2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

florianatwobob

During the the war (and before) my auntie used to get her brother’s hand me down boots, and when my auntie had grown out of them they got passed down to my dad. My auntie hated boots all her life and longed for a pair of girls shoes when she was growing up. 

thriftwizard

Mum's grandfather was Chief Engineer of a paper mill, a "protected" job in wartime, and another of her memories is feeling sorry for the "rag pickers" who sorted the incoming rags into "grist for the mill" or "shoddy" - it was a dirty & sometimes hazardous job, as only the most worn & dirty clothes were thrown away. I do wish we could record all her wartime tales; she did start to write them down, but can hardly handle a pen now & has forgotten how to use her iPad, sadly. We've heard them all many times, but it's interesting how our memories don't quite coincide on the details; this is how oral history turns into stories & ultimately gets lost.

TwibbleDee

I might have given up on catching up on this thread.  I was given a few new jackets/coats that were my husband's ex-wife's stepfather's (yeah, let's not actually try to figure out the drama with that side of the family).  I still need to go through my closet and purge, and I should do that here pretty quickly as the ladies at one of the recovery programs could use more clothing before it gets cool out.

It's finally cool enough I can go sit in the park at any time of day without frying. I'm taking my laptop to the park in the mornings and working there, when I can.  

I even spent last weekend at the beach (by which I mean, 3-4 hours each day at the beach itself, then the rest meandering) and didn't fry.  

flamingo747

@thriftwizard could you record them on your phone with the voice recorder app and then transcribe them?

Liverpool_Anne

@thriftwizard I know locally there is an oral history project run by one of the museums who record all sorts of local memories that has been going for quite a few years, maybe there is something similar near you that could help.

 I remember my Mum, who worked in a munitions factory during the war saying she rarely had new clothes and would often as a child only have second hand clothes. My sister, who was born during the war told me she only had 1 school shirt which she washed every night when she got home from school and ironed the next morning before putting it on. I also remember when I was a child in the 50s and early 60s there was a second hand stall at the market that I had clothes from. My Mum did a lot of knitting and sewing and made a lot of her clothes. I also know that until she died, despite having a draw full she only used 3 pairs of knickers at a time, rotating them round by hand washing them daily. She was one of the most frugal people I have ever known but tried to buy good fabric and wool. When I cleared her wardrobe she had 3 lovely wool skirts that I remember her wearing from when I was a child and if they had fitted me I might have kept. What I did keep were the blankets, woolen and quite itchy but warm. I seem to remember a thing called utility blankets and sheets that had a CC sort of mark on them and they lasted ages so must have been good quality fabric. Talking to an older neighbour only today who told me about her fil who had a never been used sheet that he was keeping to be buried in that he had had from during the war. He died several years after the war in hospital so the sheet was never used for it's intended purpose. I think there must have been a trade in second hand clothes and sheets etc. during the war just as there is today via cs and vintage sellers. 
Take care everyone

flamingo747

Very interesting,  thank you @Liverpool_Anne

Cherryfudge

I'm finding these memories fascinating. I'm fairly sure utility blankets were a 'thing'... where did I hear that?

My mum told me a lot of her things were passed on to the girl next door (who she couldn't stand), and that included toys my mum would have preferred to keep. I'm sure there would have been a massive market for second hand goods, but also they may have been scarcer than now as the textile industry was less throw-away and many other industries produced less, because as much as possible was channelled into the war effort.

ETA: it looks as though utility blankets with the CC mark did indeed exist. The Imperial War Museum had one in their collection but the image has disappeared. Utility blanket | Imperial War Museums (iwm.org.uk)

PollyWollyDoodle

I'm sure we had some of these when I was growing up (1960s).  Along with sides-to-middled sheets, lino on the floor, and a shiny satin quilt that always fell off the bed in the night! 

flamingo747

We could do with price controlled quality goods now!

Cherryfudge

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I'm sure we had some of these when I was growing up (1960s).  Along with sides-to-middled sheets, lino on the floor, and a shiny satin quilt that always fell off the bed in the night! 

Haha, I remember that era! In fact I went to a museum once where a post-war prefab had been reconstructed. I knew it hadn't been done by someone who had lived through those times, because the blanket was folded over the end of the bed instead on being between the sheet and the quilt (all of which would have been under a candlewick counterpane in my childhood).

I wonder why the counterpane went over the shiny quilt? Those quilts could be really pretty, so I suppose it was for protection.