The food shopping experience of the 1940s was very different from that of today. Customer making a purchase in a grocery shop during the Second World War. Interior view of a grocer’s shop with goods piled high on and behind the counter. The grocer offers a product to a woman customer. Egg substitutes and mixturesContinueContinue reading “A new shopping experience”
Category Archives: family life
When will the snow melt?!
Nowadays we are familiar with severe weather events – climate change has altered our seasons resulting in populations across the world experiencing forest fires, floods and droughts. But back in 1940s Britain such dramatic weather was unexpected. What’s more, there was little in the way of weather forecasting available for the average family – certainlyContinueContinue reading “When will the snow melt?!”
Dreaming of the ‘mother country’
In June 1948 the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury Docks bringing hundreds of passengers from the Caribbean who were hoping for a new life in Britain. During the Second World War, thousands of Caribbean men and women had been recruited to serve in the armed forces. Some had been to England during the war yearsContinueContinue reading “Dreaming of the ‘mother country’”
Hooligan, vandal or just plain bored?
Before we look at what youngsters were getting up to during the 1940s let’s consider some of terminology that we are so familiar with today – words that we tend to associate with young people… HooliganOrigin late 19th century, first found in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898, almost certainly from theContinueContinue reading “Hooligan, vandal or just plain bored?”
Books that shaped a decade
For the first half of the 1940s Britain was in the grip of war, followed, once the war ended, by years of austerity and hardship. So what about reading habits during those years? Was there still an attraction in the escapism offered by a good book? It seems the answer was ‘Yes’. Despite paper rationing,ContinueContinue reading “Books that shaped a decade”
More than a day out
Nowadays, for many people, an annual holiday – or even several annual holidays – are not just welcomed, they are accepted as the norm. Indeed, when the Covid pandemic meant that we were restricted to our home territory, at times even to our home town, then we felt hard done by. On the top ofContinueContinue reading “More than a day out”
A newcomer in the family
From the 1920s onwards the wireless set provided an increasing number of families with an opportunity to listen to music, drama and news broadcasts. Around half of the British population were able to settle down in the evening and enjoy a musical variety show, a comedy, or a play, while reading the paper, or doingContinueContinue reading “A newcomer in the family”
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