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My parents both talked about rationing during the Second World War.

Any information you want to share?

Gasoline, sugar, meat, tires, and more were subject to the coupon book.

My dad still has some of his coupons.. What struck me is how his signature is still the same in his 80's as when he was a kid in Gary Indiana.

I recall an economist from the war period saying that of all the things that were rationed on the home front, gasoline caused the most cheating, stealing and chicanery.

We try to never leave much gas in the tank of things left in a field. Old farm trucks in sight of a county road are a bull's eye. Siphoned so many times it's not even funny. That and steal the battery.


Thank God for diesel tractors.

I have read of the "Tractor Gas Tournament", also known as the Iowa State Girls Basketball Tournament.

One time my Grandfather put kerosene in his tractor gas tank to "get the theives". Dad went to use it, then spent a day working on it, till he and pap got together and figured out what was wrong.

You young folks are missing the point, think young women drawing a line on the back of their legs, to look like a seem on nylon stockings, that they could not buy.

No cars were made for the civilian market from 1942 until after the war ended. Everyone was pretty much stuck for 4 years with the vehicles they had when the war started.

My folks had a farm which was considered to be essential for the war effort so Dad was able to get extra fuel for the tractor, I have no doubts that some of it found it's way into the car. He said tires were about impossible to come by though. They'd survived the Depression and the Dust Bowl already so knew how to get by with mighty little, still it was tough. Garden, pigs and calves they raised kept them from going hungry.

Chewing gum and cigarettes were rationed, also, and the speed limit was 35 mph.

I recently came across several coupon booklets in some of my moms things with stamps still in them.

I found these in a box I bought at an auction.

I remember the problem my mother (my father was off to war) had in buying a new tire and tube for my bicycle. She eventually traded a meat coupon for my tire coupon when she finally found a bike tire and tube for sale in Yuma where we were living.

I also remember that all of the butcher shops in town sold horse meat. It must not have been rationed because we ate a lot of it.

Bill Quimby

Lived near a good sized farm that raised Herefords for the government. One of my dads friends knew the farm manager who would cut out a steer in the middle of the night and it would wind up back in the woods about 5 miles away. 3 or 4 fellas were involved in the butchering and we kids were kept home from school to help keep the farm dogs from running off with bones or a hunk of hide so the neighbors wouldn't know what was going on. The four would share the meat. As there were no home freezers at that time a space was rented at a locker plant about 20 miles away. My dad built boxes of the allowed size for the rented space with hasps and padlocks. If I recall correctly a monthly trip was made to the locker plant. We would trade some of the meat for gas coupons that my mom's sisters who had no car and lived in the city were allotted anyway.

It being winter and with no home freezer dad had a large nail driven in the wall near the ceiling of an outside open porch and our precious ill begotten meat supply was in a half bushel splint basket hung from the nail. well that only lasted so long until a St. Bernard belonging to a neighbor farmer got a whiff and we awoke to find the pink colored butcher paper strewn all over the yard. Upon mentioning this to the neighbor he assured my dad that he would gladly bring a load of manure for our "Victory" garden come spring. Those were the days.

I knew a guy whose Father had a dairy farm so they got enough gas to drive the truck into town. But no tires. They wrapped canvas or leather or something around the tires to try to reduce the wear of the rubber.
Also, my Mother worked in a small grocery store during the war. Whenever they got some really rare and desirable item, like bananas, she'd just automatically put one in each cart, even if the customer hadn't asked for it. A banana was worth a lot to trade even if you didn't have any kids to eat it. Four kids meant that the banana got divided up VERY PRECISELY so that each kid got exactly the same size piece.
Apparently SPAM wasn't hard to get though.

I still have my ration booklets from WWII. I was looking at coupon for pair of leather shoes. My Mother suffered most for her morning Coca-Cola. I also remember standing in lines that stretched literally for a mile to get sugar or some other product that was scarce. We lived in Chickasaw,Al and my father worked at Gulf Shipbuilding. Toward the end of the war they were getting some destroyers in for refurbish. They came in with all the stores on board and the workers assigned to the ship to work on it divvied them up.I remember getting things like a sack of flour and a sack of beans and some canned gods. Once we were on a holiday at Gulf Shores and a freighter had been torpedoed the day before and we found a whole crate of canned pineapple. We had great pineapple shortcake the next day and several more. It was an exiciting time for a young boy to be growing up in such a place. I well remember going to the launching of the ships they built,mostly all Liberty Ships. We would all (My Dad,Mother and Brother) ride the bus in to Mobile on Saturday for Dad to go to the State store and get his cigarette ration. We would feed the squirrels in the park and walk on the docks and if we were lucky get to go to a movie and Vaudville show at the Lyric Thaetre, I believe was the name. WE would get a sandwich and some juice at the Tanners Stand and if we were really lucky we got to eat supper at Morrisons cafeteria whe.re they had waiters in white coats to take your tray to your table. Lived in a 'War Village' at 12E Fairhope St. A tractor/trailor came by once a week with the trailor set up with groceries and vegetables. Every family had a small 'Victory Garden'. Such was the way we spent the war years. My Father had been a Marine in the 30's left the reserves to move to work at the shipyard just before the war started. He was given the choice of staying at the shipyard for the duration or taking a commission in the Marines. He chose to stay at the shipyard. I actually remember them as good years.

Living on a farm with a huge garden, we had it better than most.
Dad kept his 39 Buick for 10 years.

I think my parents had one or two of the coupons to show me when I was young.

What I remember most was some little 'tokens' that were red or blue, and had different values. They were a bit smaller than a penny, and made of some very hard, dense cardboard.

I don't remember what the exact function of the tokens was, or how they were used, but it seems they took the place of money for something?

Myron

My grandparents were bakers in Burns, Or. during the war. He had access to sugar and told me once about a side-line he had selling 'excess' to a local moonshiner.

Regrooving bald tires...

He also told me once about how he once came upon a case of shotgun shell's during the war. The local F&G found out about it. The cop invited him out to shoot coyotes from an airplane over a frozen Malheur Lake. He described hanging out the plane, leg bracing on a strut, shooting as the cop circled 'yotes. Once he figured out the lead on them it was on. 90 years old and his eyes would get bright and tell me it was some of the best fun he'd ever had.