. The country life she describes is a bit different from the idyllic picture she paints in her books (though to be fair they were set in the 1950s onwards) She said that at her village school in the 1930s a lot of the children only brought a hunk of bread for lunch with maybe a bit of dripping and, if they were lucky, a plum or an apple in season from the tree in the garden. Even in the country they often didn't have fresh milk only tinned

taplady

thanks to all the interesting posts here I've just been and reserved the Austerity Britian book at the library!:):T should get it next week!

BitterAndTwisted

dubgirl wrote: »

I was wondering what people think as to the likely rise in VAT, I am convinced it is going to be increased, what will happen to the food prices then, let alone anything else!

I think it's unlikely that VAT will be levied on basic food-stuffs as it's exempt at the moment and if the govt. decided to levy VAT I reckon there will rioting in the streets. Some foods do attract VAT but they are ones deemed "luxuries". So cakes and chocolate biscuits are luxuries and attract VAT but carrots are not luxuries and therefore don't.

mardatha

..what about carrot cake ? LOL !

BitterAndTwisted

I think you know the answer to that Mardatha, you teaser! The things which do attract VAT are often marked with an asterisk on the till receipts, aren't they? At least some of the supermarket ones have that, I think.

ceridwen

maryb wrote: »

Also it would have been 'shameful' to have starvation as a cause of death. I know that TB was more often thought shameful than romantic because it was associated with poverty much more in real life than with beautiful young girls wasting gently away. Doctors often used to do what they could to spare the feelings of the relatives

A good point that:T I suppose we have all got very used to the fact that nowadays very very few illnesses are regarded as "shameful" and it seems a really odd idea to us. I seem to recall cancer was apparently regarded as "shameful" at one point? (errr...why? <puzzled smilie>). So it may well be that some of the "cover up" was done for the best of motives - if not ones we would either understand or agree with nowadays.

charlies-aunt

taplady wrote: »

thanks to all the interesting posts here I've just been and reserved the Austerity Britian book at the library!:):T should get it next week!

Its big thick un taplady - its certainly building up my arm muscles when I read it in bed on a night Hope you enjoy reading it too.My library copy has some wonderful blacd and white photos too - really fascinating. I did notice that the people in the photos do look quite thin compared with modern times.

Looks like we're heading for austerity again if David Cameron gets his way.....:cool:

ceridwen

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I think you know the answer to that Mardatha, you teaser! The things which do attract VAT are often marked with an asterisk on the till receipts, aren't they? At least some of the supermarket ones have that, I think.

:rotfl::rotfl: But we'd all miss Mardatha if she no longer "visited " MSE:D:rotfl::rotfl: