Memories
Stepping back in time:
M ost of us know the minor irritation of finding the shops are out of our favourite foodstuff.
Few, however, have known the misery of having to go without many of our regular treats year after year.
The British public got a real taste, pardon the pun, of that when nation-wide food rationing was introduced on January 8, 1940.
In 1939, when the Second World War began, Britain had a major potential weakness, one the enemy would doubtless try to exploit.
Nearly a fifth of our meat, even more of our butter and a half of our cheese came from New Zealand.
Between NZ and the UK was a lot of sea or skies that could be filled with German ships and planes, dead set on preventing those foodstuffs reaching our shores.
Britain at that time imported 20 million tonnes of food annually, and the Ministry of Food realised it would have to do something.
There was, firstly, the fear that Britons would panic and hoard such items, leaving shop shelves empty.
They also, of course, wanted to ensure that, as the conflict dragged on, we would all get at least some of what we fancied, even if it was in smaller amounts.
At first, they rationed only the likes of bacon, butter and sugar, but soon added ham and other meats, alongside milk and eggs. The real staples, then as now.
Each house got a ration book and coupons, with pregnant women and nursing mothers getting a bit more, such as a full pint of milk each day and two eggs, rather than one, a week.
It puts not getting your preferred latte or cappuccino into perspective a bit, does it not?
The Dig For Victory campaign encouraged us to get to work and turn our gardens and parks into allotments, while fruit and veg were not rationed.
Vegetarians got extra cheese and eggs, while those who couldn’t eat certain meats for religious reasons were given alternatives.
Fish also wasn’t rationed, but of course fish was never as easy to get as meat.
Around the country, many a Briton tried to enjoy their greens more, because there was nothing else.
Many also learned to fish, as a rumbling stomach is a wonderful motivator.
It would be a long time after the war before all rationing ended.
In 1946, a poor harvest one year after the war ended, led to bread being rationed again.
All of which helps to explain just why we all went so crazy in the 1950s as new freedoms, plentiful food and drink, wild rock’n’roll and many of those other delights were introduced.