Thriftlady's wartime experiment

rosieben

My eldest brother used to drink camp coffee but then he was in the army (in the old days of conscription!) and it may have been an improvement on what they drank then.

Camp is great for cakes and icing though as other posters have said.

daisyroots_2

My Dad died of TB in 1946, aged 30, and for most of their short marriage my parents were separated. Recently I found over 200 letters from my Dad (who I never really knew) I now realise that he must have written to her every evening that they were apart. In the summer of 44, my Ma and I were evacuated to Leicester, and he tried to visit her every weekend. She was constantly nagging him for fish. He was far more romantic than her, and wrote such wonderful love letters that I thought this might cheer you all up.

Pretty one, let me devote these few minutes to telling you, not how much I love you, not how much you deserve to be loved, but how I propose to act this weekend. If I get instructions from you, my darling, I shall act on them. If I don't I shall arrive bright and early on Saturday morning, having just reached the limit of human endurance - my honey child, my love, my beautiful, if I don't get my arms around you pretty soon, I shall fair bust. I shall try and bring some fish in addition to the pyjamas you so quaintly insist on - I here and now absolve you from the necessity of wearing any clothes at all

floyd

daisyroots wrote: »

Pretty one, let me devote these few minutes to telling you, not how much I love you, not how much you deserve to be loved, but how I propose to act this weekend. If I get instructions from you, my darling, I shall act on them. If I don't I shall arrive bright and early on Saturday morning, having just reached the limit of human endurance - my honey child, my love, my beautiful, if I don't get my arms around you pretty soon, I shall fair bust. I shall try and bring some fish in addition to the pyjamas you so quaintly insist on - I here and now absolve you from the necessity of wearing any clothes at all

What a beautiful letter, that has made me smile

redmandarin

Great idea, Thriftlady!

My step-grandad would only ever drink camp coffee - I can still visualise the bottle now, (years later) resting permanently on his kitchen table! My nanna (then divorced from him) would bemoan the awful taste of Camp, saying that it was coffee watered down with chicory (plus sugar and water) like they were forced to have during the war, to make coffee go further! She would have non of it and preferred "real" coffee made from coffee beans, not adulterated with vegetables (chicory)! :rotfl:

I've just googled Camp coffee and found this link:

http://www.borkowski.co.uk/archives/mark/2006_03.html

If you scroll down, it talks about a variety of other old products too, such as Izal toilet paper, Pearce Duff's blancmange powder, Fray Bentos pies, Spam, and Angel Delight, that are still for sale and refuse to die (thanks to us old style moneysavers)!

teedy23

I,m always torn between what was best. Is it better now that most houses are all domestic fuel, I mean by that gas & electicity, if you cant pay your bill you get cut off. Or a coal fire, which heated the water could be used (and sometimes was) to cook a meal, would burn almost all the waste in the house, including really worn out shoes ect. but was not so good for the air quality. And why did all the food come with a verbal label "that,ll put hairs on your chest" "that,ll stick to your ribs" would put you off, if it was true did we all have lumpy hairy bods?

Errata

If you scroll down, it talks about a variety of other old products too, such as Izal toilet paper, Pearce Duff's blancmange powder, Fray Bentos pies, Spam, and Angel Delight, that are still for sale and refuse to die (thanks to us old style moneysavers)!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I'd shoot the lot on sight :rotfl:

PS No lavvy paper available during the war, newspaper torn into squares threaded onto string and hung on a nail was..............argh I can't write anymore, too many uncomfortable memories ! Quite a moneysaving idea, though

redmandarin

Hi Errata, me too - I hate 'em!

Thanks for the "toilet paper" info, it must have been horrid!

At least you know where your own newspaper's been, I suppose! My nanna said that she was horrified to discover that some of her neighbours had torn up phone books hanging on a nail in their outside convenience (pinched from public 'phone boxes, when they used to have directories in them)! She was mortified by the idea of having to use paper that a multitude of strangers had leafed through!:rotfl: I don't know if it was during the war though - I suspect it was later on!

sairy2005

Aparently rationing was worse just after the war. Bread was rationed for the first time.
My Mum used to make a bacon and onion roll with suet pastry and bits of bacon and chopped onion in (not much bacon) loads of salt and pepper and herbs too. Then it was boiled some how (we had a range) in muslin and cut in slices and served with thick onion gravy. It was lovely. I wouldn't eat it now as I am vegetarian but then you ate every thing you could get.

Frugal_Fox

Well,

I've spent the afternoon reading the thread. The stories are fascinating, and I think it is so important that our children do not forget the sacrifices that were made for them. Recent history has to be kept alive. This is a great thread and one that I may join in on!

I've checked the points with weightwatchers and for the rations* for one adult comes in at 92.5 points for a week. Not as bad as I thought. II'm going to visit this thread lots.

Thanks Thriftlady for starting it.
FF

* Points : do not include the meat. Bacon has been 'used' rather than a mix of bacon and ham. Milk was semi-skimmed and the sweets ration was for just chocolate

Anyway, just off out to do school run, then off to drop off ironing and then back to take sponge out of oven.

THIRZAH

My grandmother used to make "cream" out of top of the milk. She put the top of milk in a beaker then used a beater that consisted of a round piece of plastic that just fitted in the beaker with a handle. She'd push this device up and down until the milk thickened-it never got as thick as double cream but was fine on pies etc.