I belonged to an average sort of family during the war. The children in my class varied from a local doctor's daughter, the vicar's daughter, war heroes' orphans through the rag and bone man's daughter to those children who slept 8 to a bed . The rag and bone man's daughter was brought to school on the cart..... sometimes without having underwear and shoes to wear
My father was in the fire Service at the time. My friends all ate the same simple diet. I remember celery and salt, a boiled onion, an occasional egg, my grandmother's magnificent wartime creations of all kinds
My aunt taught me to iron wrapping paper after Christmas , to tie ends of string together, to unpick ,wash and hang wool to dry in skeins. This would be reknit into jumpers for the children in the family My grandmother always wore brown clothing so this was cut down on little bodices to make skirts for me My aunt made the most magnificant Fair-Isle items out of the old wool ( she made up the patterns herself) A friend, whose mother was the props mistress for a local theatre company would come to school variously dressed as Heidi, Maid of the Mountains or whatever costume fitted
A long preamble to Am I tight?.... wow , not at all but we learnt through the necessity of making the best of whatever we had and mending the rest
I still continue in the same careful way as do my children although a couple of them are quite distressed at the profligate way of their spouses
Post menopausally my hair has started to grow in a quite different direction No hairdresser here seems able to calm it so I have no further expense there
No creams seem to make my bumpy skin any better Food wise, I am lucky enough still to be able to buy what we want to eat ( also occasioned by wartime patterns) It is very difficult to buy offal and cheaper cuts and those which I find I am now slow cooking over the wood stove.
A plague of moths has led me to invent ways of mending my ( rather expensive) jumpers
Never felt the need to compete with friends It was before the days of social media and we all received support from our close community. Jobs and incomes were not discussed and we all lived very simple lives, making much of our own entertainment
All I can say is 'Other times, other customs'
and apologies if anyone thinks I have strayed too far off topic
