I remember rationing when I was little......my sister is 12 years older than me.
One morning she got a late start for high school and asked my dad to drive her. He said he would. They got in the car and there was a sign somewhere (maybe on the dash) that asked "Is this trip really necessary." My sister read it out loud.
My dad said it was NOT necessary to let her walk. She was late but never had any problems getting up on time after that.
I also remember rationing of sugar. My aunts and grandma would trade their coupons if someone was having a birthday and needed to make a cake.
While I don't think there should be rationing, I would love to see people quit being so wasteful with food.

I don't have many memories of that time but every once in a while some things pop into my mind. I do know that shoes were rationed, and being a 'tom-boy' my mother was always annoyed at me because I wore them out so quickly. Of course, sugar, eggs and meat. I also remember that my grandparents sent us (in San Francisco) dried corn in care packages from their farm in Ohio. I still have my ration cards somewhere.

Nineteen-forty-five was an interesting period of time in SF. My family was a beneficiary of one of FDR's "social experiments" in housing the thousands of people that moved to the west coast to contribute to the war effort...and to find a way to survive during the aftermath. There is much information on the web that I have read while researching misc. stuff...you know, one thing leading to another. I am sure that you can fill days with researching the subject of "rationing, WWII".

It might depend on where you live, and what your folks did. We lived on the west coast, and remember black outs on all the windows, hard driving at night, due to using parking lights, but as to food, we were lucky. My grandparents owned a ranch so had butter, eggs etc. As to meat, my family were not heavy beef eaters, but grandpa did raise chickens. I kind of remember stamps for gas etc. I am surprised about your grandmothers problem, because many many went without meat (beef). I was almost 10 so probably many of my memories are remembering my folks and grand folks and other relatives talking later in life. I know they saved grease, string, paper etc--not sure why.
In the magazines Reminisce/Extra there are alot of these stories, and it does bring back memories. I do remember one thing, later when we had moved. There was a very large Japanese-American area near Portuguese Bend Ca who raised veggies. When the area heard they were going to be put in camps, and these were US Citizens, and many of their sons served in the military, the neighbors bought all their farms, maintained their farms, took care of the houses, and when they returned they sold them back to the Japanese for the same price. Very low prices. They were all wonderful people and I knew many of them later in years.

Marie: That's a heartwarming story about buying, maintaining, then re-selling the farms back to their original owners. All I've ever heard of that era and the Japanese Americans has been negative, so thanks for sharing a positive story.

Shirley

I was raised in Chicago and a very little girl
we had Air Raid Wardens Block Captains Air Raid drills black out curtains. we were all observant of the rules itwas "for the duration" ration books for each member of the family. Shoes were rationed (leather soles) sugar flour meat, This was so they scould feed all the troops at home and overseas .I dont know what all else. we saved cooking grease and sold it to the butcher for 2 cents a pound he then sent it somewhere for making bullets.
gas was rationed very few people owned cars in thoe days so those coupons were traded for meat etc. They sold savings bonds (War Bonds) 18.75 equaled a cash in value of $25. We had savings stamp days at school when we'd buy a few stamps for 10 cents. a filled up book would buy a war bond. dimes were hard to come by in those days. They had paper drives where we'd save and then turn in our old newspapers.
"Loose Lips Sink Ships" signs were in all the stores and Post Offices.Mail going to and from overseas was censored . We took it all in our strive after all it was what we could do at home for our men in service.
My oldest sister was one of the first W.A.A.CS Precurser to the WAC she joined in 1942.
Mom had 5 stars hanging in her front window.

Cant remember when it stiopped shortly after peace was declared I think.
I imagine busines lost money they lost good workers that is when women were able to come out and help in the war effort by tking factory and office jobe so the men could go to war. In 1920 Women had just gotten the right to vote in elections so they were happy to serve their country. We believed in the words to "Over There" Get it over with over there before they could bing the war ove here.

While some things concerning the home front (as it was called) might seem distasteful now back then we were a united front and did what we could do at the time.

I remember my parents taking about their wedding, in 1943. He was in the Marines and they met an a USO dance.
Their wedding was a small one, and the reception was at my mother's parents' home.
Friends and neighbors saved ration coupons for weeks for the wedding cake and the rest of the food. The most valuable were the coupons for butter, sugar and eggs for the cake.
I was told this was a common thing, for friends and neighbors to contribute coupons - not for lack of money to purchase them, but for the privilege of buying the food legally.

My mother used to tell this wartime joke:

A young woman's fiance was coming home on leave, & she was eager to have a lovely dinner for him.

She scrimped & begged & swapped, but she still needed sugar.

"No problem", said her mother.
"I'll take care of it."

Mom goes to the lunch counter at Woolworth's & orders an iced tea & takes a couple of packets of sugar & stuffs them in her bra.

When the waitress isn't looking, she stuffs a few more in there.

She gets home a little late & helps her daughter get the table ready.

The reunion is emotional & joyous & the 3 of them have a lovely dinner followed by coffee.

Mom looks across the table & smiles at her future son-in-law & says, "Sugar?"

"Yes, please", says the young man...

at which point mom remembers where the sugar is.

Oh, well, poise is the great thing.

She calmly reaches into her dress & pulls out a couple of sugar packets & hands them to the young man.

"Milk?" she asks.

Wide-eyed, the young soldier puts his hands up in a defensive manner.

"Oh my gosh, no, not at all, none for me, thank you ma'am"

I was too young to remember anything having been only a few months old when war was declared. I remember talk of rationing stamps and a story that as a tot I got into our books and tore them up. We would have been a hungry family of 6 if it were not for my father's sister who worked at some kind of hospital. When patients died, their extra food stamps were saved, and my aunt sent some of them to us to tide us over.

I have cookbooks, the kind used for fundraisers where one donates a few recipes, and in them are recipes for eggless cakes. I suspect the war brought us the Mock Apple Pie made with halved Ritz Crackers to look like apple slices. I had a slice once, and you would swear that there were apples in the pie.

