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Luckily my Mum was a good cook. She cooked us plain and simple food that tasted delicious. Some of the food I particularly remember was Ox tail or rabbit soup with pearl barley. I seem to remember it lasting a long time possibly all week. It was reheated with different vegetables added from time to time depending on what she could get and it was always bubbling away on the black grate cooking range. Didn’t do us any harm and I remember it tasted delicious. You knew what you were eating in those days. No additives or fancy ingredients.

I also remember mashed potato spread on bread to make a sandwich — lovely. We didn’t go in for fancy puddings but her bread pudding was wonderful.

After the pea pickers had finished picking in the fields near the village we would go and pick the peas they had missed. They were a real treat.

We only ever had chicken at Christmas, it was really special a bit like turkey is today.

Thinking about Christmas, we didn’t usually have a Christmas tree but I remember one year someone cut the top off the holly tree and my sister made decorations with coloured toffee sweet wrappers. That’s all we had but we thought it was the great.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sue Broome of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Ron Jennings and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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