大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Miss Lil Davis, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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[rations]
It was dreadful! Thank god, it depended on where you were. If you were in England you felt the pinch very much. But you see, we were in Northern Ireland and whilst we were rationed in the same way they were rationed in England, milk wasn鈥檛 rationed in NI, and cream wasn鈥檛 rationed. You couldn鈥檛 always get it in the way that you were used to, but if you were lucky you could get it now and again, you see? But you got 4 oz of tea, a qtr lb of butter 鈥� no, it was 2oz butter and 录 lb margarine. And I forget how much sugar you got, but your sugar was rationed. You had books, you had a ration book and a points book. And then another was the Coupon book. And the coupon books bought you your skirt or your blouse or whatever. So everybody patched, a needle. You patched all your underclothing, and you kept all your coupons to buy your outside clothes to look half-decent. You see? And you tried not to waste coupons on underclothes if you could patch or mend it. Then that was the coupons. The points book was things like raisins and prunes and rice and 鈥�

[missed chocolate?]
Yes! Well, the only thing that I really missed, to tell you the truth, was the bit of butter. But there again, there I was very lucky. There was a little person that I knew used to go down to Warrenpiont. Now, if you had the Geography in front of me, there鈥檚 Warrenpoint and that鈥檚 Carlingfiord lough and that鈥檚 the South of Ireland. So they go down to Warrenpoint, get on the boat and go up there and when she come back she鈥檇 say 鈥淣ow, I鈥檝e got butter, so you can have my ration鈥�. So her book would go into the stores and be ticked off, and I鈥檇 get her butter. Then I was for 12 months, and I was v lucky. I got to know a chap who was going backwards and forwards. What his business was, I don鈥檛 know. None of the place did. But I knew perfectly well he must have been smuggling some way. But this week he would bring Glenlady a pound of butter. And the next week he鈥檇 bring me a lb of butter. You see? So I was doing. But it only lasted for about a year. I never knew what happened. I keep saying to myself, time and again, 鈥減oor old soul, he must have got caught. He must have got caught, whatever he was smuggling鈥�. Because I lost complete track of him, and it鈥檚 a long long time ago. And you see, as I said, my few friends one by one have died and gone to heaven. So there鈥檚 few left and I鈥檝e a lot of time for thinking. And the other night I was thinking 鈥淚 wonder what became of him鈥�.

But anyway, there was 10 ounces of tea. And in the South of Ireland they only got 陆 an oz of tea. So that was one thing that you missed terribly if you were in the south. A 陆 an oz of tea. But I got to know the ropes, and I was able to get black market tea. It cost you something but it didn鈥檛 matter. And I would bring black market tea so I was as welcome as the flowers of may, because my mother could invite anyone that she liked for tea. A good cup of tea. But the milk wasn鈥檛 rationed, and the bread wasn鈥檛 rationed. A lot of things were rationed. The sugar was rationed too, but nothing as bad as here. They weren鈥檛 let off with less. Because, you see in England the milk was rationed and I can鈥檛 drink the tea unless I have cream. And I have goods upper cream. But I have very lucky. I got to know a farmer who did his own 鈥� He had milk rounds ... round that belonged to Lucas or whatever that is, anyway. I think was 鈥�
This chap had his own cows, did his own milking. And had his own wand of customers. It took 鈥� in the milk bottles, the cream would be that far down the neck of the bottle. So I got 2 pints of milk every day. And when it was settled I put the 2 creams into my jug. And that was for my tea. And then I had the rest of the milk to do what I liked with.

And if there was rice, which there was from time to time, and currants, I used to make rice pudding. With raisins and currants and milk. And a lump of margarine 鈥� or maybe I was lucky about getting my butter and I was lucky with a lot of people. And I would through the girls, the friends for a feed. This rice pudding. Another time I鈥檇 make porridge. And I鈥檇 have them for 鈥� they all lived in digs, you see, while I catered for myself. And of course they would be starving, and I鈥檇 make sure that I gave them a little drop of my cream on their porridge. So we used to have a great hello about the rationing.

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