In Sundays past, we used to post images of old posters that we found images of during online surfing. We always enjoyed the ones that reflect farming, gardening and/or food preservation and rationing. We enjoy them because we often wonder if anyone today would heed the kind of advice they gave back then...enjoy!
We thought we'd see if there were some we hadn't seen before and here is one. This one focused on rationing which of course was more or less mandatory during the war. What we are curious about is how would that go over today? If there was rationing would the vast majority of people accept it? Or would there be hoarders selling on the black market? Would people share or keep what they have to themselves?
Hope you are having a good weekend, it's kind of an odd weekend here, warm, then cold, and foggy, then rainy and then sunny, just blah.
My mother grew up in England during the war and lived there until the end of rationing in the early 50s. My ex mother-in-law grew up in England too. Their stories are so different. My mother said they ate a lot of offal and had an allotment to grow vegetables. They also kept rabbits for pets and food. My maternal grandmother was a professional pastry chef and it sounds like she managed to feed them well. Yes sometimes the food was boring but they did their best. When they moved to Australia and there was no rationing then it was heaven. My ex MIL has nothing but complaints about hungers and having nothing but starches.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the war there were statistics that suggested that the health of the nation had improved. I think I would be okay with rationing. When it comes to food the sad fact is that everyone needs a certain amount. Not everyone can afford fancy food. However, I feel it is criminal that children live without.
In talking to my grandma, since they lived on a farm, they were pretty self-sufficient with their gardens, fruit trees, and farm animals. The only things they had to buy were coffee, sugar, and flour. And they could also rely on the things in the woods - so even sugar was not that necessary because they could use wild honey. My dad told how, as a kid, he would go out into the woods with his .22 rifle on his horse. He would stay there all day, swimming in the creek and playing in the woods. In late afternoon, he'd hunt a few squirrels or rabbits, get on Old Blue the horse, and go home with supper, sometimes falling asleep which was ok since the horse knew the way home.
ReplyDeleteAs for sharing, my grandma caught someone stealing a chicken one night. Grandma told the person that there was no need to steal - that the thief could have just asked Grandma for a chicken and she would have given it to them.
So I guess in today's world, like back then, the good people would abide by the rationing and share what they had and the bad ones would steal and cheat.
No avocado toast? There will be riots in the UK! We couldnt go through rationing again here, people are too entitled. and there was plenty of black market and other people had shares in pigs. Other things of note are that they used to collect any food scraps from houses to feed to chickens and pigs, you arent allowed to feed any kitchen scraps to them now. Defra doesnt like it, they want you hooked on buying feed. it came in around the time of BSE I think. I cant remember now. I have read in the papers over here, that there are people stock piling due to Brexit and that we will have food shortages and food rotting at the ports. I cant see it, but never say never and all that. Maybe we need your rationing sign, as people clear the shelves like the zombies are coming!
ReplyDeleteThere was rationing even in Canada during WWII; my mother has mentioned it many times. I don't know how it would go over nowadays. On the one hand, if it was put into place by the government, it would have a certain weight, but people are now so used to protesting everything I wonder if they would simply protest rationing as well, and refuse to do it. I find war stories to be amazing - how people managed to make do and extend the resources they did have. There were ingenious recipes and much hard work by people growing gardens and raising animals for food, but there was so much hardship in many places. We are spoiled today in having so much choice, most of us are anyway.
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