Rationing. Options

[*Tallyn Rand*]

Taurus your lucky, we didnae huv carpets so my ma used tae take me oot the back an beat me.

A' kiddin' n' swankin aside A wis taken oot an' beat wi the karpet beater. An' we hud kairpets as ma faither brought 2 wee wans back frae India. A aeways thought if he hudnae brought them back A' wid jist huv been hit wi a belt like everybody else.

[*Billy Boil*]

Oh Taurus, that's so sad.
I remember beating carpets out the back but I couldn't tell you what was on the rest of the floor. Perhaps it was lino or just wooden floorboards. I don't think that kids really noticed or cared.
Funny how the modern fashion is floorboards and a rug when, in my day, if you had a fitted carpet you were really posh.

It was Linoleum; made in Kirkacldy.

[*Billy Boil*]

I have said all this before on another forum and got shot down in flames,but I know for a fact,that while we were living in abject poverty,in my case,a lot of the time my mum wondering where the next meal was coming from,a visit to the pawn always helped,I still say the English,even in their worst of conditions,were better off than us in the East End. I visited my auntie in Manchester,in what eventually was considered such a blight on the horizon ,the houses were all demolished,yet,in her 2 up and 2 down,with front and back door,into their own wee yard and out to a wee lane,,that still made me yearn for something better.They seemed to me,a wee girl at the time,as "well off".My point being,it seemed to be ingrained and taken for granted that the English would have a better standard of living than the poorest areas of Glasgow. We could see it when we emigrated to Australia,the people we met,who were as working class as us,so many of them had houses to sell before leaving,we didn`t come across any in the hostel from Glasgow who did. The government kept the people of Scotland down,in my opinion.

I live in a large 5 room , 3 complete bathroom,3 car garage and basement work shop on the banks of the coral sea.I am a $millionaire and graduated from 2 different Universities in Australia with a triple major in oriental languages and American literature; my mentor in this being a Havard professor who allowed me to complete a 3 year degree course in two years.

I have just returned from 3 week in Asia where I was at the last stop in an executive suite in a 5 star hotel in Hanoi. I have more than I want but still carry the bitterness of the poverty of the back streets of Govan around on my back to this day. In Scotland I had not enough education to lift me out of the slaughter house labourer or the mill hand and packer of maggot ridden fleeces I had become used to. I still had to suffer from "what school did you go to" every job I went to except the ones no body would take. (funny I was never asked that question in England or Australia).

I was in Melbourne for six months when I started training as a Telecom linesman eventually reaching supervisor after about four years. During that time I went to university at night, graduated to teaching, where due to my experience with telecommunications, I was involved in distance and satellite driven teaching. I also had work published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to assist with their Chinese language learning courses. I have been mentioned in the AGE newspaper in Australia on account of the Japanese vice consul visiting my class room to see Japanese being taught in Australian schools.

I am not in any way here asking you to gasp at any "Wunderkind" I am merely contrasting what an individual, seen as worthless and going no where but down can achieve, bearing in mind I became a lazy b,.##@tard in latter years and did not go on to finish a masters I started.

So if you hear any idiot extolling the poverty and slums of Glasgow, and how happy they were there, kindly whisper in their ear "Hey whit huv youse been drinkin Jimmy!!!!!

And by the wei A' wus in Sydney Airport yesterday Taurus, just passin throo, but I need to go back again jist fur fun. After three weeks in Asia I need a holiday in a place wi' pavements and road rules.

[*Billy Boil*]

Billy, just reading that sparked a chain of thought in my head. How right you are.
During the war, my Dad was a merchant seaman, away dodging U-Boats and my Mammy brought up 2 boys from 1942 till they were 18. We survived living in a room and kitchen tenement flat, sharing a toilet with 2 other families. No hot running water, no TV etc. All we had for entertainment was a wet-battery valve radio and the Beano and Dandy each week. Mammy scrubbed the landing stairs and close on alternate weeks, and shared the wash-house tub each Monday. How she managed it I don't know. All those Mums deserved medals just as much as the men.
When I hear my grandchild say she is bored .....!!!

Been overseas for a while so missed this post Rab. There was a lot of hysteria about the bammy ISIS and terrorism in Australia and how we should all cringe in fear at them. My father went through "U boat alley" in the Med for years trying to shoot Stukas down with Lewis guns. He the went to the Pacific theatre where on a Canadian "D.E.M. Fort ship, he faced the Kamikaze on a daily basis.

My mother manned the "ACK ACK" guns on the approaches to London.

I am my fathers son, (I even look like him) and the media are asking us to shake in our shoe at the mention of a few physchotic teenagers with long beards short @#$#@. They were a generation then; no questions asked get the job done or die trying.

[Ramblins]

The photo of the kids store-crashing for candy is hilarious. Buying "sweeties" without a coupon book was sure something to remember for us kids. During the war when we were evacuated to Fearnan on Loch Tay the tinkers (or travellers) would exchange their sweetie coupons for tea or some other commodity.

[*Backcauseway*]

In 1958 I left school just turned 18. We had cousins in California and I got the chance to stay with them. Boat to New York where I was met. Then Greyhound bus trip. Incredible. Big cars. Loads of food. Plus music I had never heard. They had fancy TVs and massive fridges. 6 weeks I stayed in down town San Diego. Then back to reality-home! What a grey dismal place Glasgow was after that experience. I recall sweets came off ration in 1948 -I week- for a week or so. Yes recall cinnamon sticks, liquorice root and sort of chewing gum stuff that tasted rubbery and lasted for ever.