Anyone Here Old Enough to Remember War-Time Britain?

[Jedo_03]

Aye
I was born 1946 and we lived in Hendon Sunderland and I remember going shopping with me Ma and using ration stamps to buy groceries.
Funny the things you remember - powdered eggs, loose sugar in sacks that was measured out into brown paper bags... bacon sliced fresh on the slicer on the counter... biscuits sold loose from square tins... broken biscuits on sale at woolies... slabs of cake sold by the pound... going down the off-licence to get a jug of beer for me Da... packets of two woodbines... Housewives Choice and Uncle Mac on the radio... can even remember we had a battery radio and had to take the wet battery to the shop for re-charging... when we were 7, me and me mates found an unexploded bomb on the side of a railway embankment and we all got a penny from the mayor for telling the pollis...
Eeeh - nostalgia isn't what it used to be....
Jedo

 

[jaymar]

I recall seeing a blackman for the first time, an American soldier.All the yanks I met were very generous, always positive when asked"Got any gum chum?".One day just after the war I heard a great screeching and ringing sound, looking round there was a car driving along wthout tyres, sliding all over the place. As kids we had a great time, very few dads and mothers busy working so we could do almost anything we wanted, providing a copper didn't catch you, no PC then, if you were caught doing wrong it was a severe "Clip round the ear". I suppose us old codgers could go on and on(I know,we do)

 

[Paul Chapman]

I still remember my Mum's Co-op divi number

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[White House Workshop]

Whatever happened to sugar paper? Great stuff - really tough and could be used for all sorts of things other than holding sugar from the barrel !

 

[Jedo_03]

I still remember my Mum's Co-op divi number

Cheers :wink:

Paul

Aye - can remember queueing up with me Ma and me brothers in a git lang queue to get our Co-op divi payout...
And the Bethesda church used to give us kids an orange if we went in the Easter march...
LOL
old memories...
tears in yer eyes... eh...
Jedo

 

[lurker]

Jedo,

Welcome to the forum :lol:

You have a great memory :shock:

Bet you can't remember what you did yesterday though :twisted: :twisted: :evil:

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I still remember my Mum's Co-op divi number

Cheers :wink:

Paul

So do I :lol: That was back in the days when it was owned by the members. So tell me this who owns the Co-op now? When they dropped the membership they never paid out any money so they never bought it did they :shock: I raised this question about 15 years ago with my family solicitor, so he wrote a nice letter to the Gloucester, Cheltenham & Swindon Co-op asking "who owns the Co-op" and did they owe any money to my late mother? They did reply but couldn't answer the question as no one knew. Funny thing is they enclosed a cheque for about £70 :lol: no explanations just a cheque. :lol: go on if you know her number get writing, I dare you :lol:

 

[Lord Nibbo]

providing a copper didn't catch you, no PC then, if you were caught doing wrong it was a severe "Clip round the ear". I suppose us old codgers could go on and on(I know,we do)

That reminds me when I was chased by our local bobby, daft really cos he lived bang opposite our house and knew who I was, so what was I doing to be chased? Myself and a couple of mates had been riding cows, rodeo bareback style, great fun :lol: :lol: Those were the days my friend as Mary Hopkins would sing. :lol:

 

[DomValente]

Our local copper, in Euston, London, caught me in a cellar banging a big tin with a piece of steel and a brick( I was trying to open it ) he dragged me out onto the street, slapped the back of my head, kicked my a**e and told me to get home double quick. I ran home and told my dad who gave me another clip because the policeman must have been right.
Turns out he was right, I was trying to open up an unexploded bomb :shock:

Dom

 

[Losos]

This conversation - and seeing an episode of Foyle's War on PBS last evening wherein a black market turkey was a storyline bit - led to my trying to recall when rationing was lifted in the UK.

Hi Bob,
Firstly, a very warm welcome to UKW

As you'll see from all the above responses rationing was lifted in stages. I'm not (quite) old enough to remember the war but do vaguely recall rationing. Yes, things were hard in those days 'tho I have to say (having studied a bit about the '30s depression) it was bad both sides of the pond in the 1930's also.

Where ever I've been in the world and had occassion to meet American service personal I have always been impressed by their politeness and friendliness, and on UKW I think we are always interested in the woodworking view from over there

Here's hoping you'll come on from time to time and tell us about your life, and especially your woody endevours. It's a great place to chat and I often use it as an example on other boards of how people should behave on an internet forum

 

[engineer one]

it is interesting what us old codgers remember. mainly not thinking we are as old as we are.

the mention of bananas reminds me of the number of people who did not know you had to peel them, that the skins are basically poisonous, and the same thing happened on many occasions with avocado, pineapple and of course the wonderful artichoke :lol:

food rationing basically stopped in 54, but of course it was a long time before many things became available in the shops. almost from 1946 until about 1956 most manufacturing was involved in exporting to pay off the various debts and allow the import of stuff, which is why jags were so popular in the states in the early 50's but rather like hen's teeth here, and of course built with everybodies favourite sheet metal, not fiat coke can type, but rather an interesting metal ply which seemed to rust from the inside out :?

at that time of course since we had not indigenous petrol/ oil we had something called "pool" which everybody sold, and that is when the brands started to become popular here. National Benzole was a great brand,
since it was all basically the same, low RON or anti knock rating we had products like redex to improve flow through the cylinder head, and ensure that the valves took longer to coke up.

oh the joys of the regular "de-coke" :roll:

my mum up till her death four years ago always had a store cupboard full of tinned goods, which she knew could make a rough and ready meal on a regular occasion when the money was really tight. i know that the american and south american food parcels were well recieved here. people even liked corned beef( ugh)

anyway back to trying to remember what i did not do yesterday

and welcome

paul :wink:

 

[Jedo_03]

I can remember EVERYTHING I did yesterday...
Me ma took us ower the ferry to Roker Beach for the day - me an me 2 brothers and three sisters... We went crabbing with some old fish heads we found and got 3 eaters... when I was swimming, the waves caught me and dragged me underpants off - much to the mirth of me 3 sisters... me ma bought 2 iron o boats and a loaf of yesterdays bread from Prides Bakery, only she forgot the bread knife so we just had it in chunks... and I fell asleep in the pushchair on the way home... so I can't remember after that...
Jedo

Jedo,

Welcome to the forum :lol:

You have a great memory :shock:

Bet you can't remember what you did yesterday though :twisted: :twisted: :evil: