General Chat

Lovely thread!

On the subject of shoe mending - Dad always kept our shoes soled and heeled and we still have the shoe last in the garage, together with a box of 'segs' for heels. I have just googled them and they are available on-line! We even had a relative who had a shoe sewing machine, who would replace leather soles from time to time. (I think those shoes were a bit like the everlasting broom - five new heads and three new handles, but it is still the same broom!)

Elisabeth

Do you remember picking up shrapnel after an air raid, I picked up a bit once, and it was hot, I dropped it quick.
We even done swapsies in shrapnel, like we did with comics.
What naughty children we were, there was a Motor Repair Garage at the end of our Street, and they left cars they were repairing in the road, us kids used to somehow get in them and just sit and pretend we were all driving along, taking it in turns to sit in the drivers seat. Maybe they were left open in case of fire, as I dont remember anyone actually breaking into them.

Elizabeth,
You have reminded me what the metal tips were...segs....They used to come on a card in different sizes.
...and shrapnel,,Teddys,I also collected it,and swapped it like we swapped marbles,and we had some big pieces in our garden.The simple pleasures our generation were happy with !!!

My uncles were in the N.Z. Artillery and they gave my mother some large polished empty shell cases for a present to stand on our mantelpiece. After the war finished they got relegated somewhere out of sight.and no one remembered where they went. They are quite valuable now as souvenirs of W.W.2.
On the subject of shoes.
We always had heel and toe plates put on them by either my father or the local shoemaker who put them on while you waited.
He also used to resole shoes as well.
It was quite fascinating watching him as he always had a mouth full of tacks.
We had a shoe last at home , I think everyone had one in those days and I also have one now which I am always intending to paint and use for a doorstop when I get a round "toit".
Speaking of shrapnel.
An Austrian friend who was a boy in Vienna during the war told me that he and his friend were walking home from school taking a shortcut through the local rubbish dump. They stopped to watch a dogfight going on in the sky between German and British planes, then they noticed red hot bits of shrapnel coming down. There was no where to hide so they dived into all the piles of rotting rubbish and tried to cover themselves up as much as they could. Luckily they didn't get hurt but they smelt awful and their clothes were filthy.
Margaret.

For anyone who may be interested in todays Daily Mail TV supplement there is a recipe for the wartime recipe for Wooton pie

Snowie

Have you tried making it yet Snowie:)

Lynda
Not tried it. Mind the photo of it did look quite attractive

Snowie

Perhaps you, Snowie, and other folk who look on this thread maybe interested in a programme on tomorrow night....

The Supersizers Go... Wartime

Tue 20 May, 21:00 - 22:00 60 mins

Restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins grab their ration books for one week, and chomp their way through the food of Second World War Britain. During blackouts and air raids they eat spam and dried egg, have some GIs round for tea and see what Churchill was eating in his Cabinet War Rooms.

Aided by cook Allegra McEvedy and dressed in clothes of the period, Sue and Giles experience what it was really like to eat and live on the homefront during the war. At the end of the week they celebrate with a slap up Victory Party. But how healthy is a diet of ration foods, is it as healthy as people say? Sue and Giles find out at the end when they visit the doctors.

Lynda
I had noticed it and intended to watch it Thanks all the same

Snowie

Lynda
I watched that programme last night until I got fed up of the bad manners. I know it was supposed to be humour but it didn’t appeal to me. I do know that if my table manners had been like his I wouldn’t have been able to sit on my backside for a week
Snowie

Hi Snowie, I agree, it wasn't the programme I thought it was going to be, a bit of a disapointment I thought. Shame, because the idea was good.

nudging for new members and to see what else we can remember

Thanks for the nudge Maz. I do hope more people will add there memories on here. I will soon be starting my one to one with a resident in a care home, and hope to show this thread, to jog there memories, and then hoping to add there memories on here.

Square shoulder pads, hair piled up high in front, gravy browning stockings, my sister going on a date by bicycle, high heels and all. Jean

Nudge for more memories.

Monthly nudge

oh good i would hate to lose this thread it would make a great history resource

Have had a good re-read of this thread today, worth keeping on the go.

I've copied it and edited the non memories stuff, but I haven't got the time myself or the typist to type it all out to produce a booklet/brochure

Mac

Nudged for the forties thread