Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Rationing in World War II


For those of us in the United States, World War II began on December 8, 1941, when the Japanese attacked the American fleet stationed in Pearl Harbor. At that time, I was five and in kindergarten. The only thing I knew about war was that Dad worked in a munitions factory in Parsons, Kansas. I didn’t know what “munitions” were until a year later.
         During the next four years, the war hit home in other ways. In early 1942, rationing began with tires and cars. Automobiles factories switched over to manufacturing tanks, weapons, aircraft, and other military products.


During the remaining months of 1942, the government began issuing War Ration Books for items like the following:

·      gasoline—This was necessary to save on the use of tires since no rubber was coming from Southeast Asia, which the Japanese had invaded. To save fuel and rubber for tires, the government imposed a national speed limit of 35 miles per hour.
·      coffee—This became necessary when German U-boats began sinking ships carrying coffee from Brazil.
·      radios, typewriters, bicycles, stoves, sewing and washing machines, metal office furniture, vacuum cleaners, phonographs, and refrigerators—These items were made of materials all necessary to the war effort.
·      shoes, silk, and nylons—These items were made of materials necessary for parachutes as well as boots for the military.
·      meat, oils, butter, margarine, and canned milk.
·      processed food that were canned, bottled, and frozen.
·      sugar, dried fruits, jam, jellies, and fruit butters.

According to Wikipedia, from which I gathered this information,

. . . Each person in a household received a ration book, including babies and small children who qualified for canned milk not available to others. Some items, such as sugar, were distributed evenly based on the number of people in a household. Other items, like gasoline or fuel oil, were rationed only to those who could justify a need. . . .
         Each ration stamp had a generic drawing of an airplane, gun, tank, aircraft carrier, ear of wheat, fruit, etc. and a serial number. . . . One airplane stamp was required—in addition to cash—to buy one pair of shoes and one stamp number 30 from ration book four was required to buy five pounds of sugar. . . . Red stamps were used to ration meat and butter, and blue stamps were used to ration processed foods.   



                                                                                                          . . . To enable making change for ration stamps, the government issued "red point" tokens to be given in change for red stamps, and "blue point" tokens in change for blue stamps. The red and blue tokens were about the size of dimes and were made of thin compressed wood fiber material, because metals were in short supply. . . .                                                                        


As of March 1942 dog food could no longer be sold in tin cans, and manufacturers switched to dehydrated versions. As of April 1942 anyone wishing to purchase a new toothpaste tube had to turn in an empty one. . . .

When Mom, Dad, any my little brother returned to Kansas City in the summer of 1942, we moved to Independence, Missouri. There, Dad got a job at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. That fall, when I entered second grade, Mom had to rely on me to purchase groceries after school. We had only one car and Dad, with his gasoline ration, drove it to Lake City.  



Across from St. Mary’s Grade School stood a small corner grocery store. After school, I’d take the cash, ration book and stamps, tokens, and Mom’s grocery list there, and the kind owner would take the rationed food from the wooden shelves and the meat from the glassed case, bag it for me, and collect the right amount of cash, stamps, and tokens. 
Then we’d watch out the window and he’d help me carry the sacks onto the city bus when it stopped at the corner. The bus carried me out into the countryside where my family lived. I did this until 1946 when rationing ended.
That grocery store owner and I became good friends. Behind the counter, he’d tacked a large map of the world. As we waited for the bus, he’d point to places in the Pacific or in Europe and tell me what was happening.
When I was able to decipher the columns of the morning newspaper, I’d see photographs and read articles that I could share with him. Together, he and I followed the war to its end. When victory was declared in Europe on Tuesday, May 8, 1945, he and I sang “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company C” and did a little jig in front of the cash register counter. We’d done our part for “the boys.”



To celebrate, the grocer gave me a Valomilk. I hadn’t had much candy during the war, so I carried this rare treat home. Mom suggested I split it with my little brother, and the two of us gobbled it up. The war was over! Maybe I’d get a bicycle for Christmas!

Postscript: If you’d like to know more about rationing during World War II and see pictures of the Ration Books and other memorabilia, please click on the two following sites: Number 1 and Number 2.

All photographs from Wikipedia.

57 comments:

  1. I was almost 11 when the war ended. I remember rationing, blackout curtains & "Drop Drills"!

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    1. Dear Fishducky, I don't remember blackout curtains, but maybe that was because our home was in the Mid-West (Missouri) and so no on expected an aerial attack there. Peace

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  2. I love this time period and spend most of my historical reading time on it. I find it fascinating how people as young as you stepped into mature roles and fulfilled them with excellence.

