During the war, and for quite a few years after, you could not buy much in the shops, even if you had money.  You could only buy a certain amount of each commodity.  For example each adult was allowed to buy 170 grammes of butter each week.  You were given a book of coupons and when you wanted to buy butter or eggs or anything else you had to hand over a coupon you were not allowed to buy with cash.  Of course, people used to try to find ways around the system.  If you worked in a shop, or had a friend who worked in a shop then you were able to get a bit more of certain things.  Farmers and people who lived in the countryside were luckier because they produced their own butter, eggs, milk, cheese and meat.  It was more difficult for us people who lived in London and the big cities.

Special arrangements were made for expectant mothers; extra milk, cod liver oil, orange juice.  The period between September 1939 and May 1940 was called the ‘Phoney War’, it might have been to the people in Britain, but ships bringing food were already being attacked by German submarines.

During the worst time in 1942, one in every three or four ships bringing food, oil and weapons was sunk, most of these in the Atlantic Ocean.

America sent dried eggs and spam to us.  I suppose that they took up less space in the ships and they didn’t go bad.. The London docks were badly bombed too.  We were lucky if we ate one egg a week!.

Adults weekly ration (May 1941)

3 pints of milk
55g of tea
One shilling’s worth of meat
55g of cooking fat (animal fat)
30g of cheese
170g butter or margarine
225g sugar
115g bacon
225g jam

The slogan was ‘Dig For Victory!’ and everyone grew vegetables in their gardens.  Even parks such as Hyde Park were given over to growing food.

All the places I have worked

I started work at Sainsbury’s and I hated it!  All I had to do was sit behind a desk and count ration coupons all day.  It was so boring.  Each person had weekly food ration coupons; two ounces of bacon, two ounces of cheese, one pound of sugar, two ounces of tea, two ounces of butter or margarine and one coupon for a quarter of a pound of sweets.  I was the person who had to sort and count the coupons, but I didn’t stay there long, about four weeks, as it was so boring.  I remember my mum saying, “That girl is not happy”, and my dad declaring, “Right, I’ll go and sort it out.”

When I left school at fourteen, I wanted to be a hairdresser very much.  I even went on my own to the hairdresser’s shop at the Co-op.

The woman there said yes, she would be able to take me on for a year without pay, and she would teach me everything; I was over the moon with happiness!

I went back and told mum and dad, but my dad said “oh you can’t do that, it’s not good, all that hair floating about, it will get on your chest, it’s not good for you.”  So my dream was crushed, and I had to start work at Sainsbury’s, which I hated. 

My dad was getting me in the food shop to get extra food, I can see that now.  We did get extra food, fiddled of course.

The next job I had was at the Co-op (The Co-operative Wholesale Society).  I really loved it there, I couldn’t wait to go off to work in the mornings.  I enjoyed it because I was doing lots of different things.

I was put on the grocery counter and I had to weight up the tea, coffee, rice, prunes, sultanas and all sorts of other foods.  You would have to be careful about weighing as the ‘Weights Inspector’ could come and check all the packets and weights; if it was too heavy and not right you could get the sack. They were very keen as the war was on, so I was always careful and got them just right.

I also had to serve the customers which was fun because I could talk to them and have a laugh with them.  I liked the job because I was always doing something different.

Another place I enjoyed working was the provisions counter.  I loved cutting up the big round cheeses with the cheese wire after I had ‘skinned’ them first.  I also had fun with the butter pats.  I used to pat and shape the slabs of butter with wooden pats.  Then chop it, weigh it into half and quarter pound blocks, and buffet it into a proper shape before it was ready to wrap and be sold.

I was also allowed to operate the bacon-slicing machine; the side of bacon was put onto the machine and the spinning blade would cut the slices thick or thin, according to what the customer wanted.

The cheese came in huge blocks and was cut with a wire cutter.  The sugar came in sacks and had to be weighed into one and two pound bags.  I enjoyed serving and chatting to the customers.

After a while I was put on the cash desk.  In those days the Co-op used little metal cups to transfer the money to the cash desk. 

