I bet the fundies would love this... Rationing

[nutella addict]

Just found this, no idea if it's been posted at some point in the past, but can you imagine feeding 16 children on post-WWII rations? Sounds like the dad helps out with "women's work" though, so maybe they wouldn't like this. Dad's apparently only 37 - I wonder how many more they had, if indeed this is a true family...I did feel sorry for the oldest girl, she sounded a bit like a J-slave...except this is 1950 and just a normal (albeit large) family. I think.

britishpathe.com/record.php?id=46941

[browngrl]

off topic (slaps wrist with 1/4" plumbing line for punishment) but I can deeply relate to your name nutella adict. In fact, in my non typing hand right now is a jar of nutella and I am eating it straight from the jar.

[tabitha2]

Very interesting.I wonder what happened to them eventually.

[DamnPrecious]

With the rations did you still pay money?

[nutella addict]

browngrl, that's exactly what I was doing when I decided to come out of lurkdom...and I couldn't think of a better name :-p

DamnPrecious, I don't actually know. I'd have to ask my dad, aunt, or grandma about that. All I know from their stories is that they were quite meager, and I doubt that larger families got all that much more than smaller ones. Really not sure though. Also I know that my dad nearly gave his mother heart attacks by playing with the ration stamps - if he'd ruined one, they'd have gone hungry by that much food...

Edit: Wow, I'm blanket trained! I think I've been procrastinating too much by posting lately...

[liltwinstar]

I think you still did have to pay, even with the ration books - the books just gave you the right to buy whatever was rationed.

I watched the 1940s house that was on PBS a while back - it was really interesting. Apparently fighting men and children were given priority in terms of food, which makes sense, but it left women with not much to eat themselves. One of the participants in the TV show said something about eating bread crusts because there wasn't enough to feed herself and the kids. Plus there was a lot of pressure on women to help with "war effort" by going to work all day, patching/mending clothes, volunteering in the hospitals, etc. Also, the show pointed out that at the end of the war, there were shortages in the shops. So even if you had a ration card for butter/sugar/whatever you couldn't get it because the shops were out. It was really eye-opening for me; I guess I just didn't realize how difficult times were at that point during the war. They said, too, that thousands of Londoners had to put their pet dogs and cats down, because they knew they wouldn't be able to feed them, plus they didn't want their pets turning into food if times got really bad. There was a push for "victory gardens" (which I knew about and think we had in the states, too). There was also a campaign for people to raise rabbits in their back yards for meat, but I guess that didn't go over as well as the victory garden thing.

[DamnPrecious]

I think you still did have to pay, even with the ration books - the books just gave you the right to buy whatever was rationed.

I watched the 1940s house that was on PBS a while back - it was really interesting. Apparently fighting men and children were given priority in terms of food, which makes sense, but it left women with not much to eat themselves. One of the participants in the TV show said something about eating bread crusts because there wasn't enough to feed herself and the kids. Plus there was a lot of pressure on women to help with "war effort" by going to work all day, patching/mending clothes, volunteering in the hospitals, etc. Also, the show pointed out that at the end of the war, there were shortages in the shops. So even if you had a ration card for butter/sugar/whatever you couldn't get it because the shops were out. It was really eye-opening for me; I guess I just didn't realize how difficult times were at that point during the war. They said, too, that thousands of Londoners had to put their pet dogs and cats down, because they knew they wouldn't be able to feed them, plus they didn't want their pets turning into food if times got really bad. There was a push for "victory gardens" (which I knew about and think we had in the states, too). There was also a campaign for people to raise rabbits in their back yards for meat, but I guess that didn't go over as well as the victory garden thing.

From hearing what my dad went through in 1940's here in the states makes me cry. That whole time period is just sad. I honestly would have been one of those people who committed suicide.

[dawn]

Four sets of twins :shock: And dad serving food and cutting hair :roll: No real patriarch would ever do such a thing. And yes, you still had to pay for for the food.

[Triplet3]

Vegetables, fish and some fruits weren't rationed, however (though they were of course subject to shortages sometimes), and bread wasn't rationed after 1948. I remember being told at school that many people's diets actually became better under rationing than they were before, because fats, meat, sugar and sweets were all rationed.

I'm sure large families would still have struggled, though, so I don't envy the one in your link.

As far as I'm aware (again going on what I learned at school, when I was 15/16) you didn't pay actual cash, you paid with coupons from your ration book. You took your book with you to, say, the butcher, and he would tear out the appropriate number of coupons and give you half a pound of sausages or whatever it was you were getting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom