OT/war rations

[n8terry]

I juat ran across a ration book that was issued in my name when I was 2 years old.

On the back cover it says--------

Rationing is a vital part of your country's effort. Any attempt to violate the rules is a effort to deny someone his share oan will create hardship and help the enemy.

This book is your Government's assurance of your right to buy your fair share of cetain goods made scarce by the war. Price ceilings have also been established for your protection. Dealers must post these prices conspicuously. Don't pay more.

Give your whole support to rationing and thereby conserve our vital goods. Be guided by the rule:

If you don't need it, DON'T BUY IT.

My how things have changed, now we get a stimulus check so we can buy more stuff, most of which from folks that may not like us.

I guess now days it pays to be fat, dumb and happy!

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have a book of gas stamps from WWII that were made out in my name at age 2. Mother and dad walked to most places back then. Dad walked to work at Sealed Power and also walked to the grocery store and dragged the stuff home on carts. Never wasted anything especially wash water and utilities like natural gas, electricity, and water. All the rooms had doors which were kept closed while only the kitchen and living room were heated.

You mentioned "My how things have changed, now we get a stimulus check so we can buy more stuff, most of which from folks that may not like us."

When those very same people who "don't like us” get the chance they are the first to immigrate to America and begin to complain that the Gov’mint doesn’t provide enough to them.

 

[buickanddeere]

Careful. I got slapped for saying a similar message.

 

[Mike (WA)]

Biggest difference I see is the decline in values and character. Dad said everyone got through the Depression because "we were all in it together, helped out if someone needed it, etc." Now, it seems like there no such thing as "poor but honest", and can you imagine what would happen if they tried rationing today? If your book was one of the few that didn't get stolen from the mailboxes, you would surely get rolled for it on your way to the market. There's too many people who depend on either crime or the guvment to carry them, and have no way to subsist without one or the other. No place to put a Victory Garden on the 3rd floor of a Section 8 apartment building. Don't know where this is all going, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Excuse Me! Band D your post was just plain antaganistic and whinny while being arrogant. These posts are informative about history. MAYBE you should read yours again and then throw out an apology!!

 

[tlak]

They called them soup lines back then, not everybody had a victory garden.

 

[1936]

I remember as a yougin seeing them in my grandmothers house in the fifty's. Saved of course for who know? Was told they had all the tractor gas needed on the farm. Your best contact was on the ration board who would hand back ration books that had been used once.

 

[big fred]

But that was back in the day when the government really knew how to be corrupt! Here's a poem I found in with the stuff in my dad's WWII footlocker, along with his uniforms, flight logs, etc.

A stranger stood at the gate of Hell
And the Devil himself had answered the bell
He looked him over from head to toe
And said “My friend, I’d like to know
What you have done in the line of sin
To entitle you to come within?”
Then Franklin D. with his usual guile
Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile.
“When I took over in ’33,
A nation’s faith was mine”, said he
“I promised this and I promised that,
And I calmed them down with a fireside chat.
I spent their money on fishing trips
And I fished from the decks of their battleships.
I gave them jobs on the WPA
Then raised their taxes and took it away.
I raised their wages – then closed their shops,
I killed their pigs and buried their crops.
I double-crossed both young and old
And still the folks my praises told.
I brought back beer and what do you think?
I taxed it so high they couldn’t drink.
I furnished money with good loans
When they missed a payment I took their homes.
When I wanted to punish people, you know,
I put my wife on the radio.
I paid them to let their farms lie still
And imported foodstuffs from Brazil.
And curtailed crops when I felt mean
And shipped in corn from the Argentine.
When they started to worry, stew and fret,
I’d get them to chanting the alphabet.
With the AAA and the NLB
The WPA and the CCC.
With these many units I got their goats
And still I crammed it down their throats
While the taxpayers chewed their fingernails.
When the organizers needed dough
I signed up plants for the CIO.
I ruined their jobs and I ruined their health
And I put the screws on the rich man’s wealth.
And some who couldn’t stand the gaff
Would call me up and how I’d laugh!
When they got too hot on certain things
I’d pack up and head for Warm Springs.
I ruined their country, their homes, and then
Laid the blame on the ‘nine old men’.”
Now Franklin talked both long and loud
And the Devil stood with his head bowed.
At last he said “Let’s make it clear,
You’ll have to move, you can’t stay here.
For once you’ve mingled with this mob
I’ll have to hunt myself a job.”

 

[Gun guru]

Where was that sealed power plant at?
I used to work for Lectron in Roch. hills. Eaton Corp wrecked it and closed it in 2002. I left on my own in 1997.

 

[Gun guru]

Very incredible poem.
FDR was a horrible president to say the least along with Lyd. Johnson, and of course Slick Willy.

 

[n8terry]

That all depends on which side of the fence you are standing on. This is the first time I ever heard anyone say anything negative about him. I must have been out of touch for a long time!

 

[Mark - IN.]

My father came over to Ellis Island from Poland after WWII. Spent some years in a concentration camp too. He died when I was 10. But I'll tell you what, he didn't waste anything. Nothing at all, especially food. Wasting was a sin, as was not working for it. Things were different back when I was a kid, and communism still owned Poland. In or during WWII, my Dad's father and both of his brothers were executed. He was already here, I think, when his sister sent pictures of their mother in her casket. That only left my father's sister and her two children back there as family. He used to go to Kmart and buy shoes and clothing for them, scuff and dirty them up before sending them back to her, them, so that they would get them so that they wouldn't be seized...and I suppose sold on the black market.

I figure, as hard as things and times may seem here, they could be worse in other places, have and still are. I've been a very fortunate person. I have it harder than some, easier than countless. I work for everything that I have. I'm a very fortunate person. I don't ask anyone for handouts, never have. I don't mind giving handouts or help where or when needed and I can. I can't stand folks demanding that what I've worked hard for, or what's in my wallet should be their's for no other reason than they were born, and therefore are entitled to it.

I didn't involve politics, nor am I looking for any. Its just that times have changed in my lifetime.

 

[Gun guru]

Amen, and great story.
My Great Grandparents, (my moms grandparents) were born in the late 1890's and they went through the depression with a small farm and my great grandfather worked anywhere he could, Repairing tires, in a autoplant in Detroit (plant was coverted to make planes during WW2) Great grandmother worked at the Dodge truck plant in Warren Mich. for 30+ years and retired in 1959. They taught me the value of a dollar....and how, my Grandmother was cheap, I look back now and say no......Frugal and wise after what they went through. She died in 1992 at the age of 93, Great Grandfather died in 1974 when I was 5. (I still remember him, a little.)
And people spend $4 on a Starbucks coffee and Women spend lots of good money to get their hair cut.
People in this country dont know what tough is, Cable TV is optional, so is a cell phone and Air conditioning, a new car and all new clothes, what ever happened to handme downs?
I would hate to see a real depression in this country in our day and age. Can you imagine kids in this country cutting wood to stay warm in the winter, that may happen in some areas now but probably not much.

 

[tlak]

But Bush has them all beat by miles

 

[Tradititonal Farmer]

Same as today many had rather stand in line with their hand out expecting someone to give them something rather than grow a garden.Most people I know are too lazy to pick anything from a garden if its given to them

 

[Gun guru]

I will agree to a certain point Bush is a dumba&&.

 

[buickanddeere]

That's true. I went back to my old place where we had planted out sweet cherry trees. The cherries were all rotting on the trees and attracting birds as the owners sat on their duff's eating icecream and potato chips.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Muskegon, MI