Growing up in the 1950s / 1960s, I recall the 'hand-me-down' dynamics included family, friends, and neighbors. Iron-on patches for our denims were an iconic innovation.
@@ldcraig2006 Such dynamics were normal back then. I recall attending a little-league tournament in which my older brothers were participants. Given a nickel, I was pleased to visit the 'popcorn-wagon' to purchase a sno-cone. Returning to the bleachers I stumbled upon a five-dollar bill laying on the ground. When I presented my discovery to my mother, she snatched that bill from my hand quicker that a cobra. The next month, I was wearing the first pair of Keds I ever had that weren't worn by at least two older brothers.
A local tire shop had a new set of rear tractor tires hidden in his attic at the time. Someone saw them and reported him. A buddy warned him the police were coming to search his place he better get rid of them. He brought them out to my grandpa and mounted them on his Farmall F20 for free just to be rid of them. That tractor remained in the family right up until last year and still had those tires on it.
My great uncle had a license plate collection going all the way back to the first plates issued in the early 1900s. On one of the scrap drives, he gave all his license plates away, even though the family told him to keep them. He said he may be too old to fight, but he would do everything in his power to help those young enough to fight. Now everybody argues about politics and couldn't care less about others. God help us if we have another world war.
When I was a child in the 60s we had Sunday Shoes (for church), School Shoes, and Play Shoes (old school shoes or canvas ones we could wear outdoors). My stay-at-home Mom clipped coupons, canned food, and mended clothing so we could save money for a "rainy day". This enabled us to be good stewards of what we had, share with others less fortunate, and make it through lean times when extra expences popped up or Dad's factory union went on strike.
My Mom was born in '38. She remembered the rationing. Her family lived on a farm outside of Houston. They raised rabbits because the meat was not rationed and the family had plenty of meat to eat and sell or trade to other families for things they needed.
Both my parents were children during WWII & they were both the youngest in their families (my mom was the youngest of 5 & my dad the youngest of 7). They said their elder siblings usually got the rations & the kids' old shoes were then passed down to the next sibling. In my dad's family, his eldest sister was already married (& her sons were my dad's age) & his oldest brother was killed at Pearl Harbor. In My mom's family, her brother was the only boy, so he always got new shoes. My dad's brothers did figure out a way around the gas rationing. Their grandfather had passed away before my dad was born & the family still had his old Model T. My uncles realized the car could run off kerosene (which was not rationed at the time), so they got the old Model T running & drove it. My dad said it smoked like crazy & everyone could smell them coming from the fumes.
In the UK, clothing coupons came in in 1942 and the scheme was very stringent, forcing 'make do and mend' to be the watchword for the population. Wedding dresses had to be shared around and altered many times. With vehicles, only essential users like medical use and public transport were allowed. This improved the tyre and fuel shortage (coal being the only natural fuel the island country had). But even the extra buses needed for peak times were parked at their destination in the morning, rather than returning to the depots. The drivers then picked them up again late afternoon for the return journey, this saving fuel and rubber. As for the stringent food rationing, it increased after the war, with the UK supplying food to Germany to overcome its food shortage. This was not popular, as can be imagined! UK food rationing did not cease until about 1953, with sweets (candy) being the last to come off. However, such was the resultant demand, shortages quickly occurred and sweet rationing was re-introduced for some months, until production increase! Not sure about WW2, but in WW1 hoarding food was a very serious offence, with imprisonment for offenders.
I have a history cardboard cover magazine book called Life Goes To War. Lots of good pictures of different people and places in war time, but some ads, too. There’s one of 2 GIs or Marines sitting on ground with unidentifiable food on their mess kits and a piece of white bread and each is smiling and holding a piece in their hands. I forget the words, but it was a feel good about rationing ad. Something like, “go without because they need it.” Most history deserves to be remembered, but lots of history is fun to learn and to remember.
*What most people fail to grasp (then & now) is that it was not just about the availability of an item or material; it was almost as much about the attitude of the people and the willingness to sacrifice. Without the immediacy of the threat from the Japanese or Germans felt by people living in or near the war zones, it was not natural for people to employ the discipline and self-denial necessary for effective rationing.*
My parents and grandparents survived the depression prior to WW2 so self-imposed rationing was well ingrained in their lifestyles. WW2 rationing was an extension of what they were already doing. I never heard any of them complain about rationing as they were already scrimping on everything. That discipline was passed on to me at a very young age in the early 1950s.
People put up with the shortages and the rationing because in return, the Government promised them the unconditional surrender of the enemy. People will sacrifice to meet a definable goal. They won't sacrifice as a form of virtue signaling.
I was born in 1939 and i can remember Mom & Dad talking about this when i was just a boy.....My Dad owned an ran a very large Tannery......Thanks to THG🎀 and all of his EXCELLENT RESEARCH IN MAKING VIDEO OF HISTORY ❣ 👍 Old F-4 Shoe🇺🇸
I'm in my late 70s, and can remember seeing those posters from the OPA still present in some stores even in the early 50s. Also, the 'Use it up, wear it out; Make it do, or do without' slogan was still a thing back then, especially with Korea going on.
Dear ol' dad served in WW2 and I remember my parents, aunts and uncles talking about rationing. Most difficult for them was sugar and coffee. Being frugal remained with them for the rest of their lives, and I picked it up too.
The Ford 2N tractor was released originally with steel tires and no battery or starter in response to the rationing. As these items became available, the tractors were then shipped with tires, batteries and starters. My 44 International Farmall H came from the factory with these items, but things such as the rubber shift knob were replaced with stamped steel or cast versions. I’ve seen some homemade steel wheels on tractors of that era.
As a small child in the UK in the mid 1940s I can recall strict rationing in later WW2 days and the drab Labour Government post war "export or die" days. One egg and 2ozs of butter per person per week; and oranges, bananas, coffee etc were unobtaInable. Strict fuel rationing caused most car owners to put their vehicles up on blocks to preserve the tyres for the duration of the war, and even in the peacetime there was up to a two years' wait for a new car to be delivered after being ordered.
Habits developed during wartime rationing continued into the 70s and 80s. In my extended family there were 10 cousins. Of whom my sister and I were the youngest. Every 2 years anouther cousin was born and this led to hand-me-downs being recycled. If we complained we were told quite plainly that "..on the farm we kids were always getting stuff from older kids." Although I am sure that these habits were developed in the depression, they were perfected during the war. Suits, overalls, shirts, even sleepware were always on someone's sewing list for modification, repair, or even dare I say..."retreading" 'gulp'. This meant that used stuff was taken apart entirely and remade. One dress or "church" shirt I had when I was about 13 (1977) was made from an old white bedsheet and buttons, button holes, coller, snd cuffs from a dress shirt c.1920! It was pieced togeather and dyed a fashionable light blue. No pockets, of course... That very shirt still hangs in a closet in the house I grew up in..because "One of the little ones might need it." Meat, as I was told, was never a problem getting in the country, as off season hunting was "less permitted, and more allowed" as my uncle said. Fishing too wasn't regulated too well either. But fish were often traded for less available items.
My grandma still has some of this mindset. She's 97 and still going strong. We, as a family, make and can our own maple syrup every year. Grandma is in charge of storage and distribution, and she's really stingy and hoards it, lol. She's still got jars dated from the late 00s in her basement. I opened one up last year, and it was still good!
My Grandmother showed me a ration coupon and told me what they were for! I saw food shortages in Mexico in the 90's, I never thought I would have seen "supply chain" problems in the USA, but it happened in 2020!
