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| Feathers were saved for stuffing pillows |
Raw materials of almost every kind were in short supply
during the war – paper, aluminium, animal feed, rubber etc. Everyone was called
to take care with what they used and to re-use whenever possible. Most urban streets had a pigswill bin that
residents put their scraps in – the contents being regularly collected and
boiled to feed a couple of local pigs, one to go to the government and one for
local use; children collected paper door-to-door perhaps using a baby’s pram;
feathers were collected to make pillows for servicemen and scraps of knitting
wool were used to make blanket squares. Shoes, boots and clothing were recycled
through jumble sales and swap shops. Bones were washed, collected, ground up and sterilized as a
fertilizer for the field and for home gardens. Unfortunately, the metals from
iron railings outside houses and aluminium pots and pans that were
patriotically donated to the war effort were mostly the wrong grade of metal for
the manufacture of war goods such as Spitfires. But in donating such goods,
there was a rise in public morale, with people feeling that they had “done
their bit for the war”.
HOW CAN I APPLY THE
ABOVE INFO TO MY LIFE?
We live in a “throw-away-generation” with a different
mentality to the 1940s. Goods are often made with the intention of having a
short life-span so that we will soon buy again. If one has a 40 year old car ,
fridge or washing machine that is giving no trouble, it may not make a lot of
sense to buy a new one that is destined for the rubbish heap within ten years!
I have made an attempt to down-size my wardrobe – and I have
to admit that it does cut down the time spent in working out what one will
wear! I re-use the plastic shopping bags brought home from the supermarket. And
any unwanted, but still useful house-hold items have made their way to the
second-hand shop.