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Home & School Life 1940 - 1950
During the 1940's most women stayed at home to look after their
families. Their days were filled with washing by hand, drying outside and
ironing on the kitchen table. They bought fresh food from local shops, there
were no supermarkets or online shopping to make their task easier. regular
shopping was anecessity as there were no refridgerators. They cooked fresh
meals for their children coming home from school and their husbands returning
from work. Nationally most men worked in the manufacturing industries such as
steel making, shipbuilding and also coal mining. Most people in Westbourne had
electricity although one of my school friends had oil lamps. Again most had
inside toilets but a friend in Long Copse Lane had his at the top of his
garden. Few people had cars so playing in the roads was the norm as the nearest
park was in Emsworth. Similarly few people had a telephone, our nearest was in
the familiar red box by the post office in North Street. A black box with A and
B buttons for accepting the coins or returning them. The first TV seen was at
the chip shop in The Grove. It was a black and white picture that looked as if
it had been taken in a snow storm. Our entertainment came from the wireless
with the news of the war and serials such as Dick Barton. Homes were heated
with a coal fire and the floors were covered with and assortment of carpets. A
holiday was a day out was by bus or train at the beach or visiting relatives. A
holiday out of England was for the rich folk.
The 1944 Education Act gave every child free education to the
age of 15. This was later raised to 16 in 1973. In school it could be very cold
in winter as there was no central heating. Lavatories were built away from the
classrooms. Windows would often be high to distract children from seeing what
was going on outside. That did not stop me from being told off for daydreaming
particularly at secondary school. Every day each child received a free, small,
bottle of milk and a straw at the mid-morning break.
During the war food was in short supply in Britain as much came
from overseas by ships and many were sank by enemy submarines. Another factor
was that factory production was changed to concentrate on the war effort. This
resulted in a short supply of food, clothes and household goods. In 1940 ration
books were isued to each member of a family to control the buying of these
items. If you had used up a ration for a particular item you could not buy any
more until the next week. It is believed that vegetarians could use meat
coupons for other foods. In a way children, who had meals at school, had a
double ration as coupons were not required. Did that apply to the cooks as
well? During this time a familiar slogan was "make do and mend". As clothes
were in short supply, they were handed down to younger children, exchanged
between families, mended or made into different clothes. My mother was very
good at darning socks. |