Never forget the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. 😂 One day, when WE are history, we people will look back and laugh their asses off. I can say, however, that my household never once when without. When I heard rumor that there’d be a shortage, my gut said to stockpile. So I bought a few stores out of toilet paper, and when the shortages and rationing came, I’d watch for an extra pack or box. I know some people hate me for this, but I don’t care. I made sure the needs of my family of three were met. I went to the store for eggs, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and a gallon of milk, as well as lasagna noodles and ground beef. They wouldn’t let me buy both cheese, the eggs, and milk due to a limit of three per person for dairy. So I had to get my daughter and go back. That was the one frustrating thing. Otherwise, we planned ahead, and my husband, our daughter, and I all went together (the one please we were all allowed since even parks were closed). Yes, it meant we too up three spots when stores allowed in 20 people at a time, but the limits on some things really were absurdly small, and people with too many kids couldn’t get enough without taking their kids out. Ration booklets would have meant one person could do all the shopping. So we did what we had to to make sure we still ate.
Or, despite pediatricians and podiatrists screaming about used footwear, people trading shoes as kids grew with extended family and friends. The theory was, because feet left an imprint in the shoe, other feet wearing them would somehow be warped. This was proven false in the early 1980s.
My mom kept all her ration stamps for posterity. Still had shoe stamps, even with two small kids and construction worker husband at the time. Dad got mom her stainless steel cookie sheets from the place that made submarine steel, likely in trade for fresh eggs (they kept chickens and traded often with family). I'm sure Grandma & Grandpa gave her their shoe rations for the kids. Our neighbor, a German war bride, seemed to ration sugar right into the 1970's, as she brought my Dad a rhubarb pie (his favorite) for his birthday. He cut a piece out and took a bite. His next move was to the sugar bowl, lifting the crust and spooning sugar onto the filling. Not skipping a beat, he said it was delicious to the neighbor (who somehow, did not notice the sugar dump) and thanked her. My mom had also taken a bite as she saw what dad was doing and was trying to get him to stop. She managed to swallow her bite of pie. I loved tart fruit so I didn't need the sugar. To me, it really WAS delicious. The neighbor made the most flaky pastry, and I knew her lack of sugar use firsthand. When the neighbor had left for home, we had a good laugh, and more 'doctored' pie.
History Guy this was one of the best explanations I have seen. Born in almost 1961, I never understood the struggles that my parents and grandparents went through. Now I do. Thank you for the education. I cannot imagine what would happen in today’s rational and times if we have to sacrifice our foods and goods!
My younger child outgrew her shoes 4 times between March 2020 & April 2021, the elder 3 times. And they'd overlap by a few weeks so I couldn't even hand down eldest's to youngest. They didn't need shoes very often until frost came, but sometimes they did.
People think shortages were only during WW2. This was not true. We still had problems until the mid 1950s. I remember Mother during the late 1940s and early 1950s trying to work things out because She could not get items yet. This included food items that still were not available.
With war seemingly on the horizon, I've put back a good number of pairs of shoes for future use... The lessons of rationing were lessons that my WWII parents taught me.
I think that's smart! Probably a good thing for everyone right now to stock up on the things you're going to need in the next year... Whether shoes maybe deodorants, personal hygiene, sweeteners coffee... Especially coffee. The UN is getting ready to halt production on coffee because they say it damages this CO2 lol. We're in for some hard times in the future
I'll be 50 next week. I remember talking to my grandparents (grandmothers) who were stateside and great-grandparents as a child about the rationing. As someone from a small, rural area, it was probably both worse, and not so bad. Worse in the fact that there was less allocated for the area, but those people were used to doing more with less to begin with. I can only imagine if we were hit with rationing now, or even during past modern wars, post WWII. People would not stand for it.
Biden just sold off 1/3 of our helium reserves last week, he sold off half of the strategic oil reserves to China last year.... That's not rationing it's idiotic
My aunt gave me what was left of Mom's ration book for food, along with her "course book" a sort of report card used back then. The student walked from class to class with the course book, receiving a grade from each teacher. Mom was not the marvelous student she claimed. 😂
My mom saved her ration coupons, ow which I have a few today. If you wanted to buy some gasoline, sugar, etc... a coupon was required. My mom was raised on a farm so they needed very little in the way of meat, milk or vegatables. They did buy cloth by the yard to make the women's dresses. The men bought denim overalls. Boy scouts went from house to house to collect old tires, tooth paste containers and other metal items. My community was made up of farmers, tradesmen and factory workers when I grew up in the 50s and 60s. Women regularly brought bags of clothes over to their neighbors where they picked through them to find things they liked. I had a cousin named David and I wore many hand me downs from him until I was about 15 and I outgrew him. It was a part of life and i never thought twice about it. Yes, we had a five acre garden that we ploughed with a horse named Sandy. Sandy and our family got all the vegetables we needed from that garden. Momma canned it and in the 1960s she started freezing some of it. We had fruit trees so momma made us plenty of pair, apple and blackberry jelly-momma called them preserves. Anyway life was great and our diets were probably better than they are today-I ate a candy bar or drank a Coke perhaps once a week. There was not much junk food like chips although I did get an oatmeal cookie or Moon pie once in a while. Most our sweets came from momma's kitchen.-and not from a box with a picture of Betty Crocker.
My grandmother lived in a Bronx, NY apartment with my grandfather, my college age mother and my teenage aunt during WWII. Stockings were rationed at two pairs per lady. I don’t know when new nylons became available, though it wasn’t very often. My grandmother would stand in line for hours with her ration book to get her two pairs of nylons. She had to start over at the end of the line and shuffle forward until it was her turn to present my mom’s ration book to obtain her nylons, and then repeat the process for my aunt. If nylons tore or developed runs, they were patched with creative yet awkward means like glue or stitches. When nylons were beyond repair, leg “makeup” was applied to simulate stockings, complete with a thin painted line up the back of each leg to match the appearance of the seam that nylons used to have. It took a steady hand to apply that fake seam! The leg makeup eventually rubbed off or streaked from sweating or rain.
If this happens today, shoe rationing would not be needed as there are almost No manufacturing plants left in America. Supply shortages in itself would be self rationing.
In Finland during the WW2, people made shoes from paper, wool fabric, birch bark and wood. On the countryside people were even barefoot in the summer to save their shoes. Rationing board allowed you to have only two pairs of shoes. Leather shoes were allowed only for those that needed those most in their work. The shoe rationing ended in 1949.
As my wife and I were starting a new family in 1960, we were given a used refrigerator from my grandmother's house. A sticker inside the door said that this was a rationed appliance, and the cost could not exceed $235.
My high school history teacher had a story about how one of the local butchers started to sell rabbit meat since it wasn’t rationed unlike beef. Then somebody noticed a lot fewer stray cats in town. Apparently a rabbit carcass and a cat carcass hanging the window of a butcher shop look a lot alike
In the late stages of the ware and a couple of years after, we raised New Zealand White rabbits. 3-4 lb of dressed meat per rabbit and very little fat. By war's end we had nearly 2000. We sold at the local Saturday market for $0; 25/lb and would sell out. The fur often bought more than the meat. My mother would make blouses and shirts for the family and city folks from colorful flour sacks which we would barter for. Our nearest neighbor, a mile away, was a dairy farmer. We traded dressed chicken for milk. We had no working tractor, but another neighbor had an old Wallis tractor with steel wheels that he managed to get running and gave it to my dad. It plowed and disked our 60+ acres for years. We primarily raised vegetables and my mother canned everything.
My grandmother (Mary Lou) worked as a civilian warehouse employee at Camp Hahn in California during the war. She had recalled that shoes were always locked behind a cage, yet there always seemed to be a worn out pair of shoes in one or two shoeboxes when inventorying. She would chuckle at the thought of men intentionally wanting to wear "Army" shoes on purpose.
