大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Rosemarie Grundon of Leicestershire Library Services on behalf of Graham Hill and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Rationing meant trying all sorts of things

I thought that when war was declared that we might not have to go school anymore, but I was sadly disillusioned.
The war to me as a child meant that food was always a problem
I would queue for hours in food queues for my Mum, and although Father grew vegetables in the garden and kept rabbits in hutches too, I never really fancied eating them once the neighbour had killed them because I had looked after and fed them.
My father was an ARP (Air raid precaution) officer, and got very tired because he was often up all night as well as doing his job in the day.
Hinckley had frequent air raid warnings as German bombers flew over on their way to Coventry where many factories were involved in the war effort.
I can remember seeing a bomber nearby in the searchlights but it wasn鈥檛 shot down.
My friends and I would pick up bits of shrapnel in the streets on the way to school. We cycled everywhere and our bikes were made of any bits we could find or 鈥渕accled together鈥� as the local expression goes.
You could walk along the A5 in safety as there were so few cars on the road. Sometimes an army convoy would go by though.
I loved to fish too, but because of the bread shortage I couldn鈥檛 waste bread by using it as bait. We used to pinch a few ears of corn from a field and boil it up to make a mash that we could use for bait instead. River fish are very earthy though and not pleasant to eat. Rationing meant trying all sorts of things

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