Follow-up

FURTHER to the letters regarding bananas (Peterborough), during the Blitz I usually visited my grandparents once a fortnight. They lived in Bow, East London, and my grandfather worked at the East India Docks. He would sometimes bring home things he’d ‘found’ at the docks. Once he brought home chocolate — something I’d never seen! It was very hard and, as I was only six at the time, the pieces seemed huge. I learned later it was emergency rations for sailors. Another time it was ‘burnt’ tea and ‘burnt’ custard powder, which tasted just fine to us. When he brought home some parsnips, these were cooked, covered in hot burnt custard and I was told that they tasted just like bananas! Les Clapham, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.