Good Wednesday morning History Guy and everyone watching. Happy Hump Day. My father grew up during WW II. He was 6 years old in 1943. My grandparents were raising 9 children during the rationing years.
wow. you mentioned my home town of Port Huron Michigan and the newspaper my mom and i both delivered (albeit we were 42 years apart in having a route).... thanks! i dont know what prompted you to pick the Times Herald to quote out of all the newspapers in the country but its pretty cool!
@@x808drifter, Sadly, we may have to make an economic argument to some of our more self-centered fellow Americans in order to get them to support Ukraine: Russia supply 16 %of world exports in wheat and serial grains; Ukraine, the "breadbasket of Europe", supplies another 10%. If Russia takes Ukraine they could starve poorer nations around the world and bend them to their will, at the risk of toppling governments. They could negotiate sweetheart deals for access to vital strategic metals and minerals (especially in Africa) for producing electronics and military material. Here in the US, the price of smartphones and loaves of bread could double. Ukraine also has proven reserves of oil and gas; do we really want Russia to be controlling those?
Gavin Newsome told people not to charge their mandatory elective cars. US pays the highest rate for sugar in the world, they don't want people making bootleg liquor to compensate for failed policy
Interesting fact: US Military Vehicles were shipped with small almost bald tyres. Then fitted with full size NDC (Non Directional Combat ) tyres in Europe. A lot of second line vehicles used smaller tyres than standard.
An old shoe store in Queens Village NY Eric Shoes opened in 1942. I always though as a kid in the 1980s what a hell of a time to open a store. It closed in 2023.
Very interesting for those of us who know WWII rationing mostly from old Looney Tunes cartoons. I sometimes tell people that there was a time in the memory of the oldest members of my family when saving gasoline was considered patriotic! My mother’s family had a “C” gasoline sticker, because my grandfather worked in an essential industry (railroad). And BTW those wooden wedgies women sport in 1940s movies weren’t rationed.
I don’t know if you have been down to my home town and where I still reside, New Orleans, to see the National WW2 museum yet sir, but if not I highly recommend it! Happy Mardi Gras from the big easy!
Fuel rationing in the United States was not due to any shortage of gasoline - they had oil out the ying yang. It was implemented in order to save rubber, which was difficult to get after the Japanese conquered Sumatra.
My father was farming during WWII and I have seen a form (legal size and several pages with I think carbon paper) to buy a tire. Hope I have it in some of the stuff I haven't gone through, but it would not surprise me if my mother threw it away. Wonder they kept it because as soon an WWII was over they auctioned off all their farm stuff and moved west when I was about 8 mos old in a 1937 Chevy coup but did have some stuff shipped to them later. I do have two file boxes of receipts and registers of stuff they bought and sold. I don't know what to do with them; I have no use for them, but after 80-90 years, it seems a shame to discard them. Dad wanted to farm out west and I remember looking to buy a farm, but he never did.
Looking for a family farm ✨ ... My family embraced that dream (late '50's, early '60's). Never realized; but, I witnessed that spirit of longing for such in my parents; and shared in it to the extent that I might actually own a horse! Well, dreams fade and children grow up to embrace other dreams. Still, we won't forget that glorious sense of unity American families felt, together 💕🇺🇲
I was born in the UK in Feb 1950, when I was old enough (4) to go to the local shop alone, I had to take a ration ticket with me to buy meat. In 1954 meat rationing finally finished, which was pretty confusing for a 4 year old. I guess these days a four year old going to the shop alone would be pretty rare.
My mother never had leather shoes growing up during the war , most of her shoes were canvas or some other material that didn't require a coupon - her brothers needed the coupons necessary for the leather shoes they wore - she bought leather shoes with the money from her first job
I grew up in Lynn and Peabody MA. Lynn's primary industry was shoes while Peabody was known as the leather city because it had so many tanneries. I am sure they were affected by these restrictions.
They were likely converted to war production. Lots of lucrative government contracts ! Remember that materials were rationed so they could be used for the military. In the US, nobody lost money.*Rationing was just seriously inconvenient . In Europe, it was a different story. *Except for our Japanese citizens who were rounded up and removed from their homes and imprisoned in remote locations under armed guards for the duration.
Never thought about the trickle-down effects of such an overwhelming war effort. I can't even imagine the other sacrifices the Greatest Generation had to endure. Great video.
Just read about this. The book is "The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age". It's about the Hanford reservation during World War II. There was a barracks set aside for the ladies who worked there. The management asked if they had any pressing issue that could be solved. There was. The gravel walkways were chewing up their shoes. And with shoe rationing it was a very big deal. The next day workers were spreading asphalt over the gravel.
I remember the rating books. Especially for gas, butter, and sugar were the big items on our list of items fora long time ago. But then I a very young child at that time.
All i could think of was, how would people feel about these kinds of sacrifices in today's political/ social climate? Nowadays, people cry about wearing a mask during a pandemic.
In the UK the rationing was far more severe, understandably given so much came in by sea (hence the Battle of the Atlantic, in an affort to starve Britain of material and food). It also went on for quite some time after victory - my dad remembers being a boy in the 1940s and even into the 50s, with some items still controlled by rationing, such had been the impact of the war
One thing that families would do to stretch the rationing of clothes and shoes would have exchanges of used and outgrown clothes or shoes. You didn't need coupons for used goods and an even exchange of clothes was a great alternative to trying to buy new.
The socialist in charge of the government then, just like the socialist in charge today that take from the taxpayers to pay for the government plan to punish the citizens for foreign wars and abandon the people
With so many of our shoes being made overseas now, a whole lot of people would be shoeless if a modern equivalent of this policy was imposed in the next war
If you say so; with what passes for shoes today ... A whole lot of people are shoeless today; and don't even know it! I cringe everytime I enter a shoe department. China is ruining us in this category (among others). SOLD OUT BY FOREIGN POLICY
Today is an entirely different situation. Today, every American closet is overstuffed with a decades-long supply of shoes. And clothes. Same with every thrift store. We won't be running out.
@@jamesengland7461 To a certain extent you're right, but not everyone has a closet full of shoes that are appropriate to a given situation. For instance, in a month I start a thru-hike of the AT; most thru-hikers wear out a pair of shoes every month they are on the trail. If these sorts of wartime rationings were in effect there probably wouldn't be a lot of thru-hiking, but you get my point. I have enough pairs of old shoes floating around that I could dig up some old stuff to put on my feet if the supply of new shoes was heavily curtailed, but it would not be optimal. Peoples situations change, or they encounter specific situations. Probably I wouldnt have been able to buy a new pair of shoes for my daughters wedding last June if restrictions were in place today, or I wouldnt be able to buy steel toed work boots. All of this ignores the reality that we've moved so much of our shoe production off shore that I believe the population would very quickly have problems finding the footwear they needed for specific situations.
A World War 2 poster that probably never existed but should have: "Bring Hitler to heel and give him the boot", accompanied by a cartoon of a soldier kicking Hitler for a loop!
My grandfather travelled to sell glassware. He managed to get gas to get the job done. I’m not proud of that but I’m sure times were difficult for all. My in-laws were very frugal to the end from depression years and war rationing.
A note about WW1. You may not call it rationing, but my gr grandma told my mom she could not get proper white bread flour. Bread flour was always sold along with predetermined amounts of alternative flours like corn, barley, oats, buckwheat, and so on. Gr grandma said the bread she made during this period didn't rise right. (whole grain doesn't rise as much as white flour). She considered the flour requirements a form of rationing. About WW2 Mom did tell me rationing of leather shoes rationing. She had told me this was when gym shoes started to become popular. Meat was rationed, but canned spam wasn't. This proves my argument that spam may not be exactly meat. Mom says canned tuna wasn't rationed. People who lived near the northern boarder might take trips to Canada from extra meat and eggs. Mom said the dyes in the clothing weren't very good and would faded quickly. The best clothing dyes had come from Germany before the war. So many things were rationed or replacement were nearly impossible to get. Cooking pots and pans had to be repaired with a kit containing a bolt, washers, and a nut to put through a hole. There were no replacements to be had.
