Mend and Make-do

An artist over at Etsy was recently quoted as saying she gets her inspiration from an old war-time poster that said ‘Mend and Make Do’. I did some research into it and found some really interesting posters I wanted to share. Yay internet!

Still good messages today, for our consumerist society. These posters get me excited. They tell of a time where there was a singular, unifying purpose, home or away, to “beat Hitler and his gang.” But now? There doesn’t seem to be the same sense of nobility, or honour in this war. We certainly don’t have propaganda like this anymore (do we?).

I’m reprinting the following from the same site as that second poster. For personal and educational purposes, and for no commercial gain (in line with the copyright). There are three parts. Here is the original link. It was just so dear I had to share:

Diary of a female born in 1910 (1)

In spite of the war everyone is cheerful; the weather is hot and sunny; the hedgerows full of wide honeysuckle, heavy and waxy; and the swallows are swaying and warbling on the wires – July as it should be. And people are very brave. A woman in the village who has gone about as cheerfully as usual ever since her son was reported missing at Dunkirk, heard only last week that he was a prisoner in Germany. She is a widow and he is her only son. And last Wednesday when I was on the panel at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Newark, a little Jewish girl who had not heard from her parents in Germany for a long time, and whose brother is a refugee in South Africa, said (refusing to weep), “I think: there are so many of us”.

Diary of a female born in 1910 (2)

Everyone is prepared for invasion by parachutists. When I called on a cottager the other day she seemed rather fluttered on answering my knock and afterwards confessed that she had though I was a German parachutist coming to the door! We had a good laugh over it, and I left her feeling as plucky as no doubt she was!

Diary of a female born in 1910 (3)

Mother is dashing about from event to event in the neighbourhood. This year has done her a world of good. She is a different woman so far as her health and social outlook are concerned, as are so many women in these days of strain!

4.11.40

Last night there was a knock on the door and in walked Bob! He has been granted a week’s leave because his last was curtailed. He looks very fit from his work on the coast and will not, apparently, be going abroad just yet. His second in command was out in Norway and knew one of our local lads who is now a prisoner in Germany, and can speak of their experiences together. Conditions on the coast are hard this weather and Bob did some good work this morning by going along to see the head of our knitters in this neighbourhood and securing the promise of 28 balaclava helmets for the men in the platoon who are without them. She is making a “rush order” of it! I had a letter from Charles in Eltham. That area is much bombed, but his old mother aged eighty-six who is keeping house for him goes to bed upstairs every night and sleeps through the crashes and the din of the guns without turning a hair! I am busy practising bandaging on any kind person who will permit it. Last night I was using Bob’s bowler hat – (rather cleverly, I thought!) – for head bandages, when he arrived. I just had time to whisk it out of sight. Our Commandant is going to get me into Newark hospital for training.

Sneeze count up to 6 today.