According to the Observer there is a movement afoot to return to post-war standards of food rationing and use. A lot of food, apparently, is discarded in Britain causing horrible build-ups of methane, the stuff that cows produce so prolifically, and which is a nasty greenhouse gas.
I’m all in favour having never lost my own real dislike of waste. Post-war kids like me were taught about using every possible resource at least once and preferably several times, a system which arose from need but is now called recyclingand is generally regarded as a good thing. Im a pretty adept cook and I always use left-overs, just as my mother did -although the Monday curry which usually featured bananas and sultanas, has had its day. My equivalent is Sunday lunch soup, essentially a puree of what was left after family lunch.
I benefited from the 60s and 70s when there was a fairly rapid expanding of consumer goods -clothes, more exotic food in ‘super markets’ and Indian and Chinese restaurants. From a nurse’s salary I was able to buy one new dress a month as well as paying my rent, bus fares, some entertainment and contribute to a house party once every three months. And I lived in Clapham, where the house I shared with friends would now fetch about £800K and if it were rented would certainly not be to student nurses.
What I realize I did enjoy about the 70s was the wider choice, but crucially, not too wide a choice. Whenever I hear politicians saying that people want more choice I want to scream that I’d rather have less choice but better.
Our curtain fell down today, the rail having worn out or frazzled or something. The only reason it wasn’t replaced was because when my friend Annette offered to make me curtains and took me to John Lewis, I was so overwhelmed by choice of rails, tracks, rings, wood, plastic, gilt, brass, pelmets, pleats, tie-backs and lengths that my eyes swiveled and I had to be led away. And that was before I’d even considered what sort of material I wanted.
In the 60s, when I my mother got curtains there wasn’t much ‘“ groovy was geometric shapes or sunflowers and classic was brocade. And they hung on hooks and if one was extremely posh one had a pelmet. Frankly I’d be quite happy to return to the limited choice of the 60s and 70s and if you watched the very wonderful ‘Life on Mars‘ you may remember the choice that Sam Tyler made.