|
I was just a toddler then so my memories are scattered, but this is how we lived back then. Few people had telephones and those people shared their lines with several neighbors, known as a party line, who could listen in on your conversations if they wanted to. Mostly, if you needed to get a hold of anyone you had to show up at their doorstep. This had the effect of people keeping their houses clean, well at least the part you would show company to and keeping themselves dressed and groomed. If you went out you wore a hat, gloves and an overcoat.
Because of the war effort, stores didn't carry a variety of goods like they do today because most of the factories had turned the majority of their production lines to producing goods for the war. There weren't many toys. My uncle made me a pair of homemade roller skates in his machine shop. He also found a bike in a junk yard that he rebuilt for me. Manufacturers just weren't making them in those days because of the need to use all metals in the war effort. My grandmother, mother and aunt made little stuffed toys for me from used clothing scraps.
Although my family had a car most families didn't because Detroit stopped making cars and were making tanks instead. However, we had a good public transportation system then that people could use. We often used it because gas was rationed and we had to use it sparingly.
There was all kinds of rationing. My grandmother kept chickens in her back yard that kept the neighborhood supplied with eggs. Although it was illegal to keep farm animals within the city limits, my cousin was married to a policeman and I think this was the reason authorities didn't arrive to make her get rid of the chickens, or maybe the neighbors didn't complain because it would cut their egg supply. I don't remember too many victory gardens in our neighborhood but maybe that was because most of California then was pretty rural then.
Everyone had good jobs but there was a lack of goods to buy with the money people were making. Every house on the block had family men who were fighting in the war. Some came back and some were gone forever. The military then were proud to wear their uniforms and of course it got them favorable treatment by businesses back then. When my cousins came back from their tours, they brought souveniers with them, not only grass skirts and other items from the Pacific, but swastika banners, iron crosses, fire arms and other things they looted from the Germans and Japanese.
Every transaction was written with pen and paper or typed up on a manual typewriter with carbon copies. Copy machines were almost unheard of and only lawyers and courts had anything like them that photographed documents. However we had mail delivery twice a day and once on Sunday.
Of course nobody had television. All we had was radio and it was one of the most important item in anyone's house to keep up to date with what was going on in the world. More importantly we had real news people like Edward R. Murrow and William Manchester who reported real news. This I believe was the most important thing that kept us sane back in those days and willing to sacrifice for our country. I don't ever remember the adults around me feeling lied to and betrayed like they did in the wars that followed, like Korea, Vietnam and now what we are going through today.
I don't know how we are going to get the leadership that we had back then, not only in the White House and Congress but the military. I know that we are pinning so many hopes on Obama, but this is going to be a great burden for him to bear if other leaders don't step up to help him save our nation instead of looting it.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
