Rationing. Options

[Rab]

Surprisingly, I have failed to find any topic on the subject of wartime rationing. It may be that I have missed it, so forgive me if I am duplicating a topic.
I came across this photo which was taken in 1953 on the first day that sweets were taken off the ration. The children of Britain, including me, were desperate to get their hands on some sweeities after 10 years of denial and this happy shot sees them rushing to start ruining their teeth! I lived over a wee general store which had nothing more than liquorice root, cinnamon sticks and the like in the window for my childhood years. I remember going in and buying Chiclets chewing gum for a penny (lasted longer than anything else!) and swapping some with my pals who had bought other sweetie items.

[Dave Grieve]

Don,t really remember sweeties as such being taken of rations but I think that must have been when sugar was taken off and remember it was a big thing for all the woman in the street who used to gather outside our close.

All I do remember was my Granda giving me a penny a few times a week and on the way to school it was normally Four chocolate caramels at a farthing each, used to last me ages.

Just out of interest what other major event connected to the second world war happened in 1953?

I should really put this in the 'On this day' topic but cant remember the exact date.

[dugald_old]

Thank you for a real slice of reality with that picture Rab. So meaningful. I recall the rationing of course, but not the crowded rush into the sweetie shops. I enjoyed a similar dash in 1959 when for the first time in about ten years, I realised I could buy all the chocolates in any shop in Scotland I wanted--- without my wee pink 2-ounces-a- week- ration card. Great picture.

[Dylan]

I remember going to the Odeon Club on a Saturday morning circa 1948.

I was given 1/ and a ration coupon.

6d for a Mars Bar, purchased from Newsagents and 6d for entry to the Odeon.

It could have been 6d, 3d for both ?

It took me a long time to like a Banana as I had never seen one.

Acquired taste. !

[JAGZ1876]

6d for a Mars Bar, purchased from Newsagents and 6d for entry to the Odeon.

Are you sure a Mars bar was 6d in 1948, as i remember a Mars bar costing 6d the day before decimalisation in 1971 and being outraged at it costing 3 new pence, meaning it had gone up 1d the next day.

[bilbo.s]

Are you sure a Mars bar was 6d in 1948, as i remember a Mars bar costing 6d the day before decimalisation in 1971 and being outraged at it costing 3 new pence, meaning it had gone up 1d the next day.

I reckon 3d and the Odeon club was the same about that time.

In retrospect, I have always wondered why rationing lasted so long - 8 or 9 years after the war. Surely this was due to government incompetence. I well remember on my first trip abroad, to Belgium in 1953, seeing huge amounts of meat being served in our hotel. My aunts remarked that a plateful was about a week's ration back home.

My first experience of being abroad opened my eyes to a whole new world and left me forever discontented with my homeland.

[Betsy2009]

Oh bilbo, I do hope you mean the way the country was 'managed' rather than beautiful Scotland itself.

[bilbo.s]

Oh bilbo, I do hope you mean the way the country was 'managed' rather than beautiful Scotland itself.

Well, Betsy, of course the Scottish scenery is far superior to Belgium's.

[JAGZ1876]

I well remember on my first trip abroad, to Belgium in 1953, seeing huge amounts of meat being served in our hotel. My aunts remarked that a plateful was about a week's ration back home.

Would that have been horse meat by any chance bilbo?

[bilbo.s]

Would that have been horse meat by any chance bilbo?

It could have been, Jagz, but I had no way of knowing, only being familiar with mutton pies and sausages at that time.

[dugald_old]

During this time I believe German prisoners of war in the U.K. were fed more than the British public were. The Geneva Convention I believe protected the nutritional needs of the defeated enemy, but not that of the victors. Germans in Germany were pretty well fed in 1948. We didn't have anyone to help us.

Britain was flat broke and couldn't pay its debts. In the winter of 1947 the government had to send a very large part of their armed forces home because they could not keep them warm. Ships at this time were loading coal on the Clyde for shipment to India, a meagre contribution to paying off the enormous debt. (Oh, we managed to pay it off in 2006!!!!).

Yes, perhaps you're right Bilbo, it was due to government incompetence. Instead of our foolhardy course we should simply have given the Führer the world on a plate! Cheaper, much less blood and so on. Sieg Heil!

[JAGZ1876]

Ships at this time were loading coal on the Clyde for shipment to India, a meagre contribution to paying off the enormous debt. (Oh, we managed to pay it off in 2006!!!!).

We Was Canada contributing as well?

[Dylan]

Many Ex Pats. still consider themselves Scottish/British .!

We, plural form of you.?

[Rab]

I remember a Mars Bar being 3d in the late 40s as I usually bought one on the way to the 'SatMat' - needed a coupon though! Gave my wee brother half.

Sweets were rationed to between 16 oz (454 g) per month and 8 oz (227 g) per month. 12 oz (340 g) per month in 1945.

February 1953: Sweet rationing ended.
September 1953: Sugar rationing ended.
4 July 1954: Meat and all other food rationing ended in Britain.

[*Talisman*]

Oh bilbo, I do hope you mean the way the country was 'managed' rather than beautiful Scotland itself.

Had you been brought up in glorious Guvin at the end of the war as I was, you may have had a similar perspective to "Beautiful Scotland"as I had. Like the previous poster I also visited Belgium in the 50s and like him I formed a sorry opinion of Scotland. Not of the country but of the conditions. The Belgians lived in real houses, not dirty dank closes with no indoor toilets, smelly gas lit corridors built to house yard workers in the 19th century. They also dressed to go to manual work, there were no middens and air raid shelters roon' the wash hooses. In comparison yard workrers whose ranks I eventually joind, had the spoken often attitude "that anythings good enough for work". The abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables at the bi-wekly markets was quite abundant and as we were on the coast the sea food was plentifull and excellent. Although we were in a holiday town, the overall afluence in comparison to Scotland's was marked at every instance. I did leave Scotland, not just for that reason, but for lack of any prospect of employment for one such as my self and many others like me. I have prospered to an extent I never would have in the Scotland of my youth. Yes the country is beautiful, but to a second class citizen in the land of my birth and my ancestors for a millenium, I left and have no regrets.