"War rationing was a way of life during World War Two, creating a national culture of austerity, but it also sparked ingenuity, such as swapping an ice-cream for a carrot on a stick. It was the official wartime substitute for ice-cream, and some British children born just before the war didn’t discover what ice-cream actually was until the fighting had finished and rationing stopped. The carrot on a stick was offered as the alternative when supplies ran low, because sugar needed to make ice-cream was one of the first luxuries to be hit on rationing, along with bacon and butter. In this heart-warming video, a pair of toddlers, who are thought to be siblings, can be seen gazing at a hand-drawn sign advertising ice lollies for '1d'- which was pennies in the currency of the 1940s. But the words are crossed through and instead carrots on a stick are offered. The pair toddle into the shop and are later seen happily sitting on the grass, joined by a friend, enjoying their healthy snacks." In my day, all we got for Easter was a carrot on a stick: World War Two showreel reveals children swapped ice-cream for carrots | Mail Online
What.....My mum made me promise only to ever eat her home made ice cream....I have religiously done so all my life....Whats this other ice cream you don't have to peel then? Seriously though...we used to have swizzles in a cup of water...stirred.....instant lemonade....cheap....Thought that was a normal drink until I was seven.
Of the invention of legends there will be no end... It is true that ice cream disappeared completely in Britain during WW2, but that is about the only bit in this story that is true. Its disappearance had little to do with food rationing. The main issue was the diversion of manufacturing capacity, and particularly the energy needed for refrigeration, to more immediately useful purposes. Rationing continued into the early 1950s, but ice cream gradually reappeared from 1946, so the claim that children (or adults) had to wait until rationing stopped before getting a taste is ridiculous nonsense. It is also nonsense that there was any "official wartime substitute" for ice cream. It is possible that one or two shops encouraged carrot sales by selling them to children - at an inflated price, if 1d each was charged - but that was private enterprise, nothing "official" about it. Parents with common sense would simply give children a carrot from the household vegetable rack, and what was the point of putting a carrot on a stick, anyway? As to Urqh's suggestion that children might be surprised by a post-war ice-cream "you don't have to peel", that is exactly what you did have to do when ice cream finally came back. It was sold in a thick disc with a paper wrapper round the edge, which you had to peel off before putting it into the cornet bought at the same time.
Dead right...the walls man used to come round houses with his frozen box wafers, cornets and blocks of paper wrapped ice cream in the sixtees still...And no bell...Must have been hell for him where I lived...top floor block of flats 18 storeys high...lift always out...but regular as clockwork sunday afternoon...the walls man turned up.