    It reminds me that sometimes we expect too little of our young people. There's good stuff in them. We just have to let them know that not only do we expect more, but show them we are confident they can accomplish it, just like your mom did with you.

    Loved this post!

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    1. Dear Shelly, I, too, really enjoy reading about this period. Did you watch the Midwives on public television in October? It took place in England in the early '50s and was intriguing. I hope you got to see it. If not, perhaps you can get it from your public library.

      My mom always thought that I could do almost anything I set out to do. In fact, she and Dad used to say to me, "Dolores, you can do anything you set your mind to." Peace.

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  3. Dee, I had no idea that there was rationing of any kind in the US during WWII. All I know is that the people of the US sent food parcels to Germany after the war and I had assumed that there had been no shortages at all.

    This is very illuminating indeed. War has consequences for everyone, not only the losers.

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    1. Dear Friko, I'm glad you found this posting interesting. Here in the States during the war, we knew about the Blitz and the food rationing. And we knew about how the King and Queen and their two daughters stayed in London to face the Blitz with everyone else who had no place to go and escape. We didn't know anything about what was happening in Germany and the deprivations there. That knowledge came only after the war ended. We did, however, know about Dresden.

      Yes, consequences are always there for everyone. Peace.

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  4. Thank you for the interesting links, Dee. I loved seeing the items I've so often heard about. I've heard of the rationing, of course, but I was really surprised to hear about requirements to turn in old tubes of toothpaste. I don't think I really understood how elaborate the system was, either. I am certain that anyone who grew up in the Depression or were part of the war effort must really shake their heads at the amount of waste some of us have grown up accepting. It can be truly shameful. But what an interesting story you've shared from your WWII memories, Dee. I'd have loved to see the look on your faces with that candy bar! I'm sure that was a delight! oxo

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    1. Dear Debra, I'm glad you found the links interesting. I do think that my parents and their generation--many dead now--became so aware of deprivation that they didn't throw things away--like plastic sacks. And they also wanted their children to clean their plates! Even if the sauce did look like paste.

      Oh those Valomilks were so good. The chocolate was so thick that you could bite into it the "Pie shell" on the side and it wouldn't break into pieces! Peace.

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  5. My dad had a scrap book in which he had saved some gasoline coupons. He used to tell me about various facets of rationing during WWII and about his work as a flight instructor. He didn't have to enlist because he was a "farm boy," but he told me once that he wasn't going to return to that godforsaken place -- North Dakota -- so he enlisted. We made only brief visits to N.D. over the years, with his parents continuing to try to convince him to come back and work the farm. They lost.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Dear Janie, for many, many young men the war brought travel--first to a camp in another state and then to Europe or the Pacific. Many had never before been away from their hometown, so some enlisted not only because they were truly patriotic but because they saw a chance to see the world--just like your dad. And many, like him, did not return to the farm or the hometown. Many moved to California and the Sunshine states after the war. Peace

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  6. Sweden was not in the war, but we had to be prepared. I was only five when the war ended, so I don't remember rationing, but I am sure we had to. I only remember two war-related things: blackout curtains and a small Jewish girl, a refugee from Germany, taken in by our neighbor. I will never forget her eyes, so big and dark. We didn't really play with her, I don't know why and I don't know what happened to her. She wasn't there that long, I don't think.

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    1. Dear Inger, because of Anne Frank in Holland, all of us who have some knowledge of World War II have also some small understanding of what that "small Jewish girl" was going through. You were so young and yet the memory of her eyes is so vivid for you. Thank you for sharing that. Peace.

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  7. People today don't know how tough life was back then, do they? When I see people 'wasting' money (using credit cards) during Black Friday---it makes me wonder what kind of country we have now... Everyone seems 'entitled' to the good life --and yet, people don't seem to want to work for it like our folks and ancestors did.

    I was born in the summer of 1942... In our small town in VA, there weren't any baby beds in the tiny hospital. SO---they put me in a dresser drawer when I was in the hospital... I love to tell the story of being in a dresser drawer when I was born!!!!

    Great post. Thanks!!!!! (I do remember Green Stamps.... remember that?)
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Dear Betsy, you who slept in a dresser drawer! I do think that many young people today have no understanding of how hard life was for people growing up in the early half of the 20th century.

      And the two wars in which so many young men and women have fought for the last ten years as not truly affected those of us on the "home front." It hasn't felt as if there was a home front where we, too, were sacrificing in some small way. When all of us pull together for a common good, then all of us begin to care about each of us. That is to say, then one soldier's death affects the Universe. Peace.

