Home from school - teatime in 1942.
Tom Holloway (xuegx@CSV.WARWICK.AC.UK)
Thu, 6 Feb 1997 09:48:58 +0000
Home from school - teatime for Tommy
The year is 1942, I'm 9 years old and I'm walking the
familiar half-mile from school to my home. Today is an
ordinary day - I had my bottle of milk at playtime and still
had time to go out and play Spitfires and Messerschmidts
afterwards. It wasn't the day when I had to line up with
the others for a spoonful of VIROL, the extract of malt we
have to swallow once a week (which many of us like but which
makes Harry Churchman feel sick, but I think he's just a
weedy type).
As I pass the fruit and vegetable barrows in the High Street
I check to see if there are any orange boxes hidden under
the barrows. Me and my sister have a Green Ration Book so
we would be allowed to buy one each if there are, but there
aren't. Maybe the ship that was bringing them got caught by
U-boats in the Atlantic.
Once home I tuck into my usual tea of bread-and-marge. NOT
like the margerine we have in 1997 - it has very little
colour and it tastes more like grease and NOT AT ALL like
butter. I know there's some butter in the cupboard
(ordinary people don't have a refrigerator, only Americans
and rich people have those) but that's special. I would
*REALLY* *REALLY* like some dripping on my bread (that's the
fat that collects in the roasting pan when we have meat - it
goes hard and you spread it on your bread and it's
*ABSOLUTELY* *WIZARD*) but my Mum is saving that.
The jam ration is nearly gone so I have to spread it on my
bread and marge very thinly. There's a pot of turnip jam we
got 'off-ration' but it isn't very nice so I'll eat what
I've got, so I eat about 6 slices.
Tonight we have one of my Dad's favourite meals. Roast
potatoes (that's why I'm not allowed the dripping) and
boiled cabbage with a 'knuckle' of bacon boiled with the
cabbage. I may even get a slice of bacon too!
Yes, on the whole we're OK. We don't live like the King and
Queen and Princess Elizabeth in the Palace, but we're
healthy and alive and maybe on Saturday I will get an EXTRA
BOILED EGG (one a week for grown-ups but two for a Green
Ration Book).
======================================
Tom Holloway - (+44) (0) 1926 888333
Home: 01926 771772 Fax: 01926 771707
Internet: t.holloway@warwick.ac.uk
http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/chatback/