OMG I'm feeling old

[AleisterCrowley]

Was that Cob Records in Portmadoc?

[Alaric]

Point of order, your honour. Ration books were reissued during the early 1970s as a temporary measure (old wartime stock), but in the event they were never needed.

As far as I'm aware, it was only petrol rationing that might have been implemented. That could be tied to car registration so not difficult. If the wartime model had been applied, food rationing would have needed everyone to register with a particular store which I don't recall happening. Shortages yes and stores limiting purchases, but not a formal food scheme.

[bungeejumper]

If the wartime model had been applied, food rationing would have needed everyone to register with a particular store which I don't recall happening. Shortages yes and stores limiting purchases, but not a formal food scheme.

Correct, we're both agreed that actual food rationing didn't happen, although they did dig out the ration books in readiness. I have a vague memory of being required to flash the fuel book when I bought petrol, but maybe that's just nostalgia? I do remember that garages weren't allowed to sell you more than a few gallons at a time, which created some pretty impressive queues at the petrol stations. (I think it was due to industrial action by the tanker drivers rather than any actual shortage of the commodity itself?)

It's debatable whether the old wartime food rationing system of having to register at a particular shop for food could ever have been made to work in the 1970s, so they'd have had to amend the rules if they'd ever put the ration books into use. By the 1970s a more mobile (and much more time-stressed) population was buying half its food in the supermarkets, and if you'd asked them to nominate a single grocery store for their rations they'd all have said Tesco or Sainsburys - just for the convenience, and also for the better likelihood of finding alternatives available if their first choices weren't in stock. Whereupon the small butchers and bakers would all have gone out of business pretty darn quickly. All this was clearly understood at the time.

What else was "rationed" by the stores, besides sugar? Bog rolls, certainly, and I'm pretty sure that bread was limited in some places.

BJ

[Alaric]

What else was "rationed" by the stores, besides sugar? Bog rolls, certainly, and I'm pretty sure that bread was limited in some places.

I think there was a panic on salt. TV showed that salt came from an enormous mine in Cheshire and wasn't imported.

Periodic shortages went on for years, the last sugar shortage overlapping with the change of government in 1979. In the consumer orientated 1980s perhaps supermarkets took more care to ensure their supply chains were robust. Arguably since the 1970s the average household has much more food in storage in freezers and fridges, so short term interruptions in supermarket availability don't cause panic buying.

[PinkDalek]

Was that Cob Records in Portmadoc?

Yes. I think they were discussed briefly in the old pub before it closed.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/wales/archiv ... ecords.pdf includes:

By 1971 business was booming - we were mailing about
7,500 LPs a week to some 25,000 customers in over 50
countries.

[redsturgeon]

Example of 70's ration book Here

Yes it was only motor fuel that was potentially going to be rationed, I remember the ration books.

John

[AleisterCrowley]

Was that Cob Records in Portmadoc?

Yes. I think they were discussed briefly in the old pub before it closed.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/wales/archiv ... ecords.pdf includes:

By 1971 business was booming - we were mailing about
7,500 LPs a week to some 25,000 customers in over 50
countries.

Ah, been there, and past it many times during family hols.
I used to get mine from Adrian's (?) in Wickford mail order I think, and another place in Telford/Wellington. Plus the occasional trips to proper record stores in Wolves/Brum and even...London
It's all a bit blurry now.

[DiamondEcho]

Me: Jam-making in the autumn > all the family called into duty.
UncleEb: When did that change? Surely that's a demographic, not a generation.

Is it common among the working class these days to make their own jam? I've been ex-UK for 8/+ years now, perhaps there has been a kitchen revolution meanwhile.

Me: Hanging out at local farms helping with milking/harvest etc., esp if the farmer had a looker for a daughter.
UncleEb: Gerrorffmoiland!

Ah, you're bringing your perceptions of class into it, but 'you've got it all wrong'.