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  8. This is fascinating. I had no idea rationing went to this extent. I hope things will never end up like that again. I need my coffee ;)

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    1. Dear Elisa, I can remember my mom and dad talking about the "weak" coffee they were drinking. In fact, people found roots that they can grind and make into coffee for something stimulating to drink. Peace.

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  9. While I didn't come along until after the war, my family talked about the war years and rationing. My mom saved one rationing book that she showed me when I was studying the war years in school, sharing it with my classroom. Amazing, isn't it, what a difference 10 years can make: you, in school, bringing home groceries on a bus, sharing it the responsibility, me, a little more than a decade later, bringing the same rationing books for show and tell? Speaks volumes of the sacrifices made during WWII.

    It was certainly a time of not only collective sacrifices, Dee, but as you beautifully put here in your words, a time when everyone worked together for the common good. There you were, just starting school, yet you played a part. I just love the image of you and the grocer, dancing a jig in front of the cash register. What a special bond the two of you shared.

    Every year I make caramels from my mother-in-law's recipe. She once told me that the recipe came to her during the war. When my father-in-law had enlisted, she went back to her parent's home in rural Ohio for the duration of the war. At one point, they needed a new stove. She wrote a letter petitioning the government for permission to buy a stove, citing the fact that they needed it as they canned all their produce. The stove was granted. In it was a little recipe book, and from it came the Christmas caramels. I have the book with the recipe.

    What a wonderful post, dear Dee. Thank you.

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    1. Dear Penny, thank you for sharing these memories. The one about the stove is so typical of that time. If a person/citizen could prove that he or she needed a car or a stove or gasoline or a bicycle to serve the war effort, then the request was granted. And that permission didn't come after months of waiting. Letters were answered promptly.

      The caramel recipe sounds intriguing. Dose it have less sugar in it than usual? Peace.

      PS. Penny, I clicked on your name to take me to your blog but I don't understand how to get onto it.

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    2. Dee, Penny is using a different username here. It is of course our Penny from the Cutoff:

      http://lifeonthecutoff.wordpress.com/

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    3. Dear Perpetua, you know, when I read the comment I thought, my "this" Penny surely sounds like "my" Penny! Dee

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  10. I was born in 1942, so I don't remember rationing, but I've always known it was something my parents did. It was very illuminating to read your recollections of that time. I especially like thinking about the grocer and his relationship to you. Thank you, Dee!

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    1. Dear DJan, the grocer was an adult who gave me security during those years. He'd put a pin into the place on the map that he was telling me about and thus, I saw the tanks moving across Europe and the islands being invaded in the Pacific. Using that visual he made the war real for me. Peace.

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  11. What a fascinating account of the war Dee. Amazing that you weren't allowed to buy a new tube of toothpaste unless you handed in your old tube. Did they melt the old one down and reuse it?

    I'm astonished that even though you were only six you went on your own to school in the school bus, plus did the grocery shopping after school. Kids these days are so molly-coddled.

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    1. Dear Rosie, they did reuse the metal in the old tube. I don't know what toothpaste tubes were made of then--aluminum? tin? not sure.

      We kids also collected metal scraps to turn in at school for the war drive. And newspapers as well.

      I was five when the war started and it ended the summer after 4th grade, when I was nine. Rationing continued for another year. So I did the shopping between the ages of seven and ten. Not all kids are molly-coddled today, but surely some of them are spoiled. Perhaps, as Shelly suggest in the 2nd comment on this posting, we all need to give more responsibility to these children and place more trust in then and they would respond. Children like to be needed and they like to do things that adults admire. Peace.

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  12. Dee, I am going to try leaving a comment this way. If it works, you should be able to click on and get right to my blog. Ever since I changed my email last month, I've been having some complications. Here goes . . .

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    1. Dear Penny, this is confusing to me. See your comment above and below and my responses. Wow, it's as if there's a poltergeist! Peace.

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  13. Oh, the caramel recipe has more sugar in than Candy Mountain - but oh-so-good. I only make them at the holidays and always do it when someone is around to help me stir for an hour. All the work makes them extra sweet. Penny

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    1. Dear Penny, the earlier comment didn't have "lifeonthecutoff" with it. So I didn't realize that the comment came from you! Please look at the third comment up from this one and you'll see a small icon and a different URL. I guess I didn't realize that your last name is O"Neill! Well, we've connected now and I can get to your blog. I have it bookmarked. Peace. And enjoy those caramels!