My uncle was an officer in WWII in Italy and Africa. He told the story of the army cooks serving meals made with powdered eggs, and how everyone yearned for real eggs. Someone came to the chef with an egg or two that local people had given him, and my uncle was surprised to learn that the cook threw the whole eggs in the bowl of powdered egg batter and beat them in so that the shells were little crumbled pieces. He said that when the soldiers found bits of shell in their scrambled eggs that they thought they had fresh eggs and suddenly they found the scrambled eggs were delicious.

The sturdiest shoes I ever had were when I was about 5 at the end of the war. I remember them. They were black oxfords, and they wore like iron.

Our Christmas tree strings of lights needed more lightbulbs. But colored lights were not available, so Mom painted some white ones with red nail polish as lights needed replacing. We used them till they burned out several years after the war.

I was often sent to the butcher's with a can of meat drippings to give him. I was told that he sent the fat off to be used to make soap. However, Mom used the drippings as cooking fat too in preparing our meals. Bacon fat was never wasted but used to fry eggs or breakfast potatoes.

I believe tin cans were flattened and recycled somehow.

I was born 5 months after the war started. My dad drove a truck for a gasoline company. He had a friend who was a butcher. They would trade stamps so my family could get plenty of meat and the butcher's family could get enough gas. These are stories I heard growing up. My grandma and one aunt would send their shoe rationing stamps to my parents so that they could buy shoes for my fast-growing little feet. They also told me about the blackouts. We lived one the west coast.

I remember those years very well, and with pride. No one complained about rationing, that I knew of, at least. We always had a large garden and mother canned a lot. Of course, we had to be original in cake baking, using molasses or honey as part of the sweetener, etc. It was a time of great patriotism, and no one was burning the flag or any of those things that happened in later years. I was in high school and many of our male classmates entered the armed forces, if they were old enough.

this was written for another site a while ago and i don't remember if it mentions rationing or not. it is relevant but long.......

my experiences and history of my hometown, oak ridge, tn,

the town was built in total secrecy in 1942 for the sole purpose of building an atomic bomb with which to end ww2. the workers were hired not knowing what they were making, why they were making it, and asked to trust those who told them what to do. there were 3 plants, y-12, k-25, and x-10. the largest, k-25, continues to be dismantled but is a slow process due to asbestos and nuclear contaminants. another is closed and another converted to a national laboratory. the workers never spoke about their jobs to each other or anyone else. the main street in town had many billboards promoting patriotism and pride in what they were doing, even if they didn't know what that was! interestingly, there were many female employees. at it's height, there were nearly 100,000 workers and the median age was 27. many didn't have college educations and they came from all over the country. lots were single and met and married co-workers and lived here the rest of their lives.

as mentioned before, my family moved there in 1946 when i was 6 months old. we lived in one of the trailers at first then moved to a "tdu" (temporary dwelling unit" which was a 2 bedroom duplex. from then until my mom died in 2009, the family home was one of three of this type. there were 7-8 types of houses and you were assigned to yours depending on the importance of your job. i think rent in ours was originally maybe $20/month. my dad was the projectionist for the movie theater so not high up on the totum pole!

the houses were never meant to last long and had interior walls that were the thickness of sheetrock. outer walls weren't much thicker. no insulation, coal stoves, and built up on stilts, if needed, to adapt to the contour of the land. one of our houses was built up high enough so that we could play under it and stand up. i spent hours sweeping dirt while playing house.........lol.

my husband's father was in the accounting dept. at one of the plants and they had a better grade house than we did. to this day, people refer to what type house they used to live in....."A". "B". "C", "D", TDU, cemesto or flat top. even back then there were social stigmas based on your house and neighborhood since all houses in any given neighborhood were all one type. after the war ended the houses were sold to the occupants. in the case of duplexes, which we lived in, the side with seniority of time in residence was given the first option to buy the whole building for about $4,000 - $5,000. we were forced to find another house to move to and rent one side from an owner who didn't plan to convert it into one large house. we lived in one end of 4 different places, having to move when the owner who usually lived in the other side, decided to convert. i was 12 when we moved to what turned out to be the last time. my mother continued to rent until her death in 2009. i can remember rent being about $40 when i was a teenager and she was paying $325/mo when she died! this house was unchanged since the early 1940's other than paint, removal of the coal stove, and replaced bathroom sink and showerstall. hard as i tried, i couldn't blast her out of that place!

the schools were segregated until the mid 50's. yes, i grew up in the front of the bus and never had any contact with a black person until late junior high or early high school. until the change was made, they had to be bussed to knoxville which was about 30 miles away. their neighborhood was physically segregated also and sat on the outskirts of town.

each neighborhood had it's own elementary school...9 in all. the schools were all named after trees, or nature related - linden, willowbrook, cedar hill, woodland, etc. there were 2 junior highs and one high school. my graduating class of 1963 had over 400 students. the schools were top-notch and the high school was consistently in the top 100 in the us. this was due to having so many scientists living here and working on "the bomb" and needing quality education in order to keep them there. there were community programs that were implemented for the same reasons. my favorite was the summertime playground activities. each elementary school had "coaches", usually one male and female in their early 20's who planned and executed the activities - arts and crafts, costume contests, softball leagues with end of the season tournaments and a huge parade at the end of summer. i hung out there ever day, all day long.

at some point in my youth, the city gave away blueprints that were made of some strange substance. they were layered and if you washed them multiple times they turned into a muslin type fabric that my mom made curtains out of! crazy......

another thing that might not have been unique to my town but we had a "rolling store" that was a converted bus that contained groceries and candy. it traveled through the neighborhoods on a regular schedule. there was also a library bus, the bookmobile, that came once a week so we could have access to library books without having to take the bus to the main library.

i remember having air-raid drills quite often in elementary school. the town was surrounded ny barbwire fences and there was no air traffic allowed over the town. we had to cover our heads and duck under the desk during the drill. the sirens were sounded all throughout the town. i remember playing outside in open fields and finding huge clumps of grass that we would jump into the middle of and claim to be our spot if an air raid signal sounded while we were playing outside.

in high school i was a cheerleader and we had to travel to neighboring cities for games. our opponents were seriously leery of us believing we were "radioactive". to this day, anyone who knows of the history of oak ridge is apt to comment on whether i glow in the dark having grown up there!

