Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO you remember rationing?

I was born in 1943 and rationing, especially of food and clothes, continued for a number of years after the war ended.

If you wanted something special there was nothing for it but to save up your ration coupons until you had enough .

Each adult was allowed about 4oz of bacon, 2oz of cheese, 2oz of tea, 8oz of butter, 8oz of sugar, one fresh egg and 5p worth of meat a week.

Although the points system ended in 1950, the rationing of meat continued until 1954.

The unexpected benefit was that people were actually healthier.

They may have been thinner, but they ate less fat and a lot more fruit and vegetables which were unrestricted, and the result was that nutritionally they were better off.

Coal, electricity, gas, furniture, petrol and even soap were rationed, because all these were in short supply.

Fish was not rationed because there was virtually none available.

Chocolate was a treat restricted mainly to Christmas and Easter.

The only sweets I had in my early years were of the boiled variety (fruit drops), which the sweet shop kept in a big glass jar.

You were allowed 12oz every four weeks, and I can remember the excitement among us children when rationing ended and suddenly you could buy all sorts of different sweets.

The village sweet shop was owned and run by Minnie and Annie Wright.

They also sold lemonade - and you could have a part glass for a penny or tuppence, and a full glass for three old pence.

I remember when I passed my 11-plus exam I celebrated by drinking three successive glasses of raspberry-ade which cost the enormous sum of 9d (about 4p). What extravagance!

l Malcolm Davies is a former editor of the Penarth Times. Mal's Memories are on the Penarth Times web site www.thisispenarth.co.uk