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During the Second World War, my father was a little boy growing up in East Yorkshire in the city of Hull.

Compared to the life styles of today, this account of make do and mead appears to be a story of poverty, but that would be to give a wrong impression on the period.

As my father says, "During the war, clothing coupons were in short supply, which resulted in a lot of ‘Make do and mead’. I recall that my shirt collars frequently wore out so my mother would fashion a new one from the shirt lap. After several such operations my shirt had transformed intro a blouse, which occasionally with a piece of elastic sewn into the bottom of the garment to avoid it being too apparent that something was lacking!

Money or rather the lack, was always a problem and I remember on many occasions having a hole in the sole of my shoe, which was usually repaired by cutting an insert from a piece of cardboard. Inevitably the insert had a very limited life, especially if it was wet.

Once the repair went a stage further and I went to school with a shoe-clad foot wrapped in barrage balloon fabric, so to delay the disintegration of the cardboard sole. Can you image the site walking along with this bright cloth wrapped around my foot, and the strange thing is, at the time this was not usual!"

This account is one of a series of accounts relating to the Second World War through the eyes of my family. Warden D (re-enactor) Home Front Friends ^{About links}

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