大象传媒

Although during the war there was rationing and a shortage of money as a child I never went hungry, maybe my parents had to forfeit some things but we never felt deprived. We all had our rations, which weren鈥檛 much, mostly we lived on spam, dried eggs, corn beef and rabbit pie. The Butcher in Ironbridge used to give my mum a little extra suet so she could make some sort of pie. I remember eating whale meat occasionally, it was alright. Fish and sausage were not rationed, and as we were encouraged to grow our own vegetables we managed.

I used to go to the Food office to get my little brother his national dried milk, orange juice and cod liver oil. Usually I ended up taking the cod liver oil as I was rather thin and often had a bad cough, my dad used to mix the cod liver oil with milk on a spoon claiming it was nice but I hated it.

Sweets were rarely seen, Mrs. Tufnell had a sweet shop on the Tontine bank, but even if we had the coupons for them we didn't have the money to get them. One day there were some sweets in store and I ran to ask my mother for some but as luck would have it they were gone by the time I returned to the shop.

After the war my mum went to the Co-op in Ironbridge, to do her weekly shop, one day she managed to get a tin of salmon and some bananas. As a treat she would also take us children on the train to Shrewsbury. As there were six of us it must have been a drain on her finances, but I had such a lovely time as we spent time in the quarry and the dingles. Sometimes we would go to the Wrekin with the Sunday school, which was also a good day out.

I've shared with you my childhood during the war and now when I look back I see nothing but poverty, but I had a great childhood and we were well fed, spotlessly clean, polite and helpful and my siblings and I are very proud of our wonderful upbringing and thankful to our parents for making it enjoyable.

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