18
THE NEW YEAR
January 1945Helen Vaughn was in charge of food organisation and distribution for the local streets’ get-together New Year do, which was set for Epiphany. Due to the large number of invites — our street alone had sixty adults and ten children — it was a shared undertaking. The menu of food items was planned to accommodate easily found ingredients, with emphasis on such childlike delights as jellies, trifles, sandwiches, and bottled fruit. ‘Meat and fish paste’ she wrote at the top of her notebook. Meat paste would need cheap cuts put through the mincer twice and then pounded till pulpy. Fish paste needed fresh mackerel steamed so that the flesh fell away at a touch, boned and pounded to a mushy squelch.
All the people invited had been given orders to supply some item of f