Anyway, these little metal cups that we had to put the money in ran on wires across the ceiling of the shop.  You would put the customer’s money into the cup, pull a cord, and send the cup with the money inside running along the wires to the cash desk.  The woman at the cash desk would take the cup down, put the change into it and send the cup whizzing back to the assistant, who then handed it over to the customer.

When it was my turn on the cash desk, I used to send love notes in the metal cups to the ‘Bacon Bonce’, the boy on the bacon counter.

Every customer had a ‘Dividend Number’, and the more they spent, the more dividend points they would get.  Every half-year the points were exchanged for a sum of money which was then taken off your next purchase.  I still remember my mum’s number, it was 93581.

If the air-raid siren went all the staff and customers were supposed to go out the back of the shop and into the warehouse, which was thought to be the safest place, I can’t think why.

Well, one day the siren went while I was serving a lady.  She dropped down on her hands and knees and I did the same on the other side of the counter.  We both crawled along and met head to head at the end of the counter; then we jumped up and fled out the back of the shop.  I have to laugh now to think of it, we were so scared that we didn’t realize what we were doing.

My sister Esme worked at the Co-op too, and as she was older she had to take her turn to go back in the evening to firewatch.  Because of the risk of fire bombs, most employees had to spend one or two nights a week at their place of work to be ready to put out any fires.

The Co-op provided bunk beds for this, and all the older ones had to take turns.  They had fire extinguishers and buckets of water in case an incendiary bomb fell on the roof or came through a window.

They had to sign on when they went fire watching and I used to tag along.  I thought it was exciting to go out in the blackout!

One evening, Esme and I were walking to the Co-op to firewatch.  It was pitch dark, and all of a sudden we heard someone walking behind us.  Suddenly Esme felt a hand on her leg!  She shouted out, “Get away from me your swine!” and lashed out with her handbag.  “Sod off!!” we said, and then we heard the footsteps going away.

We ran to get into the Co-op and as we got there we heard footsteps again.  Esme could hardly get the key in the door; we were so frightened.  She got the door open, and we fell through it and slammed it shut behind us.

After that we got a friend’s dad, who was a policeman, to call for us and walk us to the Co-op.  We went twice a week to firewatch.

One night we were fed up and bored with the firewatch, so after we had signed in we took ourselves off to the pictures to see ‘Gone with the Wind’.  We enjoyed it so much, it was so good we were mesmerized by it.

I don’t know what would have happened if a fire bomb had fallen on the Co-op; the whole place would have burnt down I suppose, because the firewatchers were all at the pictures watching ‘Gone With The Wind’ and imagining themselves as Miss Scarlett O’Hara!

I loved every minute I was there and the people were so nice that I worked with.

Going back to when I was sixteen, my sister Esme who you remember was working with me in the Co-op; she was made to leave and go into a munitions factory.  My other sister Lily, who was in a very good job over the West End, was made to work in the Woman’s Land Army.  Well Lily never liked anything physical, and she was no use whatsoever to the farmer working in the fields, so she ended up doing all his books and accounts and bills etc.

Then she was drafted into the A.T.S. (Air Training Service).  Dad was very proud of Lily in her uniform, she looked very smart.

I don’t remember exactly how long I worked at the Co-op, about three years I think, but when dad died I had to look for a better paid job to help mum.  I got a job at the Decca Records factory in Stockwell.  I had to put screws in the top of record players; they were in big wooden cabinets.

I used to chat up a young man there and make out that I didn’t know where the parts went, so he had to come close to me to show me what to do!  I remember one song in particular that they used to play over the tannoy ‘Dom Pedro the Green Cockatoo’ it was called, it was a Cha Cha.  Anyway, I soon got fed up with that.
My next job was at Freemans in the Clapham Road.  First they put me in the office.  I had to send out all different sorts of forms to people who were owing money.  I found it boring so I asked to be moved down to the packing department where they prepared all the orders.  It was more my line, I was walking around, not sitting down all day.

After dad died, some time later I went to work in a nursery.  I had to help look after the little children from one to five years old.  I really loved it there.  I was one of the helpers who helped the trained staff.