there were small grocery stores in each neighborhood and a larger one in the center of town. we drove to the country each weekend for chickens, caught and butchered on the spot, and eggs. the town was built in a unique way. going east and west was the main road from one end to the other for about 9 miles, gate to gate. the main offshoots from "the turnpike" were names of states. they went at right angles for as far as possible and were alphabetically named after states. not every state was used and in later years there were new roads put in that broke the pattern. all of the lanes and circles branching off of, say, tennessee avenue, were named something with a "t", and so on for every state named street. it made it fairly easy to find where someone lived even if you just had to drive up and down tennessee looking for townsend.....you'd find it before too long.

i left home in 1964, when i got married, and mc donalds had only been in town a couple of years. we had a u-shaped mall with jc penneys and sears and locally owned drive-in restaurants. eventually more retail opened but any major shopping had to be done in knoxville. in the 70's and 80's the main emphasis tended to be for the town to concentrate on medical facilities. the population is now tending to be elderly and very little retail.....just doctors and restaurants. the schools are still great and the high school athletics are still strong. we were state football champions in 1958 and that has been repeated a couple of times since. it was normal when we lived it but the older i got, the more unique and special my youth and experiences growing up here became. i guess i thought everyone would have learned in history class about the important part this little town in tennessee played in ending ww2. but then, wars aren't popular and maybe it's easier to not remember that time in the history of the us.

Why were the windows in homes blacked out?

These stories astound me and are more like
"the rest of the Story" than common knowledge to me.

Manny98: Were FDRs social experiments well known? My parents lived in Baltimore, VA and Phila during the war.

My dad worked for the Pensylvania Railroad so he never served.

Mariendcal: I knew they unfairly rounded up - the Japanese Americans but the continuing story of buying their homes and selling them back at a fair price. And you knew them. Unbelieveable.They must have beenshocked and the stories they had to tell you. did they talk about their encampment?

Monica: how dear people were to make such sacrafices for a wedding.
I didn't know you could share or contribute your coupons to other people.

Sheilajoyce: And the number of coupons depended on the size of your family? so, why would your family starve?
Did you not get enough essential food from these coupons.
Did people go to the grocery stores and if so what did they buy?

People were out of work right. There were songs like Brother Can You Spare a Dime."

However, I used to hear people say later on in jest we need a good war as war brought in jobs and seemingly raised the economy. Maybe that depended on where you lived as Marie said.

Depression recipes lived on in my home. A very good vegetable soup was passed down to us children. And, I lost the recipe somehow.

Minnie, were the Air Raid Wardens civilians and how were they picked?

during air raids there was the assumption that an aircraft had invaded the closed off "space" will ill intention therefore they wanted no light to be seen by the invading persons. maybe to confuse them as to inhabitants by number, locale, ??

Air Raid Wardens were civilians and I dont know how they were picked from the neighborhood I believe and it was an honor to serve.

Where I lived in Chicago the troop trains full of young GI's going to camps would pass by and everyone would rush out and go over and wave to the troops.

You must also remember tht the Japanese bombed our bases and were considered an enemy and they were probably better off in camps than at the hands of some would be avengers .It is easier now to say how wrong it was.

I enjoyed the stories others contributed .
I forgot about flattening the tin cans .

Jae-tn--that was a fascinating story. We have been to Knoxville TX many years ago and went to a terrific craft sale in a old barn with two levels--and don't even ask me where it is. All I know, is that a small sign in the middle of the street said CRAFT SALE with an arrow. and we found it. DH kept muttering something, but I forgot what is was.
As to the Japanese, after what happened at Pearl Harbor, it is easy to not trust anyone, but in this case, most of these people were 2nd generation families and many of their sons served in Europe in service. Can't remember too much as my folks kind of discouraged any friendships. But they were very nice to me. Sure raised good veggies and gave us alot, but also sold alot.
Reason for black windows? So the enemy would not know where the cities were from the air. If you did not know it,the Japanese submarines did get close enough to the CA coast to shell some of the oil wells near Santa Barbara, but to this day, no one will admit it. Also in the Hawthorne/Lawndale area (CA) I was outside, and ran in the house telling my folks about the fireworks. They sort of turned white, and turned all the lights off and I got sent to bed. Next day, everyone was very quiet and in the field guarded by armed soldiers, was an big something covered all up. It was a plane, but no one ever said what it looked like. Never did find out. Just some more things I remember.
Marie

I have no personal knowledge because it was before my time.

I do know my DMIL mentioned once that she disliked lamb so much because it was the only meat available for a time.

I did find the link below that shows a lot of history.

Here is a link that might be useful: WW II Rationing

I remember you were a lucky kid if you could get bubblegum. We use to chew it, wrap it in wax paper and put it in the ice box to keep for the next day. It's hard to remember much because it all was so natural. It's just the way it was. We had a big "Victory Garden" and mom canned lots of vegetables. I remember hanging blankets on the windows during the air raids. We had local grocery stores that you could walk to. No supermarkets.

That link was great and deserves a lot of study.

I remember how the ladies and teen girls used to use leg makeup because nylons weren't easy to get anymore. then they'd struggle to get the seam up the back painted with an eyebrow pencil.
Seamless tockings were either not around or just not popular then.

jae: I overlooked your very, very interesting description of life in Knoxville. It gives me the chills. I think you have done well to write this down and hope someone keeps it. Was there high security there around you?

Has a documentary been done on this? I am lucky I can discuss this with you all first hand.
Wildchild: It is a must to go to your link. Yes, it answered a lot of questions for me. Thank you.

I don't know why they rationed sugar but it says that military soldiers used twice as much sugar as civilians.

I see no references to protesters of the war.I wonder why. Does anyone know? It appears patriotism was very high.I know songs of the era were a testament to that.

I wish Ken Burns would make a series on this.

If you have more experiences please tell me. Thank you to you all.

ps: Georgy, never knew I could save my gum in the freezer - good to know.

I entered the 1st grade in a one room country school the fall of 1942. The War had begun and rationing soon followed. I don't have clear memories about rationing on the country as a whole since I lived on a small farm in a rural area, ten miles from the nearest town, and my family did not subscribe to a newspaper. My arents did subscribe to "The Grit", a newspaper of sorts with a religiou bent. A I recall, it was a weekly and did not deal with local news; it was a national paper but without good current event coveage. The young eyes of my sister and me were shielded from the happening of the war. We lived in our little corner of the world and was not aware of the 'big' picture.

