Me and my gasmask-tin started Infants' school
on the same day in 1940.
Come to think of it, we were never far away
from each other for the next five years.
Our Mam said times were hard, what with
the food rationing and all that.
We often had bread and lard for tea, but
to be honest, I acquired quite a taste for it.
Well, you couldn't waste anything in those days!
Mam said it was like feeding the devil if
you threw away any bread,
what with so many people dead or dying
so we could all be free.
Sometimes, though, at Sunday tea we had
tinned fruit, but Mam made us all eat bread with that
yet nobody seemed to get fat, so I suppose
it must have 'done us good'.
Remember eating chewing-wood in the streets
because there weren't any sweets to buy?
When I hear today's toddlers cry for them
in supermarkets, it makes me wild,
and I want to say, "You should have been a child
in my day!"
Mind you, we never seemed unhappy
and I often wonder why our Mam
said times were very bad.
I just remember all that bread
and loving Mam and Dad.
by
Shirley Frances Winskill 1997