About half past eight the young mums would bring in the little ones, leave them and then go to work.  Then they would pick them up again at six o’clock.

First of all I would take off their coats and put them all on potties.  After that I would wash them and give them orange juice.  Then we would sit them down around little tables ready for breakfast.  After that the trained staff would take over.  Sometimes, if it were a nice day, we would take them to the park to play on the swings.  I used to think myself lucky to be out in the fresh air and getting paid for it.  Other times we would play with the children in the big nursery garden, or put on records and dance with them.  I really loved that job!

Then I went back to the Co-op until I got married and moved to Cricklewood to Eric’s parent’s house.

The first two months that I was in Cricklewood, I worked in a biscuit factory.  I had to climb up a few small steps and stand at the top in front of what was called a ‘hopper’, which was a hole with three iron bars across it.

What I had to do was push the biscuit dough through the bars and it would come out on a long rubber belt and move along to be cut into biscuit shapes.  Then it would pass through the ovens and on to the other side where some more girls would pack the biscuits into boxes.

Well, all went well for a while until I got talking to a young man.  When I looked back along the belt all of the biscuit pastry was going along in bits and pieces, so I got told off, and I deserved to be, but looking back I have to laugh.

I soon left the biscuit factory because I was pregnant with Ann.  After Ann was born we lived for a few months in my mother’s house and then we moved to Bedford where Eric had got a job.  We were in Bedford for four years and I had my son Christopher there, then we moved on again to Market Harborough because Eric had got a new job at Mawer & Saunders ironmongers.

Before my son Alan was born I had a part time job at Emersons bakers; it was a nice job selling bread and cakes.  After Alan was born I didn’t work again until my youngest daughter, Lyn, started school at five.  It was an evening job at Tescos supermarket filling the shelves.

After that I worked at the cinema as an usherette, ice-cream lady, behind the snack bar, Bingo lady and behind the cash desk.  I used to take Alan and Lyn with me and they enjoyed running around and watching the films.

Then I worked in Freeman Hardy Willis shoe shop, part time of course, I was always there for the children when they come home from school.

I also worked as a home help and went around to a lot of houses in Market Harborough.  Some were very nice and some were very helpless old folk, but I got on well with them all.  I got their places tidy up to my liking, and then I was happy for them.

One old lady thought her husband was upstairs, but he had died three months earlier, poor old girl.  Another used to have money laying around all over the place; good thing I was honest!  I could write a book about my home help job!

Boyfreinds

I remember my first boyfriend was called Geoffrey.  He worked at the Co-op and so did I, we were both fifteen.  On our first date we went to a variety show in Brixton, at a theatre called the ‘Old Vic’.  We went up in the very cheapest seats on the highest balcony; these were called ‘The Gods’ (because you were so high up you were near to the gods I suppose).

We saw ‘Big Bill Campbell And His Rocky Mountain Rhythm’.  We paid one shilling to get in, and these were the cheapest seats, right up near the ceiling.  When you looked down at the stage the people looked tiny!  Geoffrey and I went out together on and off for about two years.

Next I went out with John.  He was my first passion!  We used to kiss and cuddle, but never went too far.  Well, I went off him because when I first met him he was dressed in the uniform of the Scots Regiment; but it turned out that he wasn’t in the army, he was too young.  He had picked the uniform up somewhere, probably from the Army and Navy surplus shop.  Anyway, I thought he was very handsome in the uniform and took him for a real soldier.

Then one day I saw him going down the street dressed in old clothes, pushing a handcart and calling “Any old clothes any old clothes?”  I was mortified.  I thought, “My God, I’ve been going out with a barrow-boy!”

I must have been a stuck-up little miss, because the next time he came knocking on our front door I was ready for him.  I opened the door and said, “I won’t be coming out with you anymore, as I have another boy I’m going out with now.”  I didn’t have another boy, so I went back out with Geoffrey for a while.

I never forgot John though, and for along time after I would keep my eyes looking everywhere in the hope of seeing him again, but I never did.

After that I met and went out with different boys until I met Eric; I was about twenty-one and a few months when we first met.

By Elsie Turner