A Big Change… 1944

It’s been 2 years since my husband was killed in the war. It was an early loss in 1940 at Dunkirk. The children were so upset but they’d already got used to Daddy not being here. So I got on with it as best I could. I joined the WVS, helped out wherever I could and made the best of life alone. And then George came along. Home on leave, so charming and handsome, and lonely. He made the children giggle and smile, and that was enough to lighten my heart. So here we are. In 4 weeks time we are moving in with George! This means my wedding day is in less than 4 weeks! I’m excited and scared and very nervous, but this is still wartime and I want to look after George the way he deserves after rescuing me. My daughter has decided it’s time to rent her own rooms and is staying in the city to be able to work. So there’s lots of changes happening. Sometimes I’m not sure I’m ready for it all.

Me and George are getting married before we move in with him. I’m just wearing my best dress, and there isn’t any chance of having a big cake, so a few of my neighbours and ladies from the WVS are chipping in their rations to help me bake a cake. I want to  make George proud, so I will get together some bits and pieces to make sure its a lovely day. He’s a very special man to take on a widow, and we’re not sure when this war is going to end but its already May, and the year is going by so quickly.

Its very hard to move home. I’ve lived in this house since I married my Harry, and the children were all born here. I don’t think the children really like the idea of moving out but they do love George. Sometimes it makes them very churlish and other times angry with me, but all in all, we are looking forward to being a family again. I have coped by myself for 2 years now, and I’m so looking forward to being a family again. Lots of my worries will go away, and looking after a man again will feel nice. Of course it will be much nicer when this horrible war is over.

When me and George are married I may have to give up the WVS but I will ask him if I can still help out.  I expect him to be away a lot until its all over.

I’m hoping that things will settle down after the move. The next 4 weeks are going to be all over the show. I’ve so many things to do, and I’m hoping the children will all help me. I am starting a new life. Its wartime, and it always seems as though there is no time to waste.

Keep your pecker up! xx

Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom

This is a story with interdependent relationships, winding roads and the inertia of war…moving along under its own fuel of obligation, social expectation, love, loss and devastation. Set during World War II, our narrator Harry Brett has suffered at Dunkirk and finds himself reluctantly working as a spy in Spain, ‘watching’ his old schoolboy chum Sandy who is suspected of anti-government shady business dealings. Its 1940, and the Spanish Civil War is over and has left the country flat both literally and metaphorically, and to add insult to injury, Hitler is marching through Europe.

Its a compelling tale of love and nostalgia, against a backdrop of vivid and haunting wartime Spain, and takes the reader to the very core of living with intense choices to make and the consequences thereafter.

I found the sub story about Barbara intensely moving. Here is a woman, as shell shocked from war as her counterpart Harry; not something that is usually considered in wartime narratives, who rebels against her own chosen salvation, to rise up in hope once more. In some ways, her and Harry are very much alike.

The enduring ‘feel’ of this story, is one of reality…the reader gets the sense that as with life, not everything is plotted and known in advance. This quality sustains the readers attention, along with the affable writing style, and historical fact.

I would recommend it either on Kindle or in paperback. Lots of tea!

Keep your pecker up! xx

Pitch in for Victory 18th May

Pitch in for Victory
 ~ one day, two events ~

one "Truly Vintage Cause"

Help raise money for a national memorial to honour the Women’s Land Army.

Come to this spectacular vintage celebration on Saturday, May 18th, 2013 at the Staffordshire County Showground, comprising two separate events

~ a Vintage Jamboree during the day and

~a Dance to Victory during the evening.

“I was cycling home,” she says, “all alone, no cars about – it was blackout time – I had a light on my bike but it had a cowl over it so it couldn’t be seen from above – and I heard a plane overhead. I knew it was German – ours had a continual drone, theirs were like a motorbike. I thought ‘oh dear, I’d better get back quick’. All of a sudden this plane dropped flares. It lit the whole area up like bright daylight – and there was me just cycling along. They were either mapping the place or looking where to drop bombs. I tell you, I didn’t half pedal!”

Staffordshire businesswomen, Sharon Taylor of Always Red Events and Lisa Oakley, owner of LottyBlue an online vintage homewares store, are combining their considerable strengths to support the Staffordshire Branch of the Women’s Food & Farming Union (WFU) in their efforts to raise funds for a permanent memorial to be sited at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, to honour the work of the Women’s Land Army during the war years.

 

 

Both events have all the ingredients to recapture and embrace the flavour and sounds of the war years.

Lola Lamour

 

The daytime Jamboree features the stuff that any War time foodie would be happy to experience! With the likes of Lord Wooten pie, Spam and Trifle in the offing, who could resist! For those more interested in dressing up for a  1940′s themed Dance the evening will be a delight of musical nostalgia and swing dance.

 

 

More about the Tribute Campaign:

The Women’s Land Army Tribute’s campaign aims to raise £100,000, to enable the commission of a bronze life-sized sculpture (based on the war time recruitment poster) to honour the work of the Women’s Land Army and Women’s Timber Corps during the wars years.  If you don’t already know, during wartime it was up to volunteer girls to work our rural lands, to help feed the war effort and the nation, as well as helping to maintain wood supplies, hence the references to these young girls as Land Girls and Lumber Jill’s.

Girls…

Keep your pecker up! xx

Did women wear nail polish during wartime?

“There’s a ruddy war on”

“If you had been wearing nail polish the night before you only took it off your thumb”

The Wartime Memories of a wee WAAF 

I had never considered this particular question of regular women wearing nail polish during wartime before, only that movie icons, and brand adverts depict a range of colours that would match any professional lacquer today. So I decided to do a bit of reading! (Of course!)

In 1937, Revlon started selling nail polish in department stores. By 1940, Revlon offered an entire manicure line, and added lipstick to the collection, being the first brand to introduce matching nail polish and lipstick colours to consumers. During World War II, Revlon created makeup and related products for the US Army, which was honored in 1944 with an award for excellence. During wartime, some cosmetic companies manufactured for the war effort e.g. Revlon factories made first-aid kits and dye markers for the US Navy.

Generally, nails would be painted to match lips in various shades of red and pink although clear varnish, often used as a top coat could also be found. Other colours such as gold became more available after the war when the pressure of rationing started to ease.

So did women wear nail polish during wartime?

From the reading I have done, it seemed to depend on your ‘situation’ before the war. Girls who worked behind the make up counter in department stores continued to ‘find’ nail polish to wear, but it would be saved for special occasions. Women who were billeted to work in munitions and on the land – well it just wouldn’t have been appropriate or worth while. Nail polish did become increasingly hard to come by, as less and less polish was manufactured as glycerin was a main component used in vital munitions, and generally, items that were imported became increasingly hard to obtain where supply ships were bombed and lost at sea . A lot of reading points to how nails were manicured, rounded tips and half moon manicures. Again I think this depended on your ‘situation’. I very much doubt that women had the time or the inclination to worry about obtaining a half moon manicure, which is actually quite difficult and time consuming to achieve successfully! I think a lot of the notion of what nails looked like came from the movie industry of the day, and without a doubt I would imagine the likes of Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan and Rita Hayworth to be sporting a blood red rounded tip (half moon) manicure!

 This question of wartime, women and cosmetics is an enduring one. There are endless blog posts about it (including mine) as well as specialist 1940s Beauty teams for 1940s events and vintage fairs. This may be because Churchill engendered a notion of fighting the enemy by keeping our morale up and looking our best. Magazines and newspapers had an endless flow of hints and tips for scrimping and making your powders and lipsticks last longer. Glamour was propagated as a way of lifting the wearer from the awful reality of war, not just for herself, but for her soldier too.

How much we take for granted the availability of our cosmetics and other sundry feminine items.

'still time for charm'

Boots Number 7

Keep your pecker up! xx

Doing your bit for the war effort

‘I would caution you all to remember that it is your duty to your country to give our brave soldiers what comfort you can.A cup of tea, a gentle touch, a listening ear – all of these things are important.’ *

This may be a fictional quote, but the work of the WRVS (formerly WVS) founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading as a British women’s organization to aid civilians, and the women ARP wardens also founded in 1924, was a significant contribution to the Homefront war effort.

Are you doing your bit
 for the war effort?

Women ARP (Air Raid Protection) Wardens

WVS Mobile Canteen

When the men came home in their hurried droves from the beaches of Dunkirk in June 1940, it was the WVS who went to out to comfort them in what little way they could. These were brave young women amongst others,  who had never faced a man in such physical as well as mental distress. Churchill described the men of  The Battle of Dunkirk as ”the whole root and core and brain of the British Army”. In his We shall fight on the beaches speech on the 4th June 1940, he hailed their rescue as a “miracle of deliverance”.

The WVS provided essential evacuation services for civilians from urban areas. They also played a significant role in the collection of clothes for the needy (the bombed out families), as well as providing food and drink around the clock. The mobile canteens were a salvation to those needing a warm drink and friendly face, but the WVS also helped thousands of people who were injured or who had lost their homes in the bombings not only in the London Blitz, but also in other cities. As a consequence of this the WVS also set up Information points known as IIPs (incident inquiry points) so that civilians could find out about lost loved ones.

It wasn’t just these women volunteers doing their bit for the war effort though. Every woman who wrote to her man, every woman who made a meal from rations, every woman who waved goodbye to her child as part of the evacuation initiative, every woman who continued to go to work, or work the land as a land girl, or work in ammunitions factories, or work across the country in jobs left vacant by fighting men, were doing their bit to defeat Hitler.

And then there were the women who joined the fighting services…

Keep your pecker up! xx

*Goodnight Sweetheart, Annie Groves

Things have got pretty bad now…1944

This horrid war has been going
 on and on, and I wonder if it
 will ever end. 

I keep smiling through because we can’t let that dreadful Hitler get the better of us, but there are days when I feel such despair I can’t remember what life was like before this austerity, devastation all around us, and worry.

