Because of the war in Europe, the US had already begun making tanks, ships, and guns, so the supply of some metals and gasoline to ship fruits and vegetables long distances was noticeably less. And sugar had already been harder to get, because some of it came from South America, and there were German submarines sinking ships close to the coastline from Florida to Maine. But after we entered into war with Japan, our lives really changed. Suddenly everyone we knew or heard of, was talking about The War.
Folks in small towns and rural areas had always had “kitchen gardens”, but suddenly even folks living in apartments found places for window boxes in which to grow some lettuce or bean plants, etc. I remember seeing a picture of a tall apartment building in some big city with long, narrow boxes of plants on all the fire escapes. Folks in towns turned parts of their lawns into “Victory Gardens”. That was all to allow the commercially-grown and shipped food to go “to the troops”. Our dad bought one-half of the lot adjoining our back yard, and our mother began to grow all the vegetables and berries we ate. Canning preserved much of it for consumption during our Michigan winters.
A few months into 1942, rationing came along. It wasn’t just gasoline or sugar that was rationed or in short supply. It was tires, because much rubber was obtained from Japanese-occupied islands in the Pacific Ocean. Newsprint was in short supply, because a large amount of the wood that was cut ended up as military tent poles, and the chemicals used in making paper now had to be used to make gun powder. Fabrics for making dresses, etc., were limited to two yards of each one, because the mills which produced those types of fabrics were now primarily making fabrics for military uniforms and tents. Coal for heating was in short supply because almost everything that was transported went by train, and trains ran on coal. Candles became hard to get because they were made from paraffin, a distillate of wood, petroleum, coal, etc.
