I hope we may revive this thread.
Two great "Memories of the 1940's" from Tom Holloway's archives.
By Helen Seagraves (recorded in 1996):
"My memories of rationing in the US during WWII are from the standpoint of a
child a bit older than William Anderson, Jr. In our family we were conscious
of rationing -- living in Idaho and Montana, where distances are great,
gasoline was important. When my father began teaching in a nearby town, we
were impressed by our B sticker for gasoline, but the ranchers and farmers
who surrounded us had much more impressive allotments. And daddy refused to use gasoline for any but "essential" driving.
However, mostly we felt that we had little to complain about, we were aware
of the severe rationing in England, and life threatening hardships facing
people in other parts of the world. This may have been because my parents
were exceptionally concerned about world affairs -- some of my earliest
memories are of hearing the radio late at night reporting on events in
Manchuria, and my father's serious sounding voice commenting on the news.
Of course, it might also have been partly because we'd survived depression years when the rationing at our house was done by a shortage of money. My mother was accustomed to making everything stretch.
Shoe rationing was the real problem -- four children in our family ran
through a lot of shoe coupons. We put a lot of rubber half-soles on shoes,
and there was a gummy substance we could spread over holes in crepe soled
shoes.
I still have some of the ration books with coupons for canned goods and
meats, and a few of the little tokens which were valued as point tokens. We
always had a cow, and often a pig, and mom's big garden turned into an
abundance of home canned vegetables. She didn't have any idea of canning
fruit in water, so the sugar allotment went mostly to preserving fruits.
Mom made soap from time to time, I think mostly because she enjoyed the
challenge, but also because we had fat rendered from the hogs. I remember
moving into a house owned by a man who had once had a candy business, and discovering a treasure trove of sugar he turned over to mom in exchange for home made soap.
When we were living in the mountains north of Yellowstone, some of the high
school students got dad to buy an elk tag and then took him "hunting" for an
elk they'd stashed in a snowbank.
It was cold enough so we could hang the elk in an outbuilding, our freezer, and had meat for the winter. That skirting of hunting law was common in a region where people hunted for food, not for sport.
We had a lot of grub line riders stopping by the house about dinner
time that winter.
My parents would not have trifled with the rationing regulations. They were
strongly patriotic, as well as feeling that they needed to model life as law
abiding and caring citizens for their children.
This is rambling, and perhaps not tightly on the topic or rationing, but hope
it answers some questions for some of you."
By William C, Anderson, Jr.
"I was 7 years old when the war ended. We lived in rural South Carolina. My
father was crippled from a childhood accident and could not serve in the
military. He was an insurance agent and a spotter for the civil air patrol.
I remember tires, sugar, and meat rationing most of all. We were lucky in
that we lived on a farm, had a pig or two to butcher each year, preserving
the meat with salt and smoke the old fashioned way. I remember many a person coming to our home to hopefully buy a piece of meat since it was so hard to come by.
Gasoline was closely rationed, as was sugar and dairy products. Since a
vehicle was necessary to my father's livelihood, he was allotted more gas
coupons than most, but less than others in more critical occupations. Since
sugar was rationed, we used saccharine as much as possible, and a piece of
candy was a rare treat for me as a child.
Looking back, I realize how my mother and grandmother stretched items to the limit, such as mixing bread and onions with hamburger meat, then frying it.
It was done, of course to make the meat feed more people, but they made it
delicious and I still enjoy it prepared that way today; We ate a lot of farm
vegetables and cured meat. Although it is difficult to find properly cured
Country Ham today, I still enjoy it more than steak.
I'm sorry I can't be more specific as to exactly how rationing worked and the
coupons dispensed, but I was too young to participate in the acquiring. I
just remember the shortages and the trading and buying of coupons. What
would probably seem strange to the children of today, was that no one seemed to really mind the hardships, since it was for the war effort and was
necessary as a citizen of the US.
Patriotism then was alive and well.
Through newspaper, radio and newsreel, the people realized that it was all
for a good cause, and anything that helped the war effort was tolerated with
pride."
I think two great accounts - for some youngsters today it may seem unbelievable that in USA could be impossible to buy a new tires or have a large steak or that soap was made at home...
Perhaps it would be wise to preserve some old skills...
Cheers,
Lancer44
Source:
Tom Holloway ----- +44 1926 888333
Home: 1926-420204 Fax: 1926-435534
Internet:
t.holloway@warwick.ac.uk
URL:
http://www.tcns.co.uk/chatback/