We and many others in our farming community butchered our own meat in the fall after freezing weather began. We had no electricity. Lighting was by kerosene lamps. We milked abotu 6 cows (by hand), kept a couple of pigs, had a large garden, a fruit orchard, a pair of plough horses, 25 to 50 laying hens and a few roosters, and in summer, caught a meal of fish about every 2 weeks.

We had plenty of meat, but times were hard and making a living was difficult. Things that required money to buy were a burden. We poor farmers had very little free cash on hand. I do remember the effects of the war on the countryside. Within one years time after the start of the war, sharecroppers and farm renters dissapperaed. They all went to larger cities to engage in war stimulated jobs and improve their financial lot. Jobs were plentiful if you were willing to work. The pay was not great, but it beat farming especially if you were renting. Over the next few years, the draft took away able bodied men between the ages of 18 to 26. Older men up to age 45 were required to register for the draft. My dad had been in WW1, but I have found a record of his WW2 draft card. The young roust-abouts working the oil fields were removed. Older men like my dad filled their jobs. Many of these older men lost their jobs after the war since the oil companies offered returning servicemen their jobs back if they wanted those.

I do remeber the impact of rationing stamps (Today, those are collector items.) We were not much bothered with allotments because we prepared and stored most of our food. It was the other staples that was in short supply, items such as coffee, sugar, spices, rubber products, and gasoline. No automobiles were produced for public compsumption. Professions in our communitiy who were given enough gasoline and tire stamps were teachers, doctors, and mail carriers. Everyone else had little.

Sugar was big deal with our farming community. I estimate that my family spent at leat 1/3 of their waking hours durng the summer on food preparation and storage. The month of July was filled with canning activities and we did have enough sugar. It was illegal to trade or sell retion stamps, but farm folks did what they had to do to survive. We traded stamps. We were friends with an elderly couple who had a car. Our car had expired and we were making do with a horse and buggy. We did not need our tire stamps and they did not use much sugar, so we traded stamps. We needed a load of sugar during July and not so much the rest of the year.

We were not under a blackout rule since we were located in the center of the continent and our lights were out by 9 pm anyway.

The grocers and general stores did not make extra money because their customers were restricted by rations. However, movie theaters lobbied and popcorn was not rationed.

We burned wood for heating and after Dad went to work in the oilfield, we switched to coal. We could buy a ton of hard coal for $11, but by the third year of the war, the price had gone up to more than $15 per ton. At that price, we changed back to wood. Those were the best years of my young life becasue Dad had a steady paycheck. It was not top dollar, but it paid much better than our farm had. After the war, folks who left the farm never came back. They had pried themselves out of misery and continued working in jobs in cities. Prices accelerated during the last 2 years of the war. Rationing stopped soon after the war's end. Copper was released and the REA activites resumed. Electricity came to our farming community in 1947. Our first appliance was a refigerator. The arrival of electricity was a blessing, an event to rejoice. I remeber receivieng our first monthly electric bill. It was less than what we had been paying for ice for the old icebox! We could convert our RCA radio from battery power to electric and listen all we wanted to. A battery would run the radio for less thnn 1000 hours. The cost of replacement batteries had doubled during the war and now would soom be obsolete.

During the early part of the war, a number of young mothers delivered babies with the husbands missing and they stayed in their parent's home for a few months after the birth. Sadly, a significant number of these new dads did not return alive.

"Brother can you spare a dime" was a saying from the depression eera prior to the war. The war came with the demand for tanks, uniforms, military bases, and guns and suddenly there were jobs, including being in the military. WWII brought jobs and though we were not rolling in cash, more jobs for all the unemployed made a big difference in the standard of living in general.

My family was at risk of not having enough food because I had found the food stamps and destroyed them somehow. Without stamps, you could not buy certain staples. People could buy many things IF the store had them and IF they had the cash. But some things could be bought only with cash AND stamps, and those things were rationed. Mother always had a vegetable garden--a Victory Garden-- and canned lots of the foods. Treats and snacks were quite limited; they just weren't made to the degree they are today. Moreover, grocery money was used to buy basic food needs as people didn't have much cash to spare for items that were not nutritious.

Fascinating stories!
My grandfather was a "lights out" man in our town and since we have a lot of military areas around here - it was an every day job. I know now why he was so proud.
He saved things until he died. I inherited his thriftiness.
About the only thing that might not have been posted here was Mom remembered coloring margarine with yellow packets to make it look more like butter.
The movie and magazine industry took off during the war. It was a way for people to escape reality and a way for the government to get info to them in the form of little documentaries between shows.
We had the Grit newspaper - it is a magazine today. It was a once a week paper and was a nice read. I don't remember any religious slant - but I remember the paper in the 60's and 70's.
I wish I had asked my grandfather more about the war, but youth are dumb about such things and more concerned with their own life.

Wow does this bring back memories. I was just a toddler but I do remember the blackout shades, the red packet added to whatever it was to make it look like butter.
Also remember the top half of headlights on the cars painted black.
How would our population fare today if we ever had to go through something like his again...I wonder.

So, people went from depression era when the stock market crashed (Brother Can You Spare a Dime) to WWII. Sounds familiar to today although I don't know why the stock market crashed then. And they didn't have credit cards either to give people false hope. Their "depression" must have been worse than ours.
People were jumping out of windows.

Jemdandy, thank you for that wonderful piece.Your memory is long as well as that of SheilaJoyce and Kathy.
I didn't know there was a draft. I talked to a woman whose husband was away at war for 3 years. Was that common? No wonder they didn't know their children.I wonder how many marriages survived.

Amazing that the movie theaters connected the people to the current news. After the newsreels they showed very classy movies with fantasy lifestyles to take people away from the hardships of war.

Gemini, I too wonder how we would fare today.

But did people agree we should be at war? It sounds like people were very commited to making the sacrifices for the cause. Did people protest the war? Could you do it openly?

Did people protest the war? Could you do it openly?