There's a community close to me called sugar Town the story of where the name came from is a man tried to buy sugar and because of rations he couldn't buy any and said this a sugar town and i can't even buy any sugar
My Dad talked about that sugar ration and how farmers would get around that by being bee keepers or growing sorghum cane for molasses but that still meant white sugar to him was precious, as was white flour....and white bread because for a while, white bread and sugar were hard to come by.
Something I've wondered about, off and on over the years, is how were ration booklets or coupons distributed and how often? Did recipients have to register to get them, then sign for them when they got them? Thanks so much. I always enjoy your videos.
I was reminded often by my mother of the time my mother found me on the bed in her room sitting with ration books around me having been torn out of the books was the stamps. My parents had to get new books which according to my mother was a process she never wanted to go through again.
I was born January 1942, so my baby shoes were rationed, and aparently my mother limited my wearing of shoes during the war. I say that, because I still have my baby shoes. They look none less for wear, so I probably didn't wear them much before I out grew them. My father was at sea, and my mother rented from a couple who owned a grocery store. They took a shine to me, so I never wanted for candy. We were never short of meat, although my mother said years later that sometimes the meat was darker than normal and said it was probably horse. Of course, I don't remember any of this. I was only three and a half when the war ended.
My mom was a teenager in the 40s and would tell me about just how hard it got with the rationing and shortages. I don't believe that the modern American population could handle such a thing, we've gotten "comfortable " and accustomed to "services " . In a very real way, we are as decadent as the ancient Romans, and that might very well cost us in the near future.
Sugar was rationed so my Mom & her friends would have "fudge parties" where everyone would bring a small amount of sugar then they would split the fudge after.
Being a collector of vintage clothes, I am aware that because of fabric rationing three piece suites fell out of fashion so men wore a vest mot so much as before.
I listen to Old Time Radio and recall hearing an ad for Vitalis, assuring American men that, with the war over, Vitalis will soon be returning to American stores. Apparently, they'd been shipping all Vitalis to our soldiers overseas.
As bad as things were in America for average citizen - they were so much worse in Europe. Britain had rationing even when Queen Elizabeth was coronated. Further east rationing was not so prevalent - there was just nothing for civilian economy produced because commisars preferred military production.
Remember that Then princess Elizabeth was married and used rations cards for her gift and the reception in 1948 the same year as my parents and my aunt and uncle just two days later in 1948.
I read that gasoline rationing was not necessary for the conservation of gasoline...the US had sufficient production and supply...it was instituted to conserve the use of rubber. Also, another tidbit. The US GNP rose during WW II and that our national wealth and manufacturing prowess was greater than the three Axis combined. As long as the US had the willpower, we would have out spent them...we did the same to the Russians during the Cold War.
Easy to maintain production when your cities and factories are not being bombed. Plenty of Americans profited from the war, which was a sore point with the Allies who lost everything.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel , that’s what happens when the US failed to black out its coastal cities, failed to introduce local escorted convoys (especially for tankers), and failed to create anti-submarine naval units to defend against U-boat attacks along the East coast. The Kriegsmarine hunted at will, with little opposition. Sank a lot of tankers within sight of land.
My parents were both born in 1928. My mother only let us have 3 pairs of shoes at a time : play(sneekers), school ,& church shoes. One year, I was so tired of black shoes for church, I insisted on white ones. Yup, I was the only kid at Christmas mass in white Mary-Janes. My mother thought more than that was wasteful. Now I know why. Thanks for the insight.
My Grandfather would tell the story of him needing new soles on his work boots but couldn’t get them because the shoe cobbler didn’t have any rubber to make them with and then one day he found a rubber hose along the railroad tracks that had fallen off a train. He soon had new soles on his boots and would tell his grandchildren years later that “ God does indeed work in mysterious ways”
My dad was a civilian musician during the war, he was allowed more gasoline than the average Joe. The reason being music was a moral booster. Sadly he died many years before I was mature enough to understand what Americans had to sacrifice at home.
@TheHistoryGuyChannel I am so amused you recognize the reference. I would have stuck a OPA flag and had a model of the Roci sitting behind me if I had done this for a joke
Growing up in the 1950s / 1960s, I recall the 'hand-me-down' dynamics included family, friends, and neighbors. Iron-on patches for our denims were an iconic innovation.
Yes, same here!
Now we vie to see who can be most profligate and wasteful!
Most of the clothes I wore in the 1960's were "hand-me-downs" from my cousins who lived downstate, but I never knew that at the time.
@@ldcraig2006 Such dynamics were normal back then. I recall attending a little-league tournament in which my older brothers were participants. Given a nickel, I was pleased to visit the 'popcorn-wagon' to purchase a sno-cone. Returning to the bleachers I stumbled upon a five-dollar bill laying on the ground. When I presented my discovery to my mother, she snatched that bill from my hand quicker that a cobra. The next month, I was wearing the first pair of Keds I ever had that weren't worn by at least two older brothers.
Knowing my mother, there were at least fifty HAIL MARYs attached to those tenny-runners. 😇
A local tire shop had a new set of rear tractor tires hidden in his attic at the time. Someone saw them and reported him. A buddy warned him the police were coming to search his place he better get rid of them. He brought them out to my grandpa and mounted them on his Farmall F20 for free just to be rid of them. That tractor remained in the family right up until last year and still had those tires on it.
My great uncle had a license plate collection going all the way back to the first plates issued in the early 1900s. On one of the scrap drives, he gave all his license plates away, even though the family told him to keep them. He said he may be too old to fight, but he would do everything in his power to help those young enough to fight. Now everybody argues about politics and couldn't care less about others. God help us if we have another world war.
Amen to that.
@@LuckyBaldwin777Today, the young people would not make any sacrifices because they know that they are being sent to war for fictitious reasons.
@@lefty-bw1zp I think you mean "know". The inability to understand reasons doesn't mean there are none.
Can you imagine turning on fellow Americans like this? When has that happened last....
My mother still had her ration card when she passed in 1982!😊
I hope you kept it or donated it to a museum.
I still have my grandmother's
When I was a child in the 60s we had Sunday Shoes (for church), School Shoes, and Play Shoes (old school shoes or canvas ones we could wear outdoors).
My stay-at-home Mom clipped coupons, canned food, and mended clothing so we could save money for a "rainy day". This enabled us to be good stewards of what we had, share with others less fortunate, and make it through lean times when extra expences popped up or Dad's factory union went on strike.
Same thing in the 70s. You had a few pairs of shoes and you made them last as long as possible.
"expenses."
My Mom was born in '38. She remembered the rationing. Her family lived on a farm outside of Houston. They raised rabbits because the meat was not rationed and the family had plenty of meat to eat and sell or trade to other families for things they needed.
Both my parents were children during WWII & they were both the youngest in their families (my mom was the youngest of 5 & my dad the youngest of 7). They said their elder siblings usually got the rations & the kids' old shoes were then passed down to the next sibling. In my dad's family, his eldest sister was already married (& her sons were my dad's age) & his oldest brother was killed at Pearl Harbor. In My mom's family, her brother was the only boy, so he always got new shoes. My dad's brothers did figure out a way around the gas rationing. Their grandfather had passed away before my dad was born & the family still had his old Model T. My uncles realized the car could run off kerosene (which was not rationed at the time), so they got the old Model T running & drove it. My dad said it smoked like crazy & everyone could smell them coming from the fumes.
