2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

Elisheba said:

2 coupons to declare for tights. Utter waste of money. I needed them for a work thing the next day where I had to be very smart, so bought some from Tesco. Spend the second part of the next day constantly having to pull them up. So they have gone into the pile to be stuffed for door draught excluders. I must try Snag tights next time. 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't I hear mention of some war work having an allowance for stockings? Not being a tights wearer, it passed me by.

flamingo747

@Elisheba Snag tights are such a game changer. I've had two pairs since before the pandemic, still going strong. I must have thrown away so many cheap supermarket tights in the past, even double-knickering didn't work with them. I dont double knickers with snags. Their shorts for anti-chafing are awesome too. 

thriftwizard

The ration was sufficient, but definitely not a gourmet's delight, and those who could produce some of their own food, did so with gusto. Allotments were much easier to come by, in those days, and the Government & councils made more land available; our riverbank walk, now edged with paddle-boards, kayaks & football pitches, was an allotment site in WW2. My mother's recollection of the National Loaf was that her grandmother only made it once, and no-one ate it; Great-Granny was pooling 4 adult (3 working FT) & one teen's rations, plus produce from a decent-size garden (no lawn tolerated! A waste of growing space) and a small flock of backyard chickens (who did eat the National Loaf - eventually) so had a bit more leeway than most.

@PollyWollyDoodle, no, I'm now using a pattern cut out of brown paper round a dismantled pair of very tatty old M&S knicks. I know they fit me! The pattern I was using, an online freebie, only works for me with very stretchy fabric; these two fabrics are a bit sturdier. Currently awaiting delivery of some picot-edge elastic to finish them; I'd better go & see whether I need to surrender any coupons for that! 

ETA: "These goods may be bought without surrendering coupons... elastic" - yesss!

Cherryfudge

thriftwizard said:

The ration was sufficient, but definitely not a gourmet's delight, and those who could produce some of their own food, did so with gusto. Allotments were much easier to come by, in those days, and the Government & councils made more land available; our riverbank walk, now edged with paddle-boards, kayaks & football pitches, was an allotment site in WW2. My mother's recollection of the National Loaf was that her grandmother only made it once, and no-one ate it; Great-Granny was pooling 4 adult (3 working FT) & one teen's rations, plus produce from a decent-size garden (no lawn tolerated! A waste of growing space) and a small flock of backyard chickens (who did eat the National Loaf - eventually) so had a bit more leeway than most.

My mum hated the National Loaf so much that she refused to eat brown bread to the end of her days (less than ten years ago). No matter how much I sold the deliciousness of modern seeded loaves - light and gorgeous - it was 'I don't like brown bread'. Shame really.

florianatwobob

My dad (b1929) said he wouldn’t eat brown bread or granary bread because he “wasn’t a navvy” (direct and oft repeated quote). Although there was shop bought white bread I have strong memories of this being supplemented my home made bread especially in the 1980s. Normally when mum and dad had had an argument. 

Interestingly as dad got older and developed dementia brown bread was slipped into his diet and he thought it was “tasty”. 

And I agree Snag chub rub shorts are amazing. 

flamingo747

That's interesting about the brown bread aversion! Funnily enough my very fussy 10 year old prefers brown for bread and wraps. 

I miss having my gran around to tell me more about her war stories, she was 10-16 during it, and grew up on a farm 

Cherryfudge

flamingo747 said:

That's interesting about the brown bread aversion! Funnily enough my very fussy 10 year old prefers brown for bread and wraps. 

I miss having my gran around to tell me more about her war stories, she was 10-16 during it, and grew up on a farm 

Any that stick with you, and you could pass on please?!  It would be lovely to hear (because a memory is like that) and might give us pause for thought.

flamingo747

I know she went to boarding school, her family farm was on Dartmoor. Some American GIs were stationed nearby and they often chatted to and flirted with the older girls. My Grandfather was obviously exempt from war work due to being a farmer, but he was also a special police officer. She said there was a lot of suicides he would get called out to. She used to visit her aunt in Plymouth and had to go into the air raid shelters there, that was quite early on I think. Oh, and she and her friend were playing out on the moors one day when a german plane flew low overhead, and they laid down in the grass hoping to be camouflaged.  It was so low they could see the markings on it clearly.

Some where I have a scan of a hand-written letter she sent to me in 1991 when I was 9 and learning about ww2 in school, talking about her experiences growing up during it. I found it fascinating, being around the age she had been. My son is 10 and will be studying it in the spring. I need to find it and type it up to let him take to school to show his teacher

Cherryfudge

Thanks @flamingo747! That must have been a scary moment when the plane went over. And the suicides too... so sad. It's easy to lose track of how very stressful and difficult life was.

My mum wrote about her wartime experiences for a school project when I was about ten. I came across it when clearing her house, so I know I still have it... but where?

florianatwobob

My mum was born in 1939 and lived just outside Aldershot. Her dad was a shoe maker and repairer and had a workshop in camp to repair soldiers boots. 

One of her earliest memories was being held up by her dad as they stood on the doorstep, they were watching the searchlights playing over the night sky looking for German aircraft. Obviously they were observing blackout regulations but interestingly her dad didn’t want her to be scared so was standing there so she knew why the air raid siren was going off and what all the lights were for. 

Grandad did also let her carry a dead mouse around in her pocket all day for a similar reason. My grandma was less impressed on discovering it at bedtime!