The war time food rationing, petrol rationing, the blackouts, the clocks were moved two hour for summer time for a while, I remember the poultry and laying hens out in field pens would not go to roost to be shut in until nearly mid night sometimes.
The things we never had (In the Forties Fifties)
On looking back on
how we lived and the thing we ate,
Every day of every
week, had plenty on our plate,
Rabbit Chicken beef
and pork, taters carrots and beans,
All caught and grown
and dug and cooked as well as all the greens.
No such thing as
cooking oil, that’s to oil ya bike,
Lard was what we
cooked in, for everything we liked,
Bread and dripping,
fried the bread, floating in the fat,
From cooking all the
bacon, in the frying pan it spat.
No such thing as
frozen food, and a fridge we never had,
Only had a meat safe,
way back when I were a lad,
There to keep the
flies at bay, the meat from day before,
Eat it up before it
turns, good food they won’t ignore.
Orange squash and lemon
squash, with plenty water drink,
Never had the fizzy
stuff, till Corona Pop to village shop they linked,
Bottles had to be
returned, so we looked after them,
Money back for every
bottle, from that our savings stem.
A phone box in the
village, and the farms they one for each
A wireless in the
widow, for the wartime news to reach,
All around the
countryside, the news it travelled fast,
Nowadays its picture
phones, I feel I’ve been outclassed.
Be careful with ya
money, that’s what our parents preached,
Don’t waste anything
you worked for, as out ya pocket leached,
By all and sundry
they will ask, lend us this and that,
It’ll come back bent
and worn-out, chipped or even cracked.
But overall we had
everything, that life for us we need,
We never had to do
without, cuz our parents set the creed,
Life’s only what you
make of it, work to earn ya crust of bread,
And anything on top
of that, helps smooth the path ahead.
Owd Fred