In the UK, clothing coupons came in in 1942 and the scheme was very stringent, forcing 'make do and mend' to be the watchword for the population. Wedding dresses had to be shared around and altered many times. With vehicles, only essential users like medical use and public transport were allowed. This improved the tyre and fuel shortage (coal being the only natural fuel the island country had). But even the extra buses needed for peak times were parked at their destination in the morning, rather than returning to the depots. The drivers then picked them up again late afternoon for the return journey, this saving fuel and rubber. As for the stringent food rationing, it increased after the war, with the UK supplying food to Germany to overcome its food shortage. This was not popular, as can be imagined! UK food rationing did not cease until about 1953, with sweets (candy) being the last to come off. However, such was the resultant demand, shortages quickly occurred and sweet rationing was re-introduced for some months, until production increase! Not sure about WW2, but in WW1 hoarding food was a very serious offence, with imprisonment for offenders.
I have a history cardboard cover magazine book called Life Goes To War. Lots of good pictures of different people and places in war time, but some ads, too. There’s one of 2 GIs or Marines sitting on ground with unidentifiable food on their mess kits and a piece of white bread and each is smiling and holding a piece in
their hands. I forget the words, but it was a feel good about rationing ad. Something like, “go without because they need it.”
Most history deserves to be remembered, but lots of history is fun to learn and to remember.
*What most people fail to grasp (then & now) is that it was not just about the availability of an item or material; it was almost as much about the attitude of the people and the willingness to sacrifice. Without the immediacy of the threat from the Japanese or Germans felt by people living in or near the war zones, it was not natural for people to employ the discipline and self-denial necessary for effective rationing.*
My parents and grandparents survived the depression prior to WW2 so self-imposed rationing was well ingrained in their lifestyles. WW2 rationing was an extension of what they were already doing. I never heard any of them complain about rationing as they were already scrimping on everything. That discipline was passed on to me at a very young age in the early 1950s.
People put up with the shortages and the rationing because in return, the Government promised them the unconditional surrender of the enemy. People will sacrifice to meet a definable goal. They won't sacrifice as a form of virtue signaling.
I was born in 1939 and i can remember Mom & Dad talking about this when i was just a boy.....My Dad owned an ran a very large
Tannery......Thanks to THG🎀 and all of his EXCELLENT RESEARCH IN MAKING VIDEO OF HISTORY ❣ 👍
Old F-4 Shoe🇺🇸
I'm in my late 70s, and can remember seeing those posters from the OPA still present in some stores even in the early 50s. Also, the 'Use it up, wear it out; Make it do, or do without' slogan was still a thing back then, especially with Korea going on.
Today, people who want to help preserve the environment by say "Reduce; Reuse; Repair; Recycle".
I remember teachers saying that to the class!
Dear ol' dad served in WW2 and I remember my parents, aunts and uncles talking about rationing. Most difficult for them was sugar and coffee. Being frugal remained with them for the rest of their lives, and I picked it up too.
"use it up, wear it out"
has become
"use it once, throw it out"
It stuck with a lot of people. My mother was born during the Depression and raised during the war. Anything that could be saved to be reused was.
The Ford 2N tractor was released originally with steel tires and no battery or starter in response to the rationing. As these items became available, the tractors were then shipped with tires, batteries and starters. My 44 International Farmall H came from the factory with these items, but things such as the rubber shift knob were replaced with stamped steel or cast versions. I’ve seen some homemade steel wheels on tractors of that era.
As a small child in the UK in the mid 1940s I can recall strict rationing in later WW2 days and the drab Labour Government post war "export or die" days. One egg and 2ozs of butter per person per week; and oranges, bananas, coffee etc were unobtaInable. Strict fuel rationing caused most car owners to put their vehicles up on blocks to preserve the tyres for the duration of the war, and even in the peacetime there was up to a two years' wait for a new car to be delivered after being ordered.
Abbott and Costello made jokes and even entire shows around rationing on their radio show. The classic "Nylons" episode with Lucille Ball being one.
Habits developed during wartime rationing continued into the 70s and 80s.
In my extended family there were 10 cousins. Of whom my sister and I were the youngest.
Every 2 years anouther cousin was born and this led to hand-me-downs being recycled. If we complained we were told quite plainly that
"..on the farm we kids were always getting stuff from older kids."
Although I am sure that these habits were developed in the depression, they were perfected during the war.
Suits, overalls, shirts, even sleepware were always on someone's sewing list for modification, repair, or even
dare I say..."retreading" 'gulp'.
This meant that used stuff was taken apart entirely and remade. One dress or "church" shirt I had when I was about 13 (1977) was made from an old white bedsheet and buttons, button holes, coller, snd cuffs from a dress shirt c.1920! It was pieced togeather and dyed a fashionable light blue.
No pockets, of course...
That very shirt still hangs in a closet in the house I grew up in..because "One of the little ones might need it."
Meat, as I was told, was never a problem getting in the country, as off season hunting was "less permitted, and more allowed" as my uncle said.
Fishing too wasn't regulated too well either. But fish were often traded for less available items.
I wore cousin hand-me-downs through the 1970s, into high school. And the "first cousin" got pass-me-downs from adult relatives.
My grandma still has some of this mindset. She's 97 and still going strong. We, as a family, make and can our own maple syrup every year. Grandma is in charge of storage and distribution, and she's really stingy and hoards it, lol. She's still got jars dated from the late 00s in her basement. I opened one up last year, and it was still good!
My Grandmother showed me a ration coupon and told me what they were for! I saw food shortages in Mexico in the 90's, I never thought I would have seen "supply chain" problems in the USA, but it happened in 2020!
Never forget the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. 😂 One day, when WE are history, we people will look back and laugh their asses off. I can say, however, that my household never once when without. When I heard rumor that there’d be a shortage, my gut said to stockpile. So I bought a few stores out of toilet paper, and when the shortages and rationing came, I’d watch for an extra pack or box. I know some people hate me for this, but I don’t care. I made sure the needs of my family of three were met.
I went to the store for eggs, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and a gallon of milk, as well as lasagna noodles and ground beef. They wouldn’t let me buy both cheese, the eggs, and milk due to a limit of three per person for dairy. So I had to get my daughter and go back. That was the one frustrating thing. Otherwise, we planned ahead, and my husband, our daughter, and I all went together (the one please we were all allowed since even parks were closed). Yes, it meant we too up three spots when stores allowed in 20 people at a time, but the limits on some things really were absurdly small, and people with too many kids couldn’t get enough without taking their kids out. Ration booklets would have meant one person could do all the shopping. So we did what we had to to make sure we still ate.
This is probably why kids shoes were purchased a few sizes bigger than normally needed
Or, despite pediatricians and podiatrists screaming about used footwear, people trading shoes as kids grew with extended family and friends. The theory was, because feet left an imprint in the shoe, other feet wearing them would somehow be warped. This was proven false in the early 1980s.
I remember that... "he'll grow into them"!!
Just stuff some crumbled newspaper in the toebox.
I don't think my Mom ever bought me a pair of shoes that were actually my size. I'd still manage to outgrow them.
@@28mindaugas or stuffing toilet paper in the toe of the shoe! That was what we did
I have most examples of clothing rations. Including dry cleaning ones. I hope to get this into a museum one day.
