Are you an octogenarian or even a septuagenarian???

[codswallop]

Does any one remember at the end of WWW2 when such things as sweets and fruit was a luxury.There was a case when a special consignment of bananas was made for a sick child.What was wrong withe chilod that bananas would have helped. Just reminiscing!!!!! Thanks....

[spudqueen]

I'm not old enough to remember the war, but I would have thought that as bananas were in such short supply and there weren't enough to go round the first consignment may have just been for sick children as a) any fruit was good for them and b) to cheer them up. My Mum remembered an Aunt of hers having a drawer with chocolate in which she wasn't allowed to eat as it was for a cousin of hers (not the child of this particular Aunt) who was ill.

[codswallop]

Thanks for that Spudqueen you may be right but I seem to have it at the back of my mind that it was for a specific child and illness!!

[paddywak]

I was born in 1948 after the war and was obviously too young to remember, but my two sisters who were 3 and 6 years older then me can remember how excited they were when one of my uncles arrived to visit and proudly presented them with an orange to share. Mum had to show them how to peel it and then counted the segments so they both got the same, and that when they found there was an odd one mum she gave it to me to suck,I was only about 10months at the time so it was probably wasted on me but at least it stopped any arguements. Win my eldest sister can also remember the first chocolate she had, after dad did some odd jobs for a local shopkeeper and took some of his payment in sweets and chocolate

[Mr Veritas]

I am 87 so can easily remember the war.
It wasn't just a case of bananas for a sick child.
In approx 1946/7 the first consignment of post war bananas arrived in the country.
The government decreed that ALL children (up to a certain age,15 I think) should have one banana each,and so they did.
I remember two stories from this time,one published in the newspapers.and one recounted to me some years ago by a friend employed in the house in question.
1,Newsreel film was shot on a ship in the docks of the first banana consignment,A young lad was given a banana, and he ate it,skin and all.Not so odd when you think that had never seen a banana before! LOL
2.
The famous author Evelyn Waugh had two children.Their two government issue bananas eventually arrived at his house.The butler sliced them into bone china bowls,took them into the dining room on a silver tray,and placed them before Evelyn Waugh.
The children (natuarally( were looking forward to this rare treat.They sat there for a while,whereupon Evelyn Waugh promptly ate BOTH,much to his children's amazement,disappointment and eventual disgust.
But then Evelyn Waugh was pig all round,so no surprise there!

[dundurn]

My mum was a nanny during the early part of the war, training in Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow. There were a few bananas available and they were reserved for children suffering from coeliac disease. Some of the worst symptoms of the condition are triggered by gluten. Bananas (and potatoes) contain little or no gluten and so were a very welcome variant in the children's diet.

[boxtops]

I've still got my ration book !

[codswallop]

Thank you dundurn that was probably the case I was thinking of .Thank you all for all of your stories of times gone by.I had similar experiences as a child during and after the war.

[puzzlenut24]

Could be that bananas are full of potassium.

[ander19]

My Dad used to wait till skin whent black before he ate his bananas just after the war, he is retired now and still eats them that way!!!!