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All
about the Hymers Family...
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Kirstie, Thomas
and Ben all thought that Michael had a rose-tinted view of the period,
so they all decided that they would like to live in the 1940s so he
could learn "what it was really like". Michael was so keen
he even dragged Lyn around the supermarket trying to live off rations
for a week. His passion inspired the other members of the family to
learn more about the period.
This is how it
all started...
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MICHAEL HYMERS, 52,
is Executive in Charge of Production at a small local engineering firm
that manufactures aeroplane parts, an ideal "reserved occupation".
Michael has long "cherished an obsessive desire to live in the 1940s"
and often spends time alone in his 1940s dining room. His love of the
1940s comes from his first job as a young lad working on the factory floor
with men who spent their time talking about the War. "It always sounded
great, from what they were saying. I know that it wouldn't all have been
like that, but the way they described it made it sound really fantastic."
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LYN
HYMERS, 50, is a retired Tax Inspector. Lyn wants Michael "to stop,
once and for all, going on and on about how it was better then and how we
should live like that". She also wants to prove to her family that
she could "do it; I could be a good mother, and cook and sew and be
good at something in my family's eyes. That I could survive. I know that
we have to do it properly, that we can't cheat. That would be letting down
all those people who will be watching who lived it for real. That's important,
not letting them down." |
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KIRSTIE HYMERS, 28,
is a single-parent mother. She wants to go back in time to "prove
me Dad wrong". However as Kirstie says, "you only ever know
half the story. That's why I want to do it, to find out the whole story."
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Kirstie's
two sons BEN, 10, and THOMAS, 7, are both really excited by the prospect
of moving to a new town and going to a new school. Thomas knows he'll miss
dancing to S Club 7, but Ben, a Bradford City fan, is particularly eager
to hone his skills with a real leather football instead of his plastic one. |
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Meticulous planning
ensured that every detail of life in The 1940s House was historically
accurate. Special provisions were made to replicate the experience of
living, eating and shopping under the privations of the war:
Shopping:
To provide their weekly provisions, the family had access to use of a
local shop on West Wickham High Street. Crumbs Delicatessen stood in as
the family's general grocery shop. Vegetables were seasonal and took into
account fluctuating shortages - for example tomatoes and onions slowly
disappeared after the fall of the Channel Islands and France. The back
of the shop had been fitted out with a special counter for the sole use
of the family.
All the family's
meat, apart from bacon, was obtained from Larretts Butchers, also on West
Wickham High Street. The shop offered both rationed meat and unrationed
offal for the family. Each week's availability and pricing was based on
historical records.
Rationing &
points
As in the 1940s,
the family had ration books and was registered at Crumbs Delicatessen
and Larretts Butchers. Strict rules applied regarding the usage of coupons
within certain time periods and any black market activity was deemed a
fineable offence.
A points rationing
system was introduced at the relevant period. This was set according to
comprehensive records of points fluctuation and reflected in the goods
on offer in the shop. This mirrored the real weekly dilemma faced by thousands
of war time shoppers as to how to get the best out of their points, often
buying things they didn't really need or would not normally eat, just
because it was there. Different items took on different importance when
the points sky-rocket.
For more details
of the series, see http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/0-9/1940house/
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