General Chat

I have added a thread for this, but I know lots of people look in on this thread, and maybe interested in this......

It's a repeat of a programme first broadcast in 1999, part of a series in which Charles Wheeler marks the sixtieth anniversary of the wartime evacuation of Britain's cities. Evacuees, teachers, billeting officers and a top wartime civil servant describe the emotional events leading up to the first day of evacuation.

If you didn't hear it and would like to, it's on again at 9.30 tonight, or you can listen online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/schedule/ and go to the link.

This is well worth a listen, I learned a lot from it, didn't realise that 250,000 children, left there families on the first day to be evacuated,

There are lots of people telling there stories of how it was, and how they felt about leaving there homes.

If you like history, this is a must.

Hope you enjoy,

Nudged for the forties thread

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

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

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

Monthly nudge

Nudge for more memories.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Snowie

Have you tried making it yet Snowie:)

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

Snowie

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.

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 !!!

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.