My mom kept all her ration stamps for posterity. Still had shoe stamps, even with two small kids and construction worker husband at the time. Dad got mom her stainless steel cookie sheets from the place that made submarine steel, likely in trade for fresh eggs (they kept chickens and traded often with family). I'm sure Grandma & Grandpa gave her their shoe rations for the kids. Our neighbor, a German war bride, seemed to ration sugar right into the 1970's, as she brought my Dad a rhubarb pie (his favorite) for his birthday. He cut a piece out and took a bite. His next move was to the sugar bowl, lifting the crust and spooning sugar onto the filling. Not skipping a beat, he said it was delicious to the neighbor (who somehow, did not notice the sugar dump) and thanked her. My mom had also taken a bite as she saw what dad was doing and was trying to get him to stop. She managed to swallow her bite of pie.
I loved tart fruit so I didn't need the sugar. To me, it really WAS delicious. The neighbor made the most flaky pastry, and I knew her lack of sugar use firsthand.
When the neighbor had left for home, we had a good laugh, and more 'doctored' pie.
History Guy this was one of the best explanations I have seen. Born in almost 1961, I never understood the struggles that my parents and grandparents went through. Now I do. Thank you for the education. I cannot imagine what would happen in today’s rational and times if we have to sacrifice our foods and goods!
My younger child outgrew her shoes 4 times between March 2020 & April 2021, the elder 3 times. And they'd overlap by a few weeks so I couldn't even hand down eldest's to youngest. They didn't need shoes very often until frost came, but sometimes they did.
Hookworm was once endemic in the American South, mostly because poor children often didn't wear shoes.
My mom and country kids 1930s and 40s went barefoot until frost.
@@bevnfredSchools insist on it when they're actually in person, as do stores.
People think shortages were only during WW2. This was not true. We still had problems until the mid 1950s. I remember Mother during the late 1940s and early 1950s trying to work things out because She could not get items yet. This included food items that still were not available.
Rationing in the UK persisted into the early 1950s
With war seemingly on the horizon, I've put back a good number of pairs of shoes for future use... The lessons of rationing were lessons that my WWII parents taught me.
Good boy scouts are always ready!
I think that's smart! Probably a good thing for everyone right now to stock up on the things you're going to need in the next year... Whether shoes maybe deodorants, personal hygiene, sweeteners coffee... Especially coffee. The UN is getting ready to halt production on coffee because they say it damages this CO2 lol.
We're in for some hard times in the future
Be prepared. I suspect that Russia and China are going to start a world war soon.
My parents did the same
@@flamingpieherman9822 Son of a! Don 't mess with my coffee! Coffee & cigarettes are what helped America win WW2!
I'll be 50 next week. I remember talking to my grandparents (grandmothers) who were stateside and great-grandparents as a child about the rationing. As someone from a small, rural area, it was probably both worse, and not so bad. Worse in the fact that there was less allocated for the area, but those people were used to doing more with less to begin with.
I can only imagine if we were hit with rationing now, or even during past modern wars, post WWII.
People would not stand for it.
We seem to be taking open borders without much protest.
Biden just sold off 1/3 of our helium reserves last week, he sold off half of the strategic oil reserves to China last year.... That's not rationing it's idiotic
We seen what could happan if rationing started again during the pandemic.
I read that any country is only 2 weeks away from anarchy if the food supply is cut off.
My aunt gave me what was left of Mom's ration book for food, along with her "course book" a sort of report card used back then. The student walked from class to class with the course book, receiving a grade from each teacher. Mom was not the marvelous student she claimed. 😂
Toby mug on the shelf above Pre. Lincoln is a nice touch. Here's to the Leper Colony.
Both gifts from a fan. Thanks Jim!
7:10 Holy cow! As one of the extremely few people from Daggett County, UT, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear the shoutout!
My mom saved her ration coupons, ow which I have a few today. If you wanted to buy some gasoline, sugar, etc... a coupon was required. My mom was raised on a farm so they needed very little in the way of meat, milk or vegatables. They did buy cloth by the yard to make the women's dresses. The men bought denim overalls. Boy scouts went from house to house to collect old tires, tooth paste containers and other metal items. My community was made up of farmers, tradesmen and factory workers when I grew up in the 50s and 60s. Women regularly brought bags of clothes over to their neighbors where they picked through them to find things they liked. I had a cousin named David and I wore many hand me downs from him until I was about 15 and I outgrew him. It was a part of life and i never thought twice about it. Yes, we had a five acre garden that we ploughed with a horse named Sandy. Sandy and our family got all the vegetables we needed from that garden. Momma canned it and in the 1960s she started freezing some of it. We had fruit trees so momma made us plenty of pair, apple and blackberry jelly-momma called them preserves. Anyway life was great and our diets were probably better than they are today-I ate a candy bar or drank a Coke perhaps once a week. There was not much junk food like chips although I did get an oatmeal cookie or Moon pie once in a while. Most our sweets came from momma's kitchen.-and not from a box with a picture of Betty Crocker.
I love that on The History Guy videos, I see way more people using double space after punctuation. This channel has a lot of old nerds watching.
Stealing tires became a serious problem. People would sometimes go outside to find their cars with no wheels.
Still happens today in South Africa.
I was helping clean out my grandmother's house and found one of these ration books
Great video!
And once again, you've done a story with real sole...
My grandmother lived in a Bronx, NY apartment with my grandfather, my college age mother and my teenage aunt during WWII. Stockings were rationed at two pairs per lady. I don’t know when new nylons became available, though it wasn’t very often. My grandmother would stand in line for hours with her ration book to get her two pairs of nylons. She had to start over at the end of the line and shuffle forward until it was her turn to present my mom’s ration book to obtain her nylons, and then repeat the process for my aunt. If nylons tore or developed runs, they were patched with creative yet awkward means like glue or stitches. When nylons were beyond repair, leg “makeup” was applied to simulate stockings, complete with a thin painted line up the back of each leg to match the appearance of the seam that nylons used to have. It took a steady hand to apply that fake seam! The leg makeup eventually rubbed off or streaked from sweating or rain.
If this happens today, shoe rationing would not be needed as there are almost No manufacturing plants left in America. Supply shortages in itself would be self rationing.
Also, most people don't wear leather shoes.
@@loriloristuffor any shoe made in America
We’ve moved our industrial base to red China , our country can’t even make a paper clip,
In Finland during the WW2, people made shoes from paper, wool fabric, birch bark and wood. On the countryside people were even barefoot in the summer to save their shoes. Rationing board allowed you to have only two pairs of shoes. Leather shoes were allowed only for those that needed those most in their work. The shoe rationing ended in 1949.
As my wife and I were starting a new family in 1960, we were given a used refrigerator from my grandmother's house. A sticker inside the door said that this was a rationed appliance, and the cost could not exceed $235.
My high school history teacher had a story about how one of the local butchers started to sell rabbit meat since it wasn’t rationed unlike beef.
Then somebody noticed a lot fewer stray cats in town.
Apparently a rabbit carcass and a cat carcass hanging the window of a butcher shop look a lot alike
That's the real reason that meat animals were displayed with heads on, and still are in the places where such things are still common.
In the late stages of the ware and a couple of years after, we raised New Zealand White rabbits. 3-4 lb of dressed meat per rabbit and very little fat. By war's end we had nearly 2000. We sold at the local Saturday market for $0; 25/lb and would sell out. The fur often bought more than the meat.
My mother would make blouses and shirts for the family and city folks from colorful flour sacks which we would barter for.
Our nearest neighbor, a mile away, was a dairy farmer. We traded dressed chicken for milk.
We had no working tractor, but another neighbor had an old Wallis tractor with steel wheels that he managed to get running and gave it to my dad. It plowed and disked our 60+ acres for years. We primarily raised vegetables and my mother canned everything.
Great video. We’ve all heard about rationing, but my male relatives were all serving and didn’t know about shoes being rationed. Thanks again.