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    2. Somehow, when I changed my email address, leaving comments went through a change of sorts. What a mess it was. I think I've got it straightened out now. Yes. That is me. A Greek with the last name of O'Neill. I enjoy your posts, always Dee; you bring back memories, make me think, and spur me on to be a better person. Thank you.

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    3. Dear Penny, O'Neill is an Irish name. So is your background Greek and Irish?
      I'm about 75% Irish and ever since 6th grade I've been fascinated by Greece. I even have a 1/3 of a historical novel manuscript completed that takes place in Bronze Age Greece!

      Thank you for your kind words about my memories. I'm glad that resonate with you. Peace.

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  14. When my mama and daddy got married, their friends saved gas rationing stamps for them to have enough gas to go on a short honeymoon.

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    1. Dear Nancy, thanks for recalling this to me. I remember that used to happen also with things like sugar when someone was getting married and wanted a wedding cake. Peace.

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  15. My folks never talked about the rationing. Of course, they never told us kids anything about themselves, really. I had to learn that they eloped from an aunt when I was a teenager! I had no idea the rationing was to that extent.

    You have never forgotten that grocer and his kindness. Sounds like a wonderful man. Never heard of those candies, either.

    Funny how kids could travel around on their own even when I was a kid and nobody worried about them. Times have sure changed. :)

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    1. Dear Rita, I have fond memories of the grocer. Somehow I don't remember anything beyond the 6th grade and I don't know why. Perhaps he closed his neighborhood grocery store or perhaps I got busy being a teenager.

      It's true that today children aren't allowed the freedoms we had. Life seems so much more dangerous now. Peace.

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  16. My mother, her first husband and my brothers came to Australia after the war. Foodstuffs were still in short supply in Britain. When they landed in Perth the thing which made the most impact was fruit stalls. My brothers had never seen one - fruit was an under the counter rarity. I gather they all had upset tummies for the first week or so as they gorged themselves on delicacies like apples and oranges. As many as they wanted. Which they didn't have to share.
    Thank you for this post Dee. As usual it made me think - apart from everything else I am ashamed to say that I didn't realise that you had rationing as well. American military personnel were known in Britain for their possession of such unheard of luxuries as chocolate and pantyhose (not that I consider them a luxury)...

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    1. Dear EC, I do remember that fruit wasn't plentiful. In our Christmas stocking during the war years, we'd get an orange and an apple and simply giggle with anticipation of eating them. Once I even had a tangerine and didn't know what it was, just that it wasn't round like a globe, which was how an orange was.

      If you look at the 3rd comment for this posting, the one by Friko who was raised in Germany and now lives in England, you'll see that she, too, wasn't aware of rationing in the United States. The soldiers did have the luxuries you mentioned. For that to happen, I think our government rationed things here so the troops could have them as they fought for our country. Peace.

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    2. I'm sorry. I am so busy playing catch up after my absence that I missed it completely. Ignorance, followed by rudeness. To you and to Friko my apologies.

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    3. Dear EC, I'm sorry but I don't understand what you are apologizing for. You left a wonderful comment earlier so that can't be it. You mention Friko and I know that in my response to your earlier comment, I suggested that you look at her comment. But she was talking about Germany and in your comment you were talking about England and Australia. Nothing to apologize for here!!!! Peace.

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  17. I remember the rationing and the limitations with which we lived. My mother was a marvel at making something out of nothing, so to speak, as nothing went to waste, and were reused in many different ways until truly worn out. That's partially why I've always had difficulty adjusting to this disposable society in which we live today. We didn't part with anything until it was truly worn out and could not possibly be reused in any way, shape, or form. I agree, many people today have no idea what living with conservatives means is truly like -- some of the least among us today have more than we had.

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    1. Dear Joared, I still wear out my clothes. I'm astounded at how many t-shirts and sweatshirts I have. I had so few clothes as a child. And during the war years those clothes were made from feed sacks, which were flowered. As late as 1952, when I was sixteen, mom was still making my clothes from feed sacks.

      We had two retired work horses and chickens and rabbits, and a pig and the sacks their feed came in were made especially by the companies that sold animal feed because the companies knew that many women used the sacks to make clothing. Peace.

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  18. very interesting to me...I enjoy hearing theses stories and picturing it in my mind...also reminds me to count my blessings daily!!

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    1. Dear Annmarie, thanks for stopping by. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. It surely does remind us of how much we have to be grateful for today. Peace.