I dont remember any. none of the men wanted to be classified 4F (unable to serve) or a draft dodger. On the home front no one wanted to be considered a "hoarder" either. The Press in those days was not the liberal propaganda tank that it is today. We listened to radio for news that is why the newsreels were important then not TV ( not invented yet or at least not for the masses) I think we got a tv in the early 50's or late 40's. Language in the media was not the gutter talk you hear today. In fact Clark Gable shocked this country when he said "Frankly Scarlett I dont give a damn." in GWTW. There was no "social Media" like there is today.
My mother bought things "on time" meaning she'd purchase something and a collector would come to the house each week for the weekly payment These were usually from small businesses. (Clothes as well as household items )
Also for the most part people could walk around the block or to certain events without incident. Kids played outside until dark School playgrounds were open until the lights went out around 9 pm and offered things for the comunity to do as well as the kids.
They would flood the playgrounds in the winter for community ice skating.
just few memories

My Mother was born in 1923, lived thru the Depression and WW2 era. In the 1960's , she showed me some of her ration "coupons" good for meat, sugar, other staples. Mom and Dad got engaged in 1941 (just before Pearl Harbor).Dad went off to China during WW2, came home safe in 1945. They were engaged to be married June 30 1946. Grandma(Mom's Mom) planned the wedding and reception. Grandma decided she wanted to serve ham at the reception. But in 1946 it was stll difficult to come by certain meats. So Grandma drove all around Buffalo NY going to butcher shops, buying up hams. Happy ending. I'm not sure what became of those old ration coupons.

ellie and others who might be interested, the city is Oak Ridge, Tn and there are many articles if you google the name. there is a short, very informative documentary to be found at Secret City The Movie.com (minus the spaces). if you also look for forgiveness online (without the space, it will show you the proposed movie that a man wants to create mixing the connection of Oak Ridge and the Twin Towers through a father and son. the premise is fictional but there are about 10 minutes of good footage and history.

the security was tremendous with the whole city being circled with chain-link fencing and guard stations at the only two entrances to the city.

Oh, I just remembered something else.....we lived on this miserable farm about seven miles out of our tiny little town. On one side of us was, I assume, state land, as the army arrived suddenly for field training....they had tanks, and huge trucks, etc. It was pretty thrilling, as you can imagine. They were all over the woods and fields. Thanks for making me remember this.

I remember my Dad cutting the toe area out of my shoes so I could wear them longer. I was about 6 or 7 at the time.

I had a brother and brother-in-law in the army. Another brother was 4F because they said they saw a spot on his lungs in the x-ray, not because he had a thumb amputated on his left hand. lol Never knew what the spot meant but he celebrated his 90th birthday last November. The DB that was in the war died in '00 at age of 79 and BIL died at 68 in 1989.

Remember my older sister, by 12 years, painting her legs to look like stockings. Her DH was in the war and she had a little girl about a year old.

My Dad was working in the shipyards at Tampa Florida and we lived in a housing project of side by side apartments. My parents hated it, they were used to living on farms, not so close to your neighbor, but that's where he managed to find work.

One of my jobs was to sqeeze the bag of margarine to color it.

donna, used to go to Tampa as a child to visit my grandparents and never was shown the shipyards.

I looked up one and found this link that could have been there during your time.

Something that strikes me here is the number of women who have posted as if men have no memory of these times. Waiting wives, daughters and sisters. Phyllis, I would be wide-eyed with all that military around. And, I know if I asked my mother what they were doing she would not tell me the whole truth. When I asked too often for my parents to buy me something they easily said "No, we are saving for our retirement," and I walked away. No tears. Didn't know what retirement was but I knew we were getting something and I wondered where it would go.

I got to squeeze the color into the margarine too. It was a great big deal to me when it was my turn. My parents were laughing I am sure.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shipyards in Tampa

These contributions have brought back many memories to me. I was born in 1922 and lived through that war. In 1944 I was working in a lab at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Some of my co-workers would leave for Oak Ridge. Never was told why or what they were doing.

I could write pages of memories. One thing I would say is that as far as I ever knew there were no protesters, All of us worked together to get the job done.

I have a book of ration stamps. I don't know why there were some left if they were that hard to come by. Maybe they were from the end of the war. I remember my dad telling me that people would buy a whole car if it had good tires on it just fr the tires. My dad was born in 1920 and when he got drafted his father wouldn't give him a ride to the town he had to go to. HE had to walk the 17 miles. My grandpa just couldn't except the fact that he had to go. WHen he got there one of his uncles gave his cousins and him a ride to Mandan ND so they could catch the train to Fargo I think. I remember my mother saying that there was times they wouldn't know where he was for months at a time. He was wounded in Africa and was in a hospital in Germany for a while. He suffered from that injury for the rest of his life.

To avoid repetition, I will start with 1942, when I graduated from high school. I lived at home in Arlington, VA. I applied and was accepted for a government job. I was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps, which I reached by a series of transfers between buses, streetcars and walking. I worked there until I left to marry my Army Air Force Staff Sergeant in 1944. There is a long beautiful story prior to that, which there is neither time nor space for here.

After four months he was sent to the South Pacific, and I went back home and back to work, this time with the Adjutant General's Office at the Pentagon. I worked different shifts, and going and coming at all hours was never a concern.

One brother was a Marine, wounded at Tulagi, awarded the Purple Heart, another brother in the Army, another, past the age to serve, joined the Sea Bees. Brother in law, even with 2 children was drafted, another brother in law, a former Marine, 3 children, was called back for civilian duty.

At one time or another during all that time, I and several of my siblings, along with their children were living with my parents. When the war ended and my husband was discharged, he joined us there. Eventually there were 13 of us living there, peacefully, with, believe it or not, ONE bathroom.

Rationing played a big part trying to feed and clothe that crew! My parents handled it all, with good grace.

All that to say those sacrifices were made with the thought that America needed us, and we needed America.

This is not the same America that it was then.

And that is sad.

