大象传媒

This story is submitted by Pat Yates of Age Concern Shropshire on behalf of Elsie Harding with her permission. She fully understands the terms & conditions of the site.

My husband was stationed in Bramhall, Cheshire in 1942. I was living in Bexley Heath and my mother-in-law lived in Peckham. Together we came up from London to visit my husband, and with us was our two and a half-year old son. Life was hard in London and food, of course, was strictly rationed, so when we saw a butcher's shop with meat on display we used some of our coupons to buy some lovely lamb chops. We were really looking forward to getting back to our digs and cooking them, but when we got outside the shop there was a police car waiting and two policemen got out and asked us to open up our bags whilst they searched them. The butcher had lost a leg of lamb and we were the suspects! We were so angry and I waded into them - "Lamb! You ought to come to London to see how we live. You all look well fed and I haven't seen a leg of lamb in ages, but I used up my ration on these chops and you should apologise"
The next day the police came round to see us. They didn't apologise but they did say they had found out where the lamb had gone. The butcher's dog had taken it!
You were lucky to see an orange in London during the war, but one day there were a few in our local greengrocer's. I thought, "I must have some of those for my son", but just as I was about to buy them the air-raid warning sounded and my husband was after me to hurry up and take shelter. Well, I paid for the oranges - four I think there were - and we ran to the nearest underground toilets to take cover. In the rush we went to the Gents instead of the Ladies, and not only that, but in the panic I dropped the oranges and they rolled in every direction on the tiled lavatory floor. I collected them up though and washed them off because I wasn't going to lose my prize. Then I realised I had lost my handbag - a good leather one. A lady said - "I've found one", but she wouldn't let me have it until I told her what was inside. There wasn't much money, but my precious coupons were there.
In the last year of the war my husband was sent to India to defend Jessore. He was there from April to December and didn't have anything to defend, which was just as well as there were no bullets for the guns. There were other shortages as well. I used to send him newspapers from home and he wrote back once saying, "Thanks for the papers. They came in very handy for you know what!"

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