Click2History - Children In War, A Rationing Way of Life, Chapter 4 - Hard Times

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>CHILDREN IN WAR</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 4 - HARD TIMES</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3"><a href="http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Large%20photo%20pages/ekeout.html" target="_blank"><b>Conditions</b></a> in <a href="http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/museum/ration.htm" target="_blank"><b>Great Britain</b></a>, during World War II, were much more <a href="http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Museum%20Docs/foodration.html" target="_blank"><b>desperate</b></a> than they were in America. During summer, children <a href="http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Large%20photo%20pages/digposter.html" target="_blank"><b>worked</b></a> on farms and people <a href="http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Large%20photo%20pages/gardenanderson.html" target="_blank"><b>grew crops</b></a> anywhere they could find space. Still there was not enough food.</p> <p>A British schoolboy describes the effects of <a href="http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/roots/packages/war/war_e07a.htm#ration" target="_blank"><b>rationing</b></a> on school meals:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>went from mediocre to unspeakable. We had mincemeat, potato or cabbage, some kind of milk pudding, a lot of stodge, with sauces that became more and more watery At one stage lunch consisted of rather watery soup, based on onions, followed by hunks of bread and cheese that was our economy measure. Good red meat, which was rationed rather strictly, we had twice a week One wag said that dried eggs, which were in plentiful supply, should be called dregs Sweets were rationed, the making of ice cream banned after 1942, on the grounds that it had no food value, and was a diversion of valuable resources. All meat became very scarce So our diet became very monotonous. There were pies which were based on potato and carrot and we thought it was sawdust soya beans</b></i><br><br> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/warslj/home_09.shtml" target="_blank"><b>David Howell</b></a> (Quoted in <i>Don't You Know There's A war On?: The People's Voice 1939-45</i> by Jonathan Croall - to be reissued in 2005)</font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">In every country affected by the war, children had to deal with family separations, deaths of loved ones, and the need to "<a target="_blank" href="images/make_do_and_mend.jpg"><b>make do and mend</b></a>" clothes and toys. However, children in England had added burdens as they <a target="_blank" href="images/coped.jpg"><b>coped</b></a> with evacuations, air raids and gas masks.</p> <p>Not only did people have to deal with a lack of daily commodities, they had to put up with buying necessities where the family was registered. During the war, in other words, one did not <a href="http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Large%20photo%20pages/Food%20Que.html" target="_blank"><b>shop</b></a> at the most convenient grocery store!</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="children_war_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="children_war_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="children_war_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>