Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

What was GLB please? I have tried to google it but without success ☹️

[Deleted User]

I think it was the Girls Life Brigade which was a weekly uniformed society for girls and there was a Boys Life Brigade too, akin to guiding and scouts.

Bigjenny

Girls Life Brigade.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23885771@N03/14070806801

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

MrsLurcherwalker said:

I think it was the Girls Life Brigade which was a weekly uniformed society for girls and there was a Boys Life Brigade too, akin to guiding and scouts.

Bigjenny said:

Girls Life Brigade

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23885771@N03/14070806801

Thank you both so much. Not something I came across in my youth. I wanted to join the Brownies but was told I was just about old enough to join the Girl Guides ☹️ You can probably guess from my wording that I never bothered 🤭 

PipneyJane

Suffolksue said:

I’m Jealous ,desperately wanted to go to camp ,but my father wouldn’t allow it !
he didn’t believe in girls riding bikes either ,so I learned at 40.
i was a fairy at the Annual Show at the Royal Albert Hall in about 1958 ,
still have the programme.

monnagran said:

Sue, those Albert Hall Shows were great, weren't they?  We used to go up to London for the weekend and enjoyed the Saturday shows, but we often played truant from the Sunday service at Westminster and slid off for a bit of sight-seeing.
I was lucky.  My mother was the captain of our company (18th Southampton) and she was a rebel of the first order, so we got up to all sorts of unauthorised fun.
You must have come a bit after me.  My last London Weekend was about 1956.

Sorry everyone for the private reminiscences.  It's so nice to come across someone who shares some of my childhood experiences.

Please don’t apologise for any of your reminiscences, either of you.  They light these boards up.

- Pip

Blue_Doggy

Brambling said:

I remember having to learn land of hope and glory for a primary school concert mid 1970s and my dad taught me another version, I don't remember it now but something about land of soap and water, mother washed my feet father......  didn't make me popular with the already temperamental music teacher as the wrong words got stuck in my head 😳 and I'm tone deaf!

My mum had a version similar to your dad’s:
”Land of soap and water,
Mother, wash my feet,
Hurry up and dry them,
I want to play in the street.”
 

There was probably more, but I’ve forgotten it now, if I ever knew it.
 

There was also (and also from my mum)
”God save our old tom cat
Feed him on bread and fat
God save our cat...” 
(you can probably guess the tune!)

Hughesfamily

Can I just thank you for this thread. I'm 48 but was raised by my grandparents so lots of these stories are little flashlights into my childhood where I was learning things without realizing it. I love the stories, more please!!

Eenymeeny

Can I share a story told to me by an elderly gentleman a couple of days ago? He said he was courting a young lady (who he later married) and didn't know what to buy her for her birthday. His mother suggested a hairdryer as they were a pretty new invention at the time and she thought that the young lady would be thrilled with the gift. He proudly presented the gift to her, only to discover that her parent's home didn't have electricity and water had to be carried from a tap in the yard!
 I'm guessing that this would have been in the '40s and having modern conveniences in the council house where they lived he hadn't thought that people still lived like that! 

monnagran

O boy, Hughesfamily, you know not what you are saying.  I have reached the age where I have stopped lying about my age and started boasting about it, and can wander down memory lane without any prompting at all. Most people on here have heard my stories, probably more than once, but here is a whole new audience.  Hughesfamily you have made my day!

However, you have been granted a reprieve.  It is getting close to the time I must drag this ancient carcass off to bed.  I must go and give my typing finger a rest, (I only use the one) ready for action tomorrow.

Suffolksue

Minna ,I too ,love your reminiscing!
will try and think of some more GLB memories, life is a bit grim at the moment so a little short of time