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National Geographic : 1947 Dec
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Keeping House in London Staff Photographer B. Anthony Stewart Women Bear the Vexations of Rationing-the Walking, Queuing, and Questioning Recently a Scottish housewife wrote a speech intended for delivery in Parliament. "Men," she said, "have got the country into the state it is today. What do they know about queuing and food shortages?" London's rationing offices are efficient and reasonably swift. As the sign indicates, certain exceptions are made: Underground miners get extra meat; children, invalids, and expectant mothers receive additional milk and eggs; extra tea goes to the aged (over 70); vegetarians get more cheese. Daylight barely penetrates to the rearward recesses of this rich brown decor. On the lower shelf is a row of rectangular tin boxes labeled "Castor" (sugar), "Pink Icing," (also sugar), and "Powdered Rice." Above them is a row of giant tea caddies which hold tea, coffee, oatmeal-in fact, most of the granular items sold. Both sets of canisters are painted brown and embellished with the red and gold imita tion Chinese scenes and characters so popular in Queen Victoria's day. Many provisioners' shops, however, are quite modern, with white-marble counters and neat shelves of packaged goods. The provisioner, evidently by tradition, handles bacon as well as other basic rations. The bacon is not included in the meat ration supplied by the butcher. Even in normal times the Englishman could never get too much bacon; restriction of his supply now is one of the hardest crosses of all to bear. We like the English bacon, too, and I watch as anxiously as the housewife next to me while the clerk jiggles his brass balance weights against the thin succulent slices of my allotted ration. Processed Foods Also Controlled The provisioner also sells the processed foods controlled by the point rationing system. Each person gets 28 points a month, which he can spend against biscuit, macaroni, and dried eggs; or tinned foods like peas, beans, fruits, meat, and fish; or puddings, or dried fruits, table jellies (gelatins), and dry cereals. A young English friend of ours, recently "demobbed" and unfamiliar with the rigors of civilian life, threw his new ration book and his fortune on a provisioner's counter and asked the clerk what, out of all the food riches in the 781
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