´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenny Yaxley on behalf of Janet Mitchell and has been added with her permission. Janet Mitchel fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was eight years old at the beginning of the war. I come from a big family — being one of twelve children — so for a child of that age in this situation, the most important thing of the time for me was the food rationing. This also seemed to be the case for many of the nosey neighbours whom I remember coming round to check up on how the rations had been distributed. They were often jealous that my mother was getting more rations than they were but this was not true, she got exactly the same amount per head, except there were more heads in our family! She was also very skilled at making what she had got go a long way!
My father would also contribute by going rabbit shooting and fishing. He was often successful; bringing home eels as well as fish and rabbits. My brothers and sisters and I would then take the skins of the rabbits to the local rag and bone man who would give us a shilling for each skin! We also enjoyed collecting mushrooms to add to the household’s food supplies.
As well as this, we would all go down to the Oxpens with our friends to visit the American soldiers who parked their tanks there. They often gave us chewing gum which was otherwise very hard to get hold of due to the rationing.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.