to think that if asked to go back WWII style rationing, we'd never cope?

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Not that it's a seriously likely thing to happen, more a reflection of how spoilt we are by the 24/7 disposable consumer-goods culture, even in relatively hard economic times. Reading up on the WWII home front experience & all the fantastic ways people (women) then coped with shortages of basics, I can't imagine being asked to present a ration book at Sainsbury in exchange for my one solitary egg for the week. They'd have to barbed-wire the shelves and post armed guards... What would happen to all those fussy kids? Would they just starve to death? And I'm not sure I could knit a sock to save my life.

AIBU to think that, unlike our grannies, too many of us are a bunch of trembly-lipped 'ruined my life by delivering the wrong sort of tomato' wussies that would cave at the first mention of 'make do and mend'? ... or are we just as tough and capable of knuckling down in a crisis?

I know how to spin my own wool and knit and sew and grow veg, but then my favourite book when I was a child was John Seymour's "Self-Sufficiency" a 70's classic! I used to look forward to the oil crisis meaning we went back to horse power (I can ride horses too).

I used to look forward to the oil crisis meaning we went back to horse power (I can ride horses too

They eat horses don't they :)

I was the townie and (still have) the John Seymour book. The rellies have a farm, the book is definitely written for Townie Romantics - the chapters on back-breaking labour and "troubleshooting when things go wrong" are missing :)

It doesn't matter that I can't weave my own wool now - there's probably a youtube tutorial that I can watch when the need arises.

I just weighed some Trinings Assam Teabags (you knew someone would) and actually, you get 21 teabags per week on your ration. And they are generous teabags, for loose tea you could probably get more cups.

As long as bread, fruit, veg and flour weren't rationed, we'd be fine on those rations, I'd certainly be fine on an adult ration. Maybe I was poor for too long!!!!

But sometimes even the ration wasn't available, and bread was rationed. People had to do this for
14 years.

this thread just made me think how life had to be different in war time britain and my home country ( then czechoslovakia), especially if you were a jew....

I based my shopping list on a 1950s meal planner last week.
Smug emoticon .
I am, however, having a takeaway pizza tonight.
Not so smug emoticon .
Incidentally the 1950s meal planner suggests biscuits and cakes AND afterwards every single day, which I think is very extravagant .

I know what you mean "whatmeworrying" but i was only about 7 at the time of the horse fantasies. My allotment has been disastrous over the last two seasons, this year it was flooded by a burst water main so good job we weren't relying on it.

Sinicalsal - where do you think I learned to spin?

I am a bit of a hippy romantic and I have the "useful" skills to prove it.

I think I could manage on the rations, it would be a bit like living on student veggie food, stodgy but filling.

People who say it was fine tend to be those who weren't there. Or were lucky enough to live in the countryside and be able to grow veg and keep chickens. People who worked in the factories got fed in the British Canteens so got at least one decent meal a day. But mothers at home with infants who lived in towns were starving - according to my Godmother, who was there.

We really don't realize how lucky we are.

My aunt's wedding dress was made during the war and it is terrifyingly small. DD is a 4 but is too big for it! They literally had nothing.

Not to mention EVERYONE knowing some one in their family or that went to school with who had been killed.

I sometimes wish someone would ration me. i buy and eat far too much shite.

Both my parents were born pre WW2, my father grew up on a farm that had Italian POWs on it and of course his memories are all romanticised as he never went short of food. Remembers the women of his family cooking vast breakfasts every morning and like a mini cottage industry making preserves, pickling, curing etc in preparation for winter. My grandfather used to shoot rabbits as pests and give them to widows and the elderly in the village. If you owned livestock you had to have a licence to slaughter them and he always said it was remarkable how many pigs died in road accidents My grandfather always maintained that the animal rights lobby was an indication of how wealthy the country had become, they would have got short shrift during the times of rationing.

My mother's side of the family were much less well off (school cook and ex merchant navy, school caretaker/air-raid warden - my grandfather & mother were fired on by a German aircraft) but like everyone else kept a well stocked allotment, slaughtered own chickens and made all their own clothes. But the women on that side of the family had been in service since 14 and had been brought up being frugal and self-sufficient, they have skills that I and most of modern UK don't possess. Also upon marriage/children it was expected they would stop working which is no longer the case.

