Rationing WWII

[Ponytail]

[Ponytail]

 

Rationing continued after the War

Ration Book 1947/8

[Lysanderix]

This was real austerity…yet, I read, we were healthier than nowadays…certainly A&E wasn’t as busy as it is today. We had GPs who saw patients and would make home visits…and that was before the NHS. We appreciated new clothes …having saved up the points and ,as children ,our 2oz of sweets still saw us visiting the dreaded school dentist for extractions.

“Make do and mend “was the phrase of the day and my parents, reunited after years of separation with Dad in the RAF , with shortages of everything and forced to live with in laws nevertheless gave me the happiest and most secure of childhoods,,,God bless them,!

[Organgrinder]

Thanks for that Lysanderix.

I remember living my childhood under these austerity conditions. When they talk of austerity today, they don't know what austerity is.

Our governments back in the day did an incredible job of looking after us and our parents & grandparents deserved medals for their efforts to carry on  as best they could.

The more I look back, the more I realise that, compared to back then, we just don't have a clue as to what is really important.

The planet and the people on it, are being failed by attaching such importance to such things as big cars and foreign holidays.

Until humans learn to live together in peace, we are doomed anyway.

 

[Ponytail]

6 month Petrol Rationing Book

Showing 1st and 6th month pages

[Lysanderix]

Any idea of the year?

[Ponytail]

Just now, Lysanderix said:

Any idea of the year?

Sorry, no. Would assume as they haven't been used it must have been at the end of rationing. They were in  "dad's box of treasures" He used to borrow his father in laws car on  occasion. Not sure how that worked, as Grandad still owned and used the car. One for those in the know. 😁

[Lysanderix]

Relatively few people in our neck of the woods possessed a car immediately post war…but by the time of the Suez crisis (1956)car ownership was more common…indeed my Dad had a Ford banger. Petrol rationing was reintroduced so it’s possible these date from the “crisis”.

[Ponytail]

7 minutes ago, Lysanderix said:

Relatively few people in our neck of the woods possessed a car immediately post war…but by the time of the Suez crisis (1956)car ownership was more common…indeed my Dad had a Ford banger. Petrol rationing was reintroduced so it’s possible these date from the “crisis”.

The ration book could well be from the 1950's then, thought it was strange. Grandad had a car from the early 1930's he used it, not to go to work in but for outings and regular visits to family in Carlisle and Stafford. Dad borrowed it until 1958 when Grandad finally admitted he couldn't see to drive anymore and transferred the ownership. 

[Athy]

While clearing out my late parents' house in 2005, I found Dad's fuel rationing book from 1973. He wasn't one to throw owt away.

   Was that the last time that ration books were used in this country?

[Lysanderix]

They were issued after the Arab/Israeli war of that year. I can’t remember them being actually used but time and tide plays on my memory. I can’t recall anymore issues but, nowadays, they seem to let the market price ration fuel.

 

[Athy]

52 minutes ago, Lysanderix said:

They were issued after the Arab/Israeli war of that year. I can’t remember them being actually used but time and tide plays on my memory. I can’t recall anymore issues but, nowadays, they seem to let the market price ration fuel.

 

Yes, that was the reason for their issue. I don't think that they were actually used.

I wonder if they were old stock rescued from a secret government warehouse Somewhere In England, rather as the ancient Green Goddesses emerged into the daylight a few years later.

[MartinR]

There were a few restrictions in force though.  One was that you couldn't buy petrol in cans.  This was a bit of a problem since Mum's Raleigh Wisp moped (which I had the use of) had a half-gallon fuel tank, so we bought a gallon of petrol, in a can, mixed in the oil, and then topped up from that.  For the duration the moped (claimed 180 mpg, but certainly very high) was off the road and Dad had to give the family lifts in the car (1970's mpg, so low).

[Bildeborg]

I don't know if it was rationed (it probably was), but my Mother told me that as a child living in Pitsmoor, she used to go to the butcher and buy (horse?) meat for the dog. It was dyed green presumably as a warning it wasn't for human consumption 😝.

Also during the war years, the rag & bone man would do his rounds and swap what you had given him for a donkey stone for cleaning your steps with.

Regards,

Jay (in Sunny Cornwall).

 

 

 

[Lyn 1]

My mum bought horse meat during the war to feed the family on let along dogs. I don't think it was rationed but obviously proper meat was. . Rag and bone men came round after the war also with donkey stones, goldfish and bouncy silver balls on a piece of elastic thread.  

[southside]

There was a butcher's shop on Hereford Street (bottom of the Moor) that sold horse meat.

I'm sure it was still trading in the early 60s? that's unless my mind is playing tricks with me!!

[Lysanderix]

The only place I knew which sold it  was an establishment on Attercliffe Common. I don’t recall it being died green but by dint of it going rotten it sometimes went an odd colour.We bought it for the dog but, doubtless, even though “unfit for human consumption” some people would eat it.

[SteveHB]

4 hours ago, southside said:

There was a butcher's shop on Hereford Street (bottom of the Moor) that sold horse meat.

I'm sure it was still trading in the early 60s? that's unless my mind is playing tricks with me!!

 

[Athy]

11 hours ago, Bildeborg said:

a donkey stone for cleaning your steps with.

 

 

 

 

Now there's a term I've never heard. I've seen a reference to "holystoning" the step, but I don't think that was in Sheffield. Any idea of its origin?

[Ponytail]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

Now there's a term I've never heard. I've seen a reference to "holystoning" the step, but I don't think that was in Sheffield. Any idea of its origin?

I've heard of donkeystoning, involved putting a white edge to your step. Apparantly a donkey was the trade mark of Reads of Manchester who produced them. 

[Athy]

I remember hearing people talk about a "pummy stone" when I was a boy. It turned out that this was actually called a "pumice stone" and was very light in weight, considering that it was a stone. Whether it was used for keeping front steps clean I don't know.

[Lysanderix]

Pumice is a type of volcanic rock….used, in my case, for cleaning ingrained muck off a finger or hand.

As we are chatting about rationing I am surprised there has been no mention of the black market. My cousins ,who lived in the countryside ,never appeared to suffer rationing to the extent that I , a townie, did. Eggs, sausages and even  chicken all appeared ,as if by magic ,on their plates…..or could it have been because their Dad was the village Bobby.😌

[Organgrinder]

Pumice stone was often used by ladies in the bath, after a long soak to remove the hard/rough skin on their feet (under the heel etc.) 

[Ponytail]

29 minutes ago, Organgrinder said:

Pumice stone was often used by ladies in the bath, after a long soak to remove the hard/rough skin on their feet (under the heel etc.) 

Still is, even though its a shower instead of a bath...or am I old fashioned. Pumice stones last years. 😁