Me: Absorbing the lore and feel for the land that the local farmers etc had.
UncleEb: Like the 19th century commentators bemoaning the passing of contact with the land?

And now you've completely lost me...

[Slarti]

Was that Cob Records in Portmadoc?

Yes. I think they were discussed briefly in the old pub before it closed.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/wales/archiv ... ecords.pdf includes:

By 1971 business was booming - we were mailing about
7,500 LPs a week to some 25,000 customers in over 50
countries.

Ah, been there, and past it many times during family hols.
I used to get mine from Adrian's (?) in Wickford mail order I think, and another place in Telford/Wellington. Plus the occasional trips to proper record stores in Wolves/Brum and even...London
It's all a bit blurry now.

You'll be glad to hear its still going http://www.adriansrecords.co.uk/

Slarti

[DiamondEcho]

Me: 'Rationing of basic goods, with ration books [early 70s], fuel, sugar, flour, bread, etc.'

Alaric: That never happened. The last rationing was in the 1950s. What did happen during the Wilson/Callaghan governments was periodic shortages where supermarkets would sell out of some basic commodity like sugar, bread or salt. Similar panics, usually petrol or diesel are not unknown in recent years.
-------------

There were definitely petrol rationing cards/books issued as I recall us having a couple of those in the house. I was likely too young to have a wider/informed/[adult] perspective on it though, and how that panned out.

There was a sense of impending doom across the country, against the background of wall to wall strikes and the threat of the Ruskies nuking us. Oh and as weird as it might sound now this was also when we were all told we'd die in the soon to arrive new ice age.

I recall planning for Xmas one year around that time, 73?, intending to buy my parents bags of flour, sugar and other such basics [hairspray!] and so on. I think someone politely suggested that wouldn't be very Xmassy though. Instead I made match containers, using empty steel sweet tins [like 'travel sweets' you might have in the car]. I filled them with Swan matches and glued the sand striker panel on the base of the tin. ....who knows, perhaps the idea came from Blue Peter

[Slarti]

Me: 'Rationing of basic goods, with ration books [early 70s], fuel, sugar, flour, bread, etc.'

Alaric: That never happened. The last rationing was in the 1950s. What did happen during the Wilson/Callaghan governments was periodic shortages where supermarkets would sell out of some basic commodity like sugar, bread or salt. Similar panics, usually petrol or diesel are not unknown in recent years.
-------------

There were definitely petrol rationing cards/books issued as I recall us having a couple of those in the house. I was likely too young to have a wider/informed/[adult] perspective on it though, and how that panned out.

There was a sense of impending doom across the country, against the background of wall to wall strikes and the threat of the Ruskies nuking us. Oh and as weird as it might sound now this was also when we were all told we'd die in the soon to arrive new ice age.

I recall planning for Xmas one year around that time, 73?, intending to buy my parents bags of flour, sugar and other such basics [hairspray!] and so on. I think someone politely suggested that wouldn't be very Xmassy though. Instead I made match containers, using empty steel sweet tins [like 'travel sweets' you might have in the car]. I filled them with Swan matches and glued the sand striker panel on the base of the tin. ....who knows, perhaps the idea came from Blue Peter

Fascinating the way different people have different memories of the same period.

We each had our set of petrol ration books issued, one per car, but never expected to use them and didn't

The strikes of the Winter of Discontent basically didn't affect me at all, even the fake power cuts* were not that much of a problem as the pubs stayed open. And I don't remember there actually being any shortages of anything in the shops, except when the press tried to whip up another bit of panic buying.

First year at college, with all those pretty ladies to chase may have put rose tinted glasses on my selfish young eyes, but it all seemed exagerated.

And as for fear of the bomb, why worry about what you can't control? Even though my parents were ardent CND members.

Slarti

* For various reasons my Dad had contacts at CEGB and NCB and found out that at the end of the 3 day week, the stocks of coal at the power stations were at record highs. There was never any need for the power to be shut off.

