大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jean Sharman on behalf of Olive Wright and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was fourteen when war broke out in 1939 and I was living in Northumberland in a small village called Greenside. We didn鈥檛 see much of the conflict but I do remember the blackout. Coupons governed what we bought. There were a lot of shortages. You never saw fruit and if there was anything in stock word spread and queues developed quickly.

I always remember when anybody was getting married there was a scrounge around for food for the guests to eat. When there were babies around they always got more than anyone else. There was always a scrape to get coupons together for a pram.

Sometimes when people saw a banana for the first time they ate it whole with the skin on! Chip shops used to sell fish patties instead of whole fish when there was a severe shortage.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.