Sue

What a wonderful thread....thank you ellie for starting it. A year or so ago, when Alisande was helping some of us to write about our lives, I did some research about my life and what I didn't really remember about it while growing up in San Francisco....1938 thru high school. I was just over 3 years old when we left the farm in Ohio to live in San Francisco where my Dad was going to work for Southern Pacific Railroad (a whole 'other' story)

Most people think of San Francisco as it is now...a huge city of buildings and houses; but before WWII there were farms and dairies and cattle drives in the valley south of the metropolitan area. The Cow Palace was being built before the war, and before any 'cow' or entertainment event was ever held there, the government used it and much of the land around it to house many of our servicemen. They would come to the west coast via train and march up from the train yards, past fields of produce and green houses of flowers to the cow palace before being shipped out to the Pacific via ship. SF, City and County is a very small area....only 46 or 47 sq. miles, something like 7 x 9 miles, if I remember correctly.

Everywhere on the Pacific coast, we had air raids, air raid wardens (my Dad was one) and black-out curtains to pull over our windows during air raids so no lights could be seen anywhere along the coast. There was always the fear of an airplane flying over. Much of the coast around SF was closed to the public and there were 'bunkers' where munitions and weapons were placed. I imagine The Golden Gate bridge and the bay where our war ships were built and thousands of troops embarked to the war zone were a 'prime target' so security was important. Hundreds of Japanese from the city were among those who were sent to the camps due to those fears. My DH best friend (as a 6 year old) was one of those children and they lived in the metropolitan area of SF.

The housing we lived in during most of the war was one of the first "projects" built... and from what I read it was quite a utopian idea. Two story buildings (living space downstairs and bedrooms upstairs)....with 6 or 8 apartments, with yards and garden areas, play grounds, a community 'wash house' for x # of apartments, and a centralized community center where people could meet, have meetings and activities for everyone. During the war and after for some time, these community centers were safe havens for the children of many of the workers that left their kids to join the war effort. We spent our after school hours learning all kinds of crafts, music, art, dancing, swimming etc. It truly was neat place to grow up, plus we had bus service and workers to take us into the city to attend any number of events. I think the "projects" were started before the war, but when they were ready for occupants, people working for the war effort got first priority, I think. My Dad was working in the ship yards by then and we were among the first to live there. A huge change from living in the 'flats' with shared facilities that we lived in prior to then.

I remember the troops marching down our street on their way to the Cow Palace.... and the nurserymen would always put flowers outside the green houses so that we kids could give them to the servicemen as they marched by. It seems like every one wanted to do their part in the war effort and I believe that everyone wanted to share the sacrifices that were made. I know that my family entertained many of the soldiers and sailors that came from their farm community in Ohio, and many of them gave their lives for our country. Not sure how my Dad felt about being 'too old' to go, but many did what they could from the home front. I also remember it as a time of making friends that became 'family'....I had aunts and uncles and grandparents that were no relation, but took us in as their own and added much stability to our lives while we were so far away from our own extended families. The war effort brought many people together in ways that had never happened before.

Oh....the question of 'protests'....very different in WWII.....we were ATTACKED. Our military in Hawaii was devastated.

The movies of the 40's ..... depicted a lifestyle that my Mom took notice of and aspired to. At least I think my Mom did. She was a simple farm girl with no knowledge of fashion or 'proper' manners (at least according to my high society Aunt in SF). so it became important to her that we(my sister and I) learn those social skills etc. Movies also supported the war effort and encouraged the patriotism of the country.

I also wonder how our country would fare today if we were to experience such a crisis. We were living in Scotland during the 1973 oil embargo and I don't think the people here had anywhere near the crisis that Great Briton had. I remember complaints about gasoline....but....Scotland (and England I think) had sever shortages that impacted every person. Stores could only be opened 3 DAYS a week...NO Christmas lights anywhere that year as energy was so limited. Our heat was oil, and when our tank was empty we could go home, period. and there was no petrol for Americans. It was interesting how shop owners managed to light their stores with lamps and candles...no electricity use other than necessary Manage, they did, most likely we all complained, but it was a tiny taste of what the future could be. Today would be more of a challenge....in 1973 most people knew how to add and subtract with out a calculator. Today without calculators and computers...we would be 'dead in the water' .Scary!

BTW Those servicemen sometimes served overseas for the duration of the war. Korea was the first time (I think) that 'tours of duty' had a time frame and Vietnam 12 to 13 months.It is useful to remember also that letters during WWII sometimes took months to be delivered, Vietnam ...weeks and we perhaps had one phone call per tour. Today, they have daily conversations....what a difference.

sue, what a life you led when you were working and met a lot of people. Hard to imagine that it was safe for a woman to work different shifts.

These wars were more than fighting and battleships that you see on television. The back stories you all have told are the backbone of that era.America would have collapsed without your efforts.

Sue, you wrote"

"Rationing played a big part trying to feed and clothe that crew! My parents handled it all, with good grace.

All that to say those sacrifices were made with the thought that America needed us, and we needed America."

It was a different scenario When my husband went to Vietnam. I moved to Baltimore where he was stationed and he left a month after we were married and just out of college. I knew enough to not explain where my husband was. I became a buyer for a department store - Hutzlers - very quickly after I signed on as an assistant supervisor. Then moved on to management because Mr. Hutzler liked me. The women in my first department worked there for 30 years and some never missed a day. I was young and they must have remembered WWII and before they were widows because they covered for me. When management saw my license plate was from out of town they asked and although they didn't fire me they gave me a pretty cold shoulder until my husband came home. I was always scared I was going to be fired.

How different your lives were as waiting wives.

Nanny98, I have never heard of this that you write about:

"The housing we lived in during most of the war was one of the first "projects" built... and from what I read it was quite a utopian idea. Two story buildings (living space downstairs and bedrooms upstairs)....with 6 or 8 apartments, with yards and garden areas, play grounds, a community 'wash house' for x # of apartments, and a centralized community center where people could meet, have meetings and activities for everyone."

And the children who gave flowers to the military men. How dear. They were the ones who probably grew up to be lifelong patriots Yes?

Bengardening, I'm sorry your father was injured in the war. He was in Africa too. Huh. I wonder if he was ever able to work after his experiences.

Senior, that thing about your co-workers going to Oak Ridge and never knowing what it was about. No one asked?

