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National Geographic : 1947 Dec
Contents
Keeping House in London English motorcars and freight cars (here they call the latter "goods wagons") seem reduced in scale compared with American counterparts. English spinach I found difficult to rec ognize among all the greengrocer's g r e e n eries, as its arrow shaped leaves have no gloss. Water cress is abundant, cheap, and palatable. Peaches are purchased one by one and are handled as lux uries, the price varying from 10 to 30 cents apiece, according to size and season. Regular Customers Get Scarce Items Greengrocers may hold back scarce items for regular customers. They are not on the defensive about this at all, but imply that a stranger has over stepped some kind of boundary by making an inquiry. Our vege tables have come from the same one or two shops every day we have been in England, but grapefruit is still very often for"reg'lars" only. This is, of course, but one manifestation Plx A Week's Meat Ration Fries for One Meal Each adult Briton is entitled to a shilling's worth (20 cents) of fresh, tinned, and processed meat a week. Babies get less. Bacon-one ounce a week-is rationed separately. Ham is but a memory. Butter, margarine, and cooking fat are held to seven ounces a week (page 784). of British steadiness and loyalty to old friends. Sometimes it goes much further. One day I overheard a woman asking the greengrocer if he had any rasp berries. "We-l -l, only just what my partner was going to take home with him," he replied. "Fred," he shouted toward the back of the shop, "there's a lady here wants to buy some of your raspberries." Fred appeared, and a lively conversation followed. The woman ob jected that she wouldn't dream of taking any of the berries he'd saved for his own family, and Fred insisted that she was welcome to them. They settled the argument finally with each taking half. The butcher displays his wares in a geo- metric, if iceless, design. Appropriately for tradition's sake, tins of corned beef are rele gated to the background of the display, while "Scotch and English" rolled roasts, steaks, chops, and legs of lamb occupy the limelight until they are all sold. Meat Proudly Displayed-While It Lasts These central-display items are bounded by turkey and goose eggs (sold at about 50 cents each) and occasional chickens or ducks or turkeys, guinea hens, tiny wild game birds, wood pigeons, wild duck, or rows of rabbits. A flippant touch, which even the gruffest, most fiercely mustachioed butcher brandishing the wickedest of blades can't live down, is 783
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