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| Gallery of Graphic Design |
I had just turned 3 years old when World War II started. Now I don’t claim to remember that much, but I do remember the shortages. Later, when the History Channel came into being, I watched many programs on WWII to see what was going on when I was a little girl.
The first thing I do remember was the appearance of Oleo. It was to take the place of butter. There was a law which favored the dairy farmers that said “Oleo could not be colored yellow like butter.” The stuff came in a see-thru bag with a capsule you broke open to get the color. You had to work the color goo thru the stuff and finally you had yellow stuff. Didn’t taste that good either!! But, since butter was hard to find, you put up with it. If you were lucky and had a dairy farmer friend maybe you could get some heavy cream and whip up your own butter.
There was a rationing scheme put into place, whereby everyone got stamps. That didn’t mean you would get the things you needed, because shortages were rampant. The food was needed by the Military to feed the fighting troops. Foods affected were meats and poultry, eggs, canned fish, fats and oils, coffee and sugar.
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| HyperWar: WWII Ration Book Holder |
Today, people eat chicken anytime. There is nothing spectacular about chicken!!
Back in the 1940’s, people had little money and you were lucky to have a chicken once a month. It was a very special treat for Sunday dinner.
Meat was very scarce.
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| stampedout.net |
A True Story: My father sold business machines necessary for the War Effort. The machines could stamp addresses on envelopes – a very big deal. Metal plates about 2” x 4” were stamped with the address. These plates were inserted into a large metal rectangle and then they were used to stamp the addresses using another machine.
Anyway, he was servicing a customer who was a meat packer. My dad asked if he could get a little piece of meat and the customer obliged him. He told my Dad to line up with the other whole-sale meat packers, which Dad did. They were shocked to hear his order, but they did finally give him the meat. Not many people had home freezers back then, so it was important that he only get a small piece. By the way, refrigerators only had little freezer units which held maybe two ice cube trays.
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| www.sciencemuseum.org.uk |
I did have a friend whose family had a freezer. Her father had purchased a used ice cream freezer that had lids on the top for dipping the different flavors. I was amazed then to see they could have ice cream at home to eat any time they liked. The rest of us went to the drug store or ice cream parlor, purchased our ice cream by the pint and rushed it home to eat or we stayed and ate it right there at the store.
The other food I remember really being scarce was sugar. I remember my Grandfather using his supply of jelly and jams to sweeten his coffee.
During this time everyone was encouraged to plant a Victory Garden – See Picture. Back then, you had to look out for your own family. You had better plant a garden if you liked eating.
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| My father working in his Victory Garden |
WWII gave women a taste of freedom! They were needed to replace men at work. They could earn a living and be more independent. It was not like the Great Depression where women did not work. Men lost their jobs and women had no jobs. Today most work, so if one loses a job, the other person is still working.
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| www.pophistorydig.com |
The new problem was women in the 1940’s were expected to return to tending the household after the War. Women were not willing to give up their new found freedom of working and having their own money. And so the world changed forever.
It was a different place back then. We only had radio to entertain ourselves. We would sit around the radio to listen. There was music, news, stories, mysteries soap operas and adventures. You had to use your imagination. We had other activities to keep us busy. One thing, a job took up more of your time. You didn’t get lots of time off. It also took longer to complete jobs at home – grass mowing (push mower, weed wacking), cooking, cleaning, etc. Families were closer then. We played games, visited with neighbors, did jig-saw puzzles. We saw our relatives more often, as they lived closer. We were very happy.