I shrug my head after hearing your stories. The comparisons you make from back then to life today. I wonder what you think about it.
I thank you all for your beautifully written stories of your experiences including the sacrifices you made for this country and how diligent you were in keeping communities together wherever your transfers took you.

Americans DID protest against war...until after Pearl Harbor. We were 'isolationists' while Hitler was taking over Europe at will, killing 'undesireables, bombing England. We rejected pleas for help. We refused to accept refugees. We were not then some noble species, and, like the rest of the world, we remembered WWI all too well.

Today we suffer wars more easily. We have a mercenary army -- no draft. Most people's fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins are not at risk.

Wars always profit someone. There is an excellent book about the Civil War where the author, a private in the Union Army, discusses profiteering in the manufacture of uniforms.

I meant to add that the book I mentioned is "Eye of the Storm -- a Civil War Odyssey". The author is Robert Knox Snedden, a Union soldier who survived the war and hellish years in a Confederate prison. He was a talented artist whose illustrations add so much to his journal. This was published by a Virginia historical society, in 2000 I believe.

A bit more about WW2. If someone asked about Oak Ridge they would have been told that it was confidential. We were very careful about even talking about our work. There were some who had a "Secret" clearance, but many had none or, workers like me had a "Confidential" clearance. There was lots of security and we respected it.

On a different note--my then boyfriend entered service in April of 1940. He came home on leave that October, and not again until 1945. 51 months in the Army. He was anxious to get married but I wasn't sure about it so we went our separate ways. Each of us was married, he for 55 years, I for 57. After his wife died he began searching for me and, with his daughter's help, found me on the internet.

We were married four years ago,at ages 85 and 89.

When I moved to Dayton, Ohio, housing was extremely scarce. I lived in a two room apartment in a remodeled hotel with two other young women. We had an icebox, no refrigerators being made then. Our kitchen sink was a deep double one which served to do our laundry, too. We sent our bedding and towels to the laundry but hand washed and ironed the rest ourselves.

One amusing thing about that apartment building-- It had been a hotel with a very bad reputation which, of course none of us out-of-towners knew. When we found out, it explained why some of the natives of the city gave us such strange looks when they learned our address!

Enough for now.

Applause to senior. Good lord woman you have overwhelmed me with your stories and now you tell you and your 2nd husband were married fifty some years before you reunited. I'm in overload.

Chiuse, thank you for your sturdy comments. I do know that our country changed after Pearl Harbor. As Thomas Paine said many wars before:

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

I also have read Snedden's book. It is fine reading and the story is told in part here in Alexandria at our lectures and parlor discussions. I love the way people wrote in those times. Beautiful drawings as well from that book.
I am conflicted about the wars we have entered into in my adult life. I have met many men of my generation who fought in Vietnam including my husband and now our middle east warriors with whom I welcome any chance I am given in to hear their stories.

And, I admire the people who told these stories I have read here and wonder still about their thoughts about life then and now.

A few more items to add to my earlier post:

This country pulled together during WW2. Everyone contributed to the effort. I believe it was because we as a nation was scared. When you become scared enough, you are willing to deal with desperate measures. It was a shock that the Japanese could easily sink a large part of the Pacific Fleet in one pass. We knew that Japan had a navy including submarines. Their fighter planes powered with Mitsibushi engines were equal to ours. After Pearl Harbor, we feared Japanese attacks on the west coast. There were more rumors floating around than truths. The problem was, there were enough actual incidents to fuel the rumors. Many things were tried to demoralize the population. It was tried to float incendary devices with baloons over the west coast. The idea was to set cities on fire. It did not work, but a few forest fires were set.

In the Alantic Ocean, our merchant ships were being sunk by German U-boats. Submarine conning towers had been sighted off the east coast. Germany had war planes as well, but we feared their navy more. With both oceans filled with danger and Europe falling to pieces, we at last became scared for our lives and entered the fray 110%.

Great effort was made to improve our fighter planes. In 1940, we did not have a big bunch of capable fighter style planes. A rush was done to make aircraft carriers more effective and equipment them with better planes. One the planes that became a premier fighter was the P51 Mustang. It set off to war with an underpowered engine. By war's end, its power almost doubled and it becanme a force to be reckoned with.

The gull shaped wing Corsair had an interesting development. That plane was chosen to be adapted for carrier use. There are two requirements for carrier based airplanes that is different to gound based aircraft. It was desired to have folding wings so that more planes could be stored ina given space and the landing gear had to have almost more ft of compression to deal with the very hard deck landings. Now that extra compresion brought on another problem and that was banging the propeller into the deck. The Corsair had been under deveoplment as a land based airplane. Its designer needed to make it ready for carrier use in about 6 months. He did not have enough time to develop a completely new landing gear and figure out how to fold it insde the aircraft. This is what he did. He aimed the first part of the wing downward so that the shortie landing gear would hold high the nose of the plane. The hinge of the folding wing was right over the landing gear. The engineer gave the outer part of the wing a greater angle upward than normal practice. He did this in hopes it would negate some of the negative angle of the inner part of the wing. Designers of the day were building wings that were bent up a bit to aid stability. That negative bend was a worry. The engineer had not a clue if this would work. He more or less 'eye balled' the design making a guess as to what was proper. This gave the plane a distinctive gull wing shape. It was a nerve racking day when the test pilot put the plane into the air for the first time - It worked! And our designer became an instant hero. He had an equal chance of being panned and ridiculed.

Radar development was fast and furious as well. Some pretty awkward designs were pushed out the door. There was no time for refinements. A sister development was SONAR for under water use.

Penicillin was another WW2 development. It probably saved more lives than anything else. Down on the farms, fertilizers came into widespread use and unfortunately, DDT too.

A national speed limit on trucks was 45 mph in the interest of saving fuel and wear (and tires). I'm not sure this was an effective thing because it slowed moving overland freight and extended driver's time behind the wheel.

The city of Portland, Oregon became a ship building center. Many Liberty ships were made there. But you may ask, "Why Portland? Its 100 miles from the ocean." Its distance from the ocean was the very reason is was chosen. That portion of the Columbia river is deep enough to float ocean going ships (if they do not have too much draft). Nets made of heavy chains were placed in the stream to prevent a sub from navigating upriver. These chains were far enough below the surface to allow small boats to pass over. Anytime a large ship was to pass, these chains were dropped to the bottom.

