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This contribution to People’s War was received by the Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Cleveland and submitted to the website by Jane Tombling, with the permission and on behalf of Muriel Oliver.

Before WW2 broke out I worked as a Comptometer Operator at Darlington’s Co-operative Society’s head office, the only time I had ever handled cash was when I did relief work in the Cashier’s office, therefore my ending up working in the family grocer’s business into which I married, was an unexpected turn of events.

I married in October 1940 and my husband was one of three sons whose parents ran two Grocery Stores — the family’s original shop was on Darlington’s Corporation Road with the second shop in the town’s North Road, where I worked during WW2. So shortly after my husband went away with the RAF, most of my time was spent behind the counter at Oliver’s. To my amazement I took to & enjoyed working in the grocers shop very much.

Once the war got under way, travelling salesmen — who were always such gentlemen & a pleasure to deal with — became a thing of the past. They were replaced after the war by cash & carry outlets, which to be honest doubled the workload of the already busy grocer. Olivers Grocers held a good reputation as purveyors of good quality merchandise — jams from Robertson’s & Harley’s; Carrs biscuits, products from Jacobs and Pumfrey’s the sugar specialists, plus teas loose in huge chests which came from London’s Mincing Lane to name but a few.

The debt of gratitude which the grocery trade felt towards the Merchant Navy cannot be overlooked. They brought much produce from across the Atlantic — especially from Canada. I especially remember huge cheeses from Canada — similar to Cheddar in texture — all packed in linen which had to be peeled off these hard cheeses. However they went down well with the customers — diary produce was very much at a premium.

I recall having closed the shop one day, there being a knock at the warehouse door. There stood a man with a barrel of butter — one hundredweight — wishing to sell his cache. It could have been sold many times over at a good profit (our customers would have been very happy), but my father-in-law knew it was stolen goods, as of course did I. At the very least we would have been breaking the law and he was sent away with a flea in his ear by my father-in-law. He left into the night cursing and still with 1cwt of butter to sell — I wonder where it ended up?

Food of course was rationed and many difficult decisions had to be made when a delivery of say a supply of 12 lbs of prunes arrived. It was all very good selling on a first come first served basis, but in many instances we knew of families who were deserved of certain foodstuffs and the request as to what we had under the counter was an all too usual plea. More often than not, there was nothing under the counter at all.

I recall following Jersey being released from Germany a bag of Jersey Potatoes arriving. Before we had been able to put them under the counter, a lady who was in the shop at the time of their delivery spied them and went running down the street shouting Oliver’s have got Jerseys in! You can imagine the rate of knots they sold at! It was a continually impossible task trying to keep all customers happy.

My time at Oliver’s Grocers lasted from January 1941 to August 1945 which was when my husband we de-mobbed and returned to his role within the family business. He and I moved into a little terraced house (I had spent most of the war living with my parents while I worked in the store). It took an age to furnish our new home together, I remember collecting sufficient furniture coupons and it taking 3 years for Binns store to deliver the 3 piece suite we had chosen. However it was worth the wait as I recall!. Similarly learning to cook on the house’s Yorkist range took some mastering, I waited years for the Main gas cooker to be delivered — they weren’t getting manufactured, the war certainly took its toll in many ways.

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