Margaret Wright recalls a scary moment when she lost the family's ration books

Could you tell me about a memory or experience of the war that was especially important to you?

Important? Em, one that will, might seem a bit strange - I've told you - I did lose the ration books. I'd gone to shops and it was winter and it was foggy. It was smog we used to get in the wintertime. And the street lights used to just be a little glimmer. They didn't actually shine down on the road or the path but you could just see the light up there and you went from one lamp-post to the next to get where you was going. So it would be October or November time and I'd gone to shops with the ration books to get something. And when I got home, I'd lost the ration books. And me dad said, 'Get out, and don't come back until you've found 'em.' Because they were crucial; you couldn't eat without your ration books. Of course, I couldn't find them in this fog and I didn't know what to do. I remember I was traumatised by it. I didn't know what to do. I went to the shop, but if they'd have been at the shop, somebody would have handed them in. You would have got them back because people were honest, especially about things like that. And I did eventually go back home again and the policeman - When I got to the gate, I saw this policeman just coming, he was coming out of the gate as I was coming up to it and I thought, 'Oh!' and I hid behind the privet hedge so he couldn't see me, 'cause I thought I was going to go to jail! I thought he'd come to take me away! Anyway, he'd, somebody or other had give him the ration books, had found 'em, give 'em to this policeman and he just went round to the house with 'em. So I just went in and that was it. You know, nobody said, 'Oh, they're 'ere!' Or whatever. What did me dad say? Oh, it was a good job they were picked up by a policeman, or something like that. And that was it. So, but I think somebody must have given 'em to the policeman. But that was a scary moment as well. We wouldn't have eaten without ration books, unless we had tattie.