Today my daughter has a day off from her nursing training, and she is so exhausted from her long hours, that her smiling face is a real treat to me. She should be in bed, asleep, but she has gotten up to help get the boys ready for school and help me with the chores. She’s such a good girl. I’m making her a new dress to treat her with from one of my old beauties from before the war. She’s really proud of me, I’ve been sending off my diaries to the Mass Observation people pretty much since the war started. At first I felt a bit silly, but with the childrens’ Dad away with the Army, it helped for me to write it all down. It stopped me from writing to him every day which would have driven him insane too! I wonder how many other people are doing the same thing.

Today I’m going to try to make a special cake to give out on the mobile canteen. The WVS are such a great bunch, it really keeps me chipper. We’re having a drive on knitting socks and gloves for our servicemen. If we’re feeling fed up, imagine how terrible they must all be feeling.

The cake is made! We don’t have any fresh eggs, haven’t seen one for years, but its alright because we can’t really remember how cakes made with real eggs tasted now. I still have hope that one day things will get back to normal. I know we should really keep everything we need for ourselves, but we’ve such good community spirit, that I do so love feeling of some help. Everyone has to do their bit for the war effort.

Listening to the radio now, and I have to say my 2 favourite songs this year are GI Jive by Louis Jordan and I’ll Be Seeing You by Bing Crosby. They do lift the spirits.

Hoping for a letter tomorrow…

Keep your pecker up! xx

In the face of adversity…1940s glamour

1940s domestic telephone

In the midst of so much hardship, and threat to life, how did the girls of the ’40s manage to ‘keep their pecker up’? A little bit of motivation from Churchill, to show Hitler that we could still carry on, work hard, look beautiful, fall in love, and show strong moral fibre!

Goldwyn Girls in the UK, 1946

1940s fashion

Drawing on 'stockings'

Sometimes, I think women of that generation are formidable, stoic creatures. They endured. Life was more immediate, and it was also at times towards the end of the war, a lot about making do and getting on with it. We have the beauty of hindsight, but they didn’t know in 1939 how long they would have to persevere. When I’m feeling a little blue, I reach for the red lipstick or some glitter nail polish. What did women of the ’40s used to reach for?

Keep your pecker up! xx

A 1940s Wartime Wedding?

Wartime Iced Cardboard
 Cake Cover

I’ve often thought that if I get married (again), that I would like to have a “1940s Wedding”. Of course my very practical and totally ‘un-vintage’ Soldier said no! So I decided to investigate what weddings were really like during Wartime.

Wartime Wedding

They may seem romantic to us, and possibly they were, but Wartime Weddings had a few hitches that many of us wouldn’t want for a “Wartime Wedding” or “1940s Wedding” today!

Here are a few of them:

Short notice

Done on a 48hour leave pass

Borrowed dress or parachute silk wedding dress or just your best dress!

Paper hole punch confetti

Lack of Wedding photo or one taken months later

Prayer book bouquet substitute for flowers

Iced cardboard wedding cake cover

The groom leaving for duty days later…

Wartime Wedding (confetti)

A vintage themed invitation

A 1940s Themed Wedding

Looking at all of this, I think a Wartime Wedding would be a very frugal affair, but possibly a more intimate, homemade celebration. I have seen lots of blog posts on ‘wartime weddings’ and ’1940s weddings’ but they all seem to be very ‘pin-up’ orientated or a 21st century version of something that used to happen. Has anyone actually had a “Wartime Wedding” recently?

Keep your pecker up! xx

Bombshells…part 3

Showcasing the enchanting Marilyn Monroe…

Marilyn in Korea 1954 entertaining the troops

Marilyn Monroe, 1926 – 1962: this American born Actress became, by the quick snapshot taken whilst at work in a factory in 1945, one of the most inspirational, celebrated and iconic Hollywood showstoppers.

Charismatic and captivating, Marilyn Monroe could entertain the troops on her USO tours with just a wink! It was only during her honeymoon in Japan (Joe DiMaggio), that she was asked to visit Korea as part of the USO. She performed ten shows in four days for over 100,000 servicemen. The Korean war between North Korea and U.S.-backed South Korea, lasted from 1950 to 1953 and was the first Cold War military action.

The enchanting Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953 (adaptation of 1949 stage musical)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes wink

The bewitching Marilyn Monroe, When Love Goes Wrong

Keep your pecker up! xx

Sweethearts…part 2

Showcasing Ann Sheridan, Actress, Hollywood Icon, Forces Sweetheart and Blonde Bombshell!

Ann Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress. She worked regularly from 1934 to her death in 1967, first in film and later in television. Extremely popular and in demand throughout her career, Sheridan also spent a lot of time entertaining the troops in USO shows throughout wartime including India 1944 (above).

Starring in the 1943 wartime propaganda film Edge of Darkness, Sheridan only increased her popularity. Despite these successes, her career began to decline. Her role in I Was a Male War Bride (1949), directed by Howard Hawks and costarring Cary Grant, gave her another success, but by the 1950s, she was struggling to find work and her film roles were sporadic.

I was a Male War Bride 1949

…the story of French Army officer Henri Rochard (Grant) who must pass as a war bride in order to go back to the United States with Women’s Army Corps officer Catherine Gates (Sheridan).

The beautiful and enigmatic Ann Sheridan.

Keep your pecker up! xx