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  19. My grandmother had saved a ration book & for some reason as a child I became fascinated with it. ~Mary

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    1. Dear Mary, I've been trying to really picture the ration books we had, but I'm unable to do so. I can remember the tokens really well as they sort of fascinated me--they were so tiny and colorful, sort of like candy. Peace.

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  20. Ah, childhood: when the end of the war means you might get a bicycle! I love that!

    We had a lot of rationing here, too, Dee. Your post brought back all those things people who were alive at the time have told me. Fascinating subject.

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    1. Dear Kate, I did get that bicycle but it wasn't until August 1946. Mom and Dad gave it to me as a gift for Christmas 1945, but because of all the orders after the war, it was backordered and didn't come in until the following spring.

      In the States we knew about the rationing in Britain and the Blitz. And we saw the photographs of the king and queen visiting the rubble after a night's bombing. Maybe that was the East End they were visiting. I so admired the two princesses and sort of wished the war were in our country so I could be like them! Peace.

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  21. Born after the war and a refugee in the north west of Germany I recall even at the age of two we had very little even with rations. The luck for my dad was he was taken in by the Brits as an interpreter because he knew several languages. That allowed him access to more food.
    The war stamps and the whole way your nation made it tough just reminds me of the craziness of what we humans put out there. The harm to the people that war creates is insane!! Back then the radio and the papers fuelled tho idea that there was a point to it all.
    I still fail to see what actual gains were made.
    One commenter talked of the little Jewish girl. Sadly little girls in many countries were hurt in many ways. We never talk much about that.

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    1. Dear Heidrun, as General Sherman said as he advanced to the sea from burnt-out Atlanta: "War is hell." For everyone. Peace.

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  22. Oh, Dee, your stories are so interesting and compelling to read. Every time I come here I learn something new about the world, but I also marvel at the life you've lived, the experiences you've had, and count myself richer for the experience. Thank you so much for sharing.

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    1. Dear Deb, I'm so pleased to find a comment from you. How wonderful to hear from you and such kind words. I do so hope your recovery is going well and that you are walking and sitting and sleeping without pain. Peace.

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  23. Dee, this was fascinating. I too didn't realise that there was rationing in America during the war, having grown up with stories of the GIs and their largesse of chocolate, cigarettes and nylon stockings.

    I was born in 1846 and lived with rationing in my early childhood as the last items didn't come off rationing in Britain until 1954. In fact my mother told me that in the first few years after the war life was harder in many ways than it had been during the war.

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    1. Dear Perpetua, I so enjoyed watching the PBS series on midwives that aired this fall. I think the series began its story in 1952. I don't know if you saw it there in England, but it takes place there. I learned so much from it about what life was like for the dock workers and others after the war.

      I wonder why things were harder after the war than during with regard to rationing. I know that under the Marshall Plan, which I think was enacted in 1948 and lasted, I think, four years, many countries in Europe were given economic aid by the US in a way that helped all of us in the end. I don't know if that aid was only in machinery or also in food. Of course the Berlin Airlift during that time helped people in Germany with food during the Russian blockade.

      Times were so hard and people seemed to really pull together. I hope that when books are written about this recession we've all gone through, history will smile on our efforts too. I wonder though if many of us here in the United States aren't truly spoiled by all the prosperity and abundance we've had. Peace.

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    2. Part of the trouble after the war was that very bad weather led to poor crops, so food was short and even staple foods like bread and potatoes had to be rationed for a while.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

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    3. Dear Perpetua, thanks for letting me know about this. And thanks also for the link, I'll go and read about this. Peace.

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  24. This post makes me think of so many things! First of all, how much I treasure your precise memory and the way you teach me so many things I would never have known otherwise. Second, how this created hardships for so many people because of war, which I don't believe in under any circumstances. Third, how different our world would be right now if we had continued to have some of those beliefs/understanding that the things we want as consumers are finite. How much less polluted would our world be (and how many more creative solutions would we have for packages and money, etc.) if we were forced to think about the things we use and where they come from and how many resources go in to producing/shipping/selling them. If everyone had to produce an empty toothpaste tube now, how many fewer would there be in landfills around the nation?

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    1. Dear Kari, I'm so impressed with the way your mind took this story and ran with it and saw so many applications for today. That's what we all hope will happen with our writing. That it will touch people's experiences and provoke thought or other stories or memories. Thank you so much for listing all that you thought about. Much of what you listed, you have blogged about and I so admire your moral sense of justice. You are a fine human being, Kari. Peace.

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