My grandmother (Mary Lou) worked as a civilian warehouse employee at Camp Hahn in California during the war. She had recalled that shoes were always locked behind a cage, yet there always seemed to be a worn out pair of shoes in one or two shoeboxes when inventorying. She would chuckle at the thought of men intentionally wanting to wear "Army" shoes on purpose.
Good Wednesday morning History Guy and everyone watching. Happy Hump Day. My father grew up during WW II. He was 6 years old in 1943. My grandparents were raising 9 children during the rationing years.
wow. you mentioned my home town of Port Huron Michigan and the newspaper my mom and i both delivered (albeit we were 42 years apart in having a route)....
thanks! i dont know what prompted you to pick the Times Herald to quote out of all the newspapers in the country but its pretty cool!
My grandmother and her sister worked at a shoe factory during most of the war. I believe it was in Winder, Georgia.
I doubt people would be so self sacrificing and frugal if war were to break out today.
My thoughts exactly. And even less so to support our allies.
Feel the same but also feel that if the war was caused by being attacked like with Pearl that might help with the rationing.
Post 9/11, GWB told people to "continue to go about your daily lives....go shopping....."
@@x808drifter, Sadly, we may have to make an economic argument to some of our more self-centered fellow Americans in order to get them to support Ukraine: Russia supply 16 %of world exports in wheat and serial grains; Ukraine, the "breadbasket of Europe", supplies another 10%. If Russia takes Ukraine they could starve poorer nations around the world and bend them to their will, at the risk of toppling governments. They could negotiate sweetheart deals for access to vital strategic metals and minerals (especially in Africa) for producing electronics and military material. Here in the US, the price of smartphones and loaves of bread could double. Ukraine also has proven reserves of oil and gas; do we really want Russia to be controlling those?
Gavin Newsome told people not to charge their mandatory elective cars. US pays the highest rate for sugar in the world, they don't want people making bootleg liquor to compensate for failed policy
Some say rationing was not necessary but was introduced to foster a group sense of participation.
Interesting fact: US Military Vehicles were shipped with small almost bald tyres. Then fitted with full size NDC (Non Directional Combat ) tyres in Europe. A lot of second line vehicles used smaller tyres than standard.
An old shoe store in Queens Village NY Eric Shoes opened in 1942. I always though as a kid in the 1980s what a hell of a time to open a store. It closed in 2023.
We had ration stamps from WWII. I remember they had tanks and cannons on them. Were about the size of some postage stamps.
This was a real surprise and was enjoyed very much.
Very interesting for those of us who know WWII rationing mostly from old Looney Tunes cartoons. I sometimes tell people that there was a time in the memory of the oldest members of my family when saving gasoline was considered patriotic!
My mother’s family had a “C” gasoline sticker, because my grandfather worked in an essential industry (railroad).
And BTW those wooden wedgies women sport in 1940s movies weren’t rationed.
I don’t know if you have been down to my home town and where I still reside, New Orleans, to see the National WW2 museum yet sir, but if not I highly recommend it! Happy Mardi Gras from the big easy!
Fuel rationing in the United States was not due to any shortage of gasoline - they had oil out the ying yang. It was implemented in order to save rubber, which was difficult to get after the Japanese conquered Sumatra.
My father was farming during WWII and I have seen a form (legal size and several pages with I think carbon paper) to buy a tire. Hope I have it in some of the stuff I haven't gone through, but it would not surprise me if my mother threw it away. Wonder they kept it because as soon an WWII was over they auctioned off all their farm stuff and moved west when I was about 8 mos old in a 1937 Chevy coup but did have some stuff shipped to them later. I do have two file boxes of receipts and registers of stuff they bought and sold. I don't know what to do with them; I have no use for them, but after 80-90 years, it seems a shame to discard them. Dad wanted to farm out west and I remember looking to buy a farm, but he never did.
Donate them to a museum or college!
Looking for a family farm ✨ ... My family embraced that dream (late '50's, early '60's). Never realized; but, I witnessed that spirit of longing for such in my parents; and shared in it to the extent that I might actually own a horse!
Well, dreams fade and children grow up to embrace other dreams.
Still, we won't forget that glorious sense of unity American families felt, together 💕🇺🇲
I was born in the UK in Feb 1950, when I was old enough (4) to go to the local shop alone, I had to take a ration ticket with me to buy meat. In 1954 meat rationing finally finished, which was pretty confusing for a 4 year old. I guess these days a four year old going to the shop alone would be pretty rare.
I'm glad you mentioned the black marketeering, because:
What's a good story without pirates?😁
Love your videos
My mother never had leather shoes growing up during the war , most of her shoes were canvas or some other material that didn't require a coupon - her brothers needed the coupons necessary for the leather shoes they wore - she bought leather shoes with the money from her first job
Great story....and , that is once again, a great vest you are wearing. Either you or Mrs. History Guy have great taste.
I grew up in Lynn and Peabody MA. Lynn's primary industry was shoes while Peabody was known as the leather city because it had so many tanneries. I am sure they were affected by these restrictions.
They were likely converted to war production. Lots of lucrative government contracts ! Remember that materials were rationed so they could be used for the military. In the US, nobody lost money.*Rationing was just seriously inconvenient . In Europe, it was a different story.
*Except for our Japanese citizens who were rounded up and removed from their homes and imprisoned in remote locations under armed guards for the duration.
Happy Hump Day history fans!
Keep up the good work!
*Thank you.* *Smiles*
Rationing is a complex topic!
Never thought about the trickle-down effects of such an overwhelming war effort. I can't even imagine the other sacrifices the Greatest Generation had to endure. Great video.
Just read about this. The book is "The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age". It's about the Hanford reservation during World War II. There was a barracks set aside for the ladies who worked there. The management asked if they had any pressing issue that could be solved. There was. The gravel walkways were chewing up their shoes. And with shoe rationing it was a very big deal. The next day workers were spreading asphalt over the gravel.
I remember the rating books. Especially for gas, butter, and sugar were the big items on our list of items fora long time ago. But then I a very young child at that time.
All i could think of was, how would people feel about these kinds of sacrifices in today's political/ social climate? Nowadays, people cry about wearing a mask during a pandemic.
In the UK the rationing was far more severe, understandably given so much came in by sea (hence the Battle of the Atlantic, in an affort to starve Britain of material and food). It also went on for quite some time after victory - my dad remembers being a boy in the 1940s and even into the 50s, with some items still controlled by rationing, such had been the impact of the war
One thing that families would do to stretch the rationing of clothes and shoes would have exchanges of used and outgrown clothes or shoes. You didn't need coupons for used goods and an even exchange of clothes was a great alternative to trying to buy new.
I remember my grandparents talking about rationing during World War 2...most people understood the reasons behind it...
The socialist in charge of the government then, just like the socialist in charge today that take from the taxpayers to pay for the government plan to punish the citizens for foreign wars and abandon the people
With so many of our shoes being made overseas now, a whole lot of people would be shoeless if a modern equivalent of this policy was imposed in the next war
If you say so; with what passes for shoes today ... A whole lot of people are shoeless today; and don't even know it!
I cringe everytime I enter a shoe department. China is ruining us in this category (among others).
SOLD OUT BY
FOREIGN POLICY
@@freeto9139 With so much of our manufacturing capability moved overseas shoes will be the least of our worries if it comes to a shooting war
@@tc556guy
Well, who would argue with that.
STAY SAFE
Today is an entirely different situation. Today, every American closet is overstuffed with a decades-long supply of shoes. And clothes. Same with every thrift store. We won't be running out.