Listening and observation posts were established along the Aluetian chain of islands of Alaska. This chain stretches far across the northern Pacific. The poor souls who manned these posts were expendible. If anything happened to them, the military was not going to spend extraordinary rescue effort. The reasoning was the probability of success was low and it would be wasted effort. These hardy souls were on their own. Once settled in during late summer, you be spending the winter there. One of my cousins was one of those people.

During the early part of the war, a country wide scrap metal drive was made. Independent truckers (mostly farm trucks and private businesses) canavssed the country side gathering scrap metal to send to the smelters. Iron based metals were of high demand followed by aluminum and copper. The first drive was sucessful but soon aferward, the government believed it needed more. A second drive was made and this time, there was not much to be had. After the second drive, there was no spare metal left on farmsteads. The local blacksmith managed to keep enough metal to keep his shop running.

Before the war, it was common practice to pick up hitchhikers. The great depression had made hitchhikers out of many persons. In the rural communities, it was the thing to do, to give you neighbor a lift if you saw him trudging down the road. By war's end, this changed. As happened more than a few times, a soldier on furlough would make a home visit or to a relative or sweetheart and then use hitch hicking augment his trip back to base. The general population would offer rides if they were traveling his direction. Unfortunately, low lifes of our country began to take advantage of that situation. They might sit beside the road with a duffle bag and be clothed in a tattered and dirty uniform while their only purpose was to rob you along some lonely stretch of road and maybe take your car. A number of victims were killed. That was too bad, because a few soldier boys did get into bar fights, became unkempt, and maybe lost their money. They'd be AWOL if they did not get back to base. A nation wide campaign began to avoid hitch hikers. You gave a ride to only those you knew, and never to strangers. This was one of the negative effects on our society.

The decline of small country churches began when farm communities became depopulated during the war. This trend continues today and the small country church is disappearing. First it was the close of the one room schools followed by the churches. The churches had been the social center of rural populations. It served up more than religion. It was the place to catch up on community news, arrange other social events, and maybe go to someone's home after church for Sunday dinner. There was no television and movies were frowned upon on Sunday. Boys and girls arranged dates. In summer, swimming and picnicing were popular. Chowders and family reunions were common. That all began to evaporate with the population shift and the tremedous advances in communications, both personal and public.

it was quite differnt for my parents...while my grandmotehr was a rosie the riviter, the 2 remaining boys at home worked their butts off trying to maintain the family farms (2)..both attedned hs, did play some sports and the minute they turned 18 enlisted...mother was living a farily "good life" in los angeles, with her last job behind the desk of an apt hotel in long beach..they did have black outs and have heard a japanese sub did make it very close...

but the placed served as "home" to higher officers wives including one admiral's who loved to drink..showed up in the lobby one day in her nightgown, lol...

mother dated guys who she never heard from again..navy fliers...that was very sad...met my dad in the lounge there (what they called hotel bars then) he wasn't in the service, (age) but was installing elevators on hospital ships...an industry he remained with the rest of his life moving from mechanic to sales manager...(and less pay, lol)

my grandmother, the rest of her life maintained a pantry of canned goods..it always impressed me, and have done the same...

and the 2 uncles who worked so hard? both took advantage of the gi bill. one became a teacher in the kansas homtown, married he sweet heart and retired as principal of the hs they all attended...the other graduated and went to work for phillips petrol...he retired after becoming a high placed manager...his dream was to make a million and he did...mother became a housewife, and mother at the age of 31...

jemdandy, fascinating stories of innovation. The Corsair story had me cheering that it worked.
Sonar, penicillin, scrap metal (were people paid for the scrap metal? - it's big business now.)
I am glad you brought up how scared everyone was. But they faced up to it. Survival was not a reality show.
And the changes in the community are brilliantly detailed by you. I thank you again for reliving those times. I have read your writings many times.

Susan, your mother and grandmother were very independent women going where there was work. You had a true Rosie the Riveter in your family. I think your mom lived an interesting life, meeting new people everyday.

And you brought up the GI bill which I remember many people used. A great gift to those who served.

As I read these stories I fear they will be forgotten as much of our history is less interesting to the classrooms of today. It is mostly skimmed over. I feel this is so wrong. There are so many lessons we all have learned from those times of community struggle.

I know my parents, who rented for so many years, were attacked by my brother when they bought a house with a check. They were called foolish by him because of the "deductions" but, of course, they saved and saved and had lived through the depression and were married during it. I'd say they set their prioities and used good common sense now.

I should make a booklet out of these stories. Would anybody mind?

only if we all get part of the profits LOL

In many communities today there are people gathering and recording the memories of people as they grow older. Our local newspapers sometimes report on these kinds of subjects, as well as community colleges. I think that the efforts to do so, should be encouraged, and that is one reason that I have started (thanks Alisande)to write my "memories" for my family, if for no other reason. Frankly, I think I have lived a really ordinary life....but it has been extra-ordinary as well. No one lived it "just like me", and maybe my great grand children will like to see the world as I saw it and remember it. Those thoughts belong to every one of us who have live thru these extra-ordinary times etc.

My father came home and took over the family farm. He worked very hard at it. I remember he had shrapnel in his leg for a very long time before they finally removed it. He was hit in the inside of the middle of his thigh. He fathered 10 children though. He got a disability check every month for this. He got a 75 percent diability check for this every month and then about in 1990 he finally got a 100% disability

Oh, how scary it must have been for him. I don't know if I could face what these guys and gals did. Who prepares you? Of course nobody really does but when there is no turning back, what kept them from having a heart attack on the spot.So that is courage.

When I was a teenager I volunteered at a VA hopital as a candy striper. We were told not to ask them anything about their service. And the didn't offer anything.

I knew nothing about the paraphanelia in a hospital room. My job was to go around and fill the water pitchers and I took hold of the first one I saw when I got to one of the rooms in particuar. The pitcher was a little irregular looking but anyway the fella almost jumped out of bed when I went to fill it. Welcome to a man's world. I provided a lot of laughs that day.