大象传媒

This story was gathered , written and submitted to the 大象传媒 peoples war project by June Martin

6 RATIONING
The weekly rations were meagre. For butter we had a 鈥渂ig鈥� week, 戮 pound, and a 鈥渟mall鈥� week, 陆 pound, for 4 people. We also got margarine, which, not knowing any better, I quite liked, but my mother hated it. In Northern Ireland, however, there was no shortage of milk. So my mother made her own butter from the cream skimmed off the 鈥渢op鈥� of the milk bottle. As the cream had to be collected for a number of days and had to go sour before being churned, the butter smelt ghastly, and for me, tasted even worse, but my mother and brother quite enjoyed it. To supplement our rations my parents made a 鈥渉en run鈥� in the back garden and we always had eggs. But the hens went off laying in the winter months. Each autumn my brother and I were sent 鈥渢o the country鈥�, by train, with a basket each, to buy eggs from a friendly farmer. My mother would then preserve these eggs in some kind of liquid in a big earthen crock, thus ensuring a steady supply until the following spring. Occasionally my mother was given a few tins of fruit and some Mackintosh red apples by a cousin who was an engineer on one of the Headland boats that, as part of the Merchant Navy, regularly sailed to and from Montreal, in Canada. Many of these vessels were torpedoed but fortunately 鈥淯ncle Willie鈥檚鈥� ship was unscathed.

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