@@jamesengland7461 To a certain extent you're right, but not everyone has a closet full of shoes that are appropriate to a given situation. For instance, in a month I start a thru-hike of the AT; most thru-hikers wear out a pair of shoes every month they are on the trail. If these sorts of wartime rationings were in effect there probably wouldn't be a lot of thru-hiking, but you get my point. I have enough pairs of old shoes floating around that I could dig up some old stuff to put on my feet if the supply of new shoes was heavily curtailed, but it would not be optimal. Peoples situations change, or they encounter specific situations. Probably I wouldnt have been able to buy a new pair of shoes for my daughters wedding last June if restrictions were in place today, or I wouldnt be able to buy steel toed work boots. All of this ignores the reality that we've moved so much of our shoe production off shore that I believe the population would very quickly have problems finding the footwear they needed for specific situations.
We still have several ration cards one was issued to a infant it's very cool with little tanks and ships as the little stamps
My mom tells the sacrifices growing up during the war.
A World War 2 poster that probably never existed but should have: "Bring Hitler to heel and give him the boot", accompanied by a cartoon of a soldier kicking Hitler for a loop!
My mom still has her rationing book.
My grandfather travelled to sell glassware. He managed to get gas to get the job done. I’m not proud of that but I’m sure times were difficult for all. My in-laws were very frugal to the end from depression years and war rationing.
A note about WW1. You may not call it rationing, but my gr grandma told my mom she could not get proper white bread flour. Bread flour was always sold along with predetermined amounts of alternative flours like corn, barley, oats, buckwheat, and so on. Gr grandma said the bread she made during this period didn't rise right. (whole grain doesn't rise as much as white flour). She considered the flour requirements a form of rationing.
About WW2
Mom did tell me rationing of leather shoes rationing. She had told me this was when gym shoes started to become popular.
Meat was rationed, but canned spam wasn't. This proves my argument that spam may not be exactly meat. Mom says canned tuna wasn't rationed. People who lived near the northern boarder might take trips to Canada from extra meat and eggs. Mom said the dyes in the clothing weren't very good and would faded quickly. The best clothing dyes had come from Germany before the war. So many things were rationed or replacement were nearly impossible to get. Cooking pots and pans had to be repaired with a kit containing a bolt, washers, and a nut to put through a hole. There were no replacements to be had.
There's a community close to me called sugar Town the story of where the name came from is a man tried to buy sugar and because of rations he couldn't buy any and said this a sugar town and i can't even buy any sugar
US sugar prices are the highest in the world, the government hates competition and their ensuring bootleg spirits don't gain an advantage again
My Dad talked about that sugar ration and how farmers would get around that by being bee keepers or growing sorghum cane for molasses but that still meant white sugar to him was precious, as was white flour....and white bread because for a while, white bread and sugar were hard to come by.
The Great Rupert 1950 “Rosalinda needs new shoes” 👞 Great movie.
I remember reading that when rubber was rationed, the women of America were so irate that a special exception was made for the girdle.
Something I've wondered about, off and on over the years, is how were ration booklets or coupons distributed and how often? Did recipients have to register to get them, then sign for them when they got them? Thanks so much. I always enjoy your videos.
Yoi did have to register. There are some photos and videos included in this episode of the process.
I was reminded often by my mother of the time my mother found me on the bed in her room sitting with ration books around me having been torn out of the books was the stamps. My parents had to get new books which according to my mother was a process she never wanted to go through again.
I was born January 1942, so my baby shoes were rationed, and aparently my mother limited my wearing of shoes during the war. I say that, because I still have my baby shoes. They look none less for wear, so I probably didn't wear them much before I out grew them.
My father was at sea, and my mother rented from a couple who owned a grocery store. They took a shine to me, so I never wanted for candy. We were never short of meat, although my mother said years later that sometimes the meat was darker than normal and said it was probably horse. Of course, I don't remember any of this. I was only three and a half when the war ended.
My mom was a teenager in the 40s and would tell me about just how hard it got with the rationing and shortages. I don't believe that the modern American population could handle such a thing, we've gotten "comfortable " and accustomed to "services " . In a very real way, we are as decadent as the ancient Romans, and that might very well cost us in the near future.
Sugar was rationed so my Mom & her friends would have "fudge parties" where everyone would bring a small amount of sugar then they would split the fudge after.
I work on my feet and usually go through 3-4 pairs of shoes a year. I wear them until I have a large hole on the side of the shoes.
Being a collector of vintage clothes, I am aware that because of fabric rationing three piece suites fell out of fashion so men wore a vest mot so much as before.
Yes, vests and double-breasted suits went out of fashion.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannelAnd the Zoot suit was a form of protest against rationing AND the war. Skirts got shorter as well.
10:43 Reminds me of the run on toilet paper during COVID.
I listen to Old Time Radio and recall hearing an ad for Vitalis, assuring American men that, with the war over, Vitalis will soon be returning to American stores. Apparently, they'd been shipping all Vitalis to our soldiers overseas.
As bad as things were in America for average citizen - they were so much worse in Europe. Britain had rationing even when Queen Elizabeth was coronated. Further east rationing was not so prevalent - there was just nothing for civilian economy produced because commisars preferred military production.
That’s right! The late Queen used her rationing coupons for her wedding dress.
I have not received a challenge coin since 1999 when I won top tank in the Squadron. F Trp 2nd Sq 3d ACR.
Remember that Then princess Elizabeth was married and used rations cards for her gift and the reception in 1948 the same year as my parents and my aunt and uncle just two days later in 1948.
I love my rubber boots, with chickens it’s a must. My leather work boots said water buffalo. Go figure.
It was tough times having to only get by with only two pairs, they would hardly fill you up until next breakfast!
I read that gasoline rationing was not necessary for the conservation of gasoline...the US had sufficient production and supply...it was instituted to conserve the use of rubber.
Also, another tidbit. The US GNP rose during WW II and that our national wealth and manufacturing prowess was greater than the three Axis combined. As long as the US had the willpower, we would have out spent them...we did the same to the Russians during the Cold War.
Easy to maintain production when your cities and factories are not being bombed. Plenty of Americans profited from the war, which was a sore point with the Allies who lost everything.
The initial gas rationing was driven by a shortage of tanker space. But yes, one incentive to reduce driving was to save on tires.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel , that’s what happens when the US failed to black out its coastal cities, failed to introduce local escorted convoys (especially for tankers), and failed to create anti-submarine naval units to defend against U-boat attacks along the East coast. The Kriegsmarine hunted at will, with little opposition. Sank a lot of tankers within sight of land.
My parents were both born in 1928. My mother only let us have 3 pairs of shoes at a time : play(sneekers), school ,& church shoes. One year, I was so tired of black shoes for church, I insisted on white ones. Yup, I was the only kid at Christmas mass in white Mary-Janes. My mother thought more than that was wasteful. Now I know why.
Thanks for the insight.
My Grandfather would tell the story of him needing new soles on his work boots but couldn’t get them because the shoe cobbler didn’t have any rubber to make them with and then one day he found a rubber hose along the railroad tracks that had fallen off a train. He soon had new soles on his boots and would tell his grandchildren years later that “ God does indeed work in mysterious ways”
My dad was a civilian musician during the war, he was allowed more gasoline than the average Joe. The reason being music was a moral booster. Sadly he died many years before I was mature enough to understand what Americans had to sacrifice at home.
"OPA"? So Beltalowda messing with Inners this early on the Timeline?
Yeah, good sci fi, but a totally different OPA.
@TheHistoryGuyChannel I am so amused you recognize the reference. I would have stuck a OPA flag and had a model of the Roci sitting behind me if I had done this for a joke
Neat.
Princess Elizabeth II didn’t have enough ration coupons for her wedding dress. The people of UK donated coupons so she could have her gown
I've had the same pair of leather shoes for five years. People must have done a lot more walking back then.
Well, gas was restricted.
Good morning