[bungeejumper]

On the generality of 'progress', I'll bet there are a lot of things you know how to do that yoof doesn't:

Rotary phone (we have two, one is a candlestick)
Double declutching.
Manual choke.
Change a wheel.

(Continued on page 94...)

I remember how, at one family gathering, I amazed the assembled fortysomethings in the lounge with the old trick of getting a slow-burning coal fire going by stretching a piece of newspaper across the hearth. We used to do it all the time when I were a lad.

I don't know what impressed them more - the great roaring sound, the fury, the glowing yellow light of the flames showing through the newspaper, or the violent way that the draught sucked it in toward the flue. I think they were actually a little bit scared, because the room was shaking a bit. It was completely outside their experience.

Having got the fire restarted very nicely, and having withdrawn my newspaper with only slight scorching , I took a bow to rapturous applause. I don't know how I could have followed the act, short of picking up the blazing kindling and juggling with it.

Me, I was just glad that I hadn't let go of the paper and let it catch fire halfway up the chimney. Fire brigade call-outs are so embarrassing.

BJ

[redsturgeon]

I remember how, at one family gathering, I amazed the assembled fortysomethings in the lounge with the old trick of getting a slow-burning coal fire going by stretching a piece of newspaper across the hearth. We used to do it all the time when I were a lad.

I still regularly do that, I must remember to wait for an audience next time. Of course only a broadsheet will do for this!

John

[bionichamster]

Yes it was only motor fuel that was potentially going to be rationed, I remember the ration books.

I have one of the ration books (have just checked the filing cabinet and it's still there!) I think it's for 6 months with four tokens per month two for 1'L' units and two for 2'N' units, whatever they were. My dad never threw anything out, and I'm just carrying on the tradition!

I amazed the assembled fortysomethings in the lounge with the old trick of getting a slow-burning coal fire going by stretching a piece of newspaper across the hearth. We used to do it all the time when I were a lad.

Problem with that method was that every once in a while the newspaper caught fire if sufficient care wasn't taken, my father eventually reduced this risk by pop riveting two small sheets of metal together, cutting them to the appropriate size and fitting a big brass handle so it could held up to the fire and seal the opening, no danger of it catching fire, mind you it could get pretty hot if you kept at it.

BH

[Alaric]

There was a sense of impending doom across the country

If you think 1973, I had the impression that the party started in 1963 with "the Beatles first LP" well and truly ended with the draw against Poland at Wembley and consequent elimination from the World Cup towards the end of that year. According to Brian Clough, the Polish goalkeeper was a clown. After that match, nanny switched off the TV at 10:30 pm and closed the pubs at the same time for good measure. Three day weeks and a ban on using power for office lighting were the next restrictions. I can recall working on a pen and ink spreadsheet using a cathode ray tube equipped calculator to supply the illumination.

The General Election of early 1974 had Ted Heath asking "who governs". The election result was "not you". Not that the more Socialist Labour government did much better. Apparently a university exam paper in economics suggested that there were trade-offs between inflation, unemployment, balance of payments and government borrowing. At the end of 1974 all 4 were looking badly adrift along with the Stock Market. At that time the UK had been in the EEC for two years, but that wasn't fingered as the cause of the disasters. It probably wasn't, perhaps it was the Heath government discovering monetarism. It wasn't the austerity and cuts associated with the later Thatcher government, rather the notion that if you printed lots of money and relaxed credit controls you got lots of growth.

[NomoneyNohoney]

There was a sense of impending doom across the country

Three day weeks and a ban on using power for office lighting were the next restrictions. I can recall working on a pen and ink spreadsheet using a cathode ray tube equipped calculator to supply the illumination.

T

My memory of that time, was buying some car batteries and some 12volt fluorescent tubes and rigging those up throughout the office.
Charged them when we had power, and used the fluorescent tubes for light, when there was no mains power.