I just don't have time to work a mangle [wails]

We'd cope, but the shock would be less if we went into WWII ration-style diets more gradually. The 1930's diet wasn't anywhere as rich as ours is now, so perhaps the rations weren't quite the shock to the system that they would be today.

I can knit socks fine, thanks!

My parents are war children. In fact, my Dad was blown off his potty by a bomb! Foodwise, My maternal grandmother used to wipe gravy round a plate and leave it on the side. When my Mum asked her why she wasn't eating with them, she said she'd had hers earlier. She went hungry so my Mum and Uncle didn't.

My aunt's wedding dress was made during the war and it is terrifyingly small. DD is a 4 but is too big for it! They literally had nothing

Probably that was a 1920's/30's thing - those times were even tougher than teh War in many poor ares.

I married an American serviceman, so I should be ok for chocolate and nylons

yeah, there was an awful lot of that going on, thederkin.

People forget how close this country came to starvation. Those brave men on the North Atlantic convoys, bringing desperately needed food but knowing there were Nazi submarines and mines... they had orders that if a ship was sunk, the other vessels were not to stop and attempt to save lives. Not only were they risking their lives, unlike troops on the front line, they couldn't even attempt to save each other.

I am ashamed by how much food we waste in our household. I keep my compost heap stocked with fruit and veg that I buy and that we then don't eat/ forget about.

Ny children rarely finish what is on their plates.

I do feel embarassed. My Ukrainian cleaner does not say anything but I am sure she is appalled at the waste.

'People who say it was fine tend to be those who weren't there. Or were lucky enough to live in the countryside and be able to grow veg and keep chickens. People who worked in the factories got fed in the British Canteens so got at least one decent meal a day. But mothers at home with infants who lived in towns were starving - according to my Godmother, who was there.'

According to MIL, too, who was also there. And a good friend and former neighbour, who was born in London in 1933 and was a boy during The Blitz. Believe me, neither one of them saw the semi-starvation they went through as a good thing. Or the children who were forced to live away from their mothers.

I can't believe people think this was a good thing! Tens of thousands of civilians died. Hundreds were crushed in a tube station trying to get away from bombs. Millions of men never came home or came home devestated for life. One of my great-uncles was a POW in the Pacific and suffered painful life-long health problems as a result. Another was a POW in Europe and was 'shell-shocked' forever. Sudden, loud noises plagued him forever. Another (there were 4) was killed in action, leaving two little girls who never knew him.

The 'community spirit' came about because of an enemy who was set on defeating them no matter what and slaughtered millions.

Well there is the flip side to that which is in WW1, despite the Blackadder jokes about 'one lump or two' in the coffee, that many men from the slums ate better once in the army

and in WW2 the were newsreels and WI led lessons on how to bake/sew/cook - there was a massive public education exercise on what to do with the weekly ration

the OP's premise was just about could we ever go back to a simple, frugal subsistence way of living...and think I would find it very hard but you would if you had to

I don't think anyone is arguing that the Emergency War was a good thing though, are they?

I make do and mend, partly because I enjoy old-timey things and partly because they just don't make 'em like they used to. For instance, I have one navy cardigan, very plain, cashmere. Cannot for the life of me find another one similar style and quality. (Got it for 20 quid on a market stall years ago) It now has elbow patches and one whole fore arm is darned, because I love it and can't find a replacement.

I also darn socks, sew almost all my clothes (all my dresses) and knit. I cook from scratch, and enjoy foraging and making jam etc. Just made some elderberry cordial tonight.

I'm not saying all this to sound holier than thou, these things are just the hobbies I enjoy. Happy to teach anyone who is interested how to make a 1920's one-hour dress, and if you're in London I will happily teach you how to knit.

One thing that really taught me about self-sufficiency and making do was living on a canal boat for a year. My sister says I'm totally apocalypse-ready! ;)

We would be fine, Dp is a mad keen gardener, we now have a very small garden with a very large veg patch attached and the chickens take up most of the garden which is great fun.
As for meat, the post I put on life skills included dp's one life skills wish for our children (well dd as ds won't be capable due to his CP) How to skin and gut a rabbit, gut and fillet a fish. Poor dd.