Guest Post – Introduction to American Family Life – GPCox
Here is another post I wrote 5 years ago – what a terrific project those Guest Posts were – I am thrilled Judy is reblogging them.
I’ve invited gpcox to share another post with us. This one concerns the life of an American Family during the 1940’s. I learned a few things myself.
Gpcox of pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com
Judy’s collection of letters from her grandfather is an excellent example of what the American family endured during the Second World War.
With the onset of war, patriotism certainly skyrocketed as well as marriages, job opportunities and salaries. But here, fresh out of the depression, poverty, divorce and taxes soared. Twenty million people bordered on starvation. There was a shortage of shelters, hospitals and child care facilities. Many youngsters quit their education to help support the family.
Ration Coupons
Food rationing began. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was constructed to handle the rationing regulations. Since most
Save Oil
everything went to the military, Americans at home had to tighten their belts once again. If the readers have seen my…
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Posted on April 8, 2018, in Home Front, Uncategorized, WWII and tagged family history, History, Home Front, Rationing, recycling, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 59 Comments.
Pacific Paratrooper 
Thank you for posting! 🙂 https://caramelandchocolatehomeschool.wordpress.com/blog/
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My pleasure.
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Thank you for an excellent re post into the personal insight into the effects the war had on the home front.
Excellent reading.
Another great choice for re post gp.
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I wrote these reposts over 5 years ago, so I re-read them myself as though someone else wrote it – haha. (An old, swiss-cheese memory does that for you!)
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Thought something was a bit awry mate, infection set in rather rapidly for my liking as a Medic.
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Thanks for sharing, GP. I left a comment on Judy’s blog.
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I am happy to hear that. I’ll be checking in with Judy’s site later.
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>This is a pretty clear picture of what your parents and grandparents were living with on a day-to-day basis. Because the war was world-wide, families all over the world had to ..
I thought everyone struggling.
Nice post!!:D
By the way,this author “Judy” is Who?? you??
I am confused because I can not read other language well.(T^T)
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Judy has a blog called ‘Greatest Generation Lessons’ where she shows us the letters her family wrote to each other during this era. She asked me years ago to write these posts – I did and then reblogged them on my blog. I hope this translation will be helpful…
Judyには、この世代の間に家族が書いた手紙を示す「Greatest Generation Lessons」というブログがあります。 彼女は何年も前にこれらの投稿を書くように私に頼んだ。 この翻訳が参考になることを願っています…
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I can understand!! Thank you so much!!:D
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私はいつもあなたの訪問を非常に感謝します。
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Powdered egg! My mother still shudders when she thinks of it! I must tell her what she missed with the margarine with a yellow capsule though!
She still remembers , when posted out in the wilds, being offered a lift in a gamekeeper’s van which proved to be full of dead rooks hanging from the roof. He was taking them to the pub for their famed off ration pies…mother never touched another one of them…
Interesting to learn what American families underwent…a corrective to thinking that they had it easy in comparison with British families.
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At least we were spared the bombs.
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I left a comment on her blog, but had to say how much I enjoyed this. I still have some of our family’s ration coupons, and yes — I spent time kneading that yellow “egg” into the white margarine!
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Happy to hear it all, Linda!! For me as a kid, that yellow ‘egg’ put things into perspective.
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I just asked my husband about rationing. Besides food ration coupons, there were gas ration coupons: A, B, C and X. Most people got A, 3 gallons. His mother got B, 6 gallons because she was a volunteer for the Red Cross. Grumman employees got X. They got more because they were building those warplanes. Even if you got A, you were not guaranteed gas. Only when the gas station had gas and when they opened, there would be a long line.
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You husband is telling you the truth, Rose. We were fighting across 2 oceans – everything went for the war effort!
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So I heard. But they learned to cope and be creative. They learned to save and nothing goes to waste.
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Right.
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Interessante post.Ik ben geboren bij de bevrijding maar waarvan de miserie uit de oorlogsjaren van mijn moeder die er heel veel oververteld heeft en heel wat jonge mensen zijn toen gestopt met studeren op te helpen dat het huisgezin overleefde.
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Dat is hier ook veel gebeurd. Vooral omdat de depressie zo slecht was vóór de oorlog en er geen geld was en tijdens de oorlog waren de mannen verdwenen.
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My mother was born in 1930 so she was a child and teenager during the war era. This gives me a better picture of her life. Thanks!
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Did she mention the “margarine” with the color tablet you kneaded into it? That one always got me when my mother brought it up.
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I’ve never heard that before—I will ask her about it!
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I was born in 1940 so didn’t participate in the actual kneading of the “butter,” but I certainly remember my grandmother, my mother and my aunts doing it. It was hard work! The white block itself, as I recall, was about the same size but thicker than today’s package of four cubes of butter. And it was cold and solid, so the job required strong hands to first soften the block and then distribute the yellow coloring evenly throughout.
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My mom hated that job. She thought her mother hated her for always giving it to her to do! 🙂
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Of course I realize that the Americans had a hard time during the war but I didn’t know that they suffered this much. Interesting post!
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Yes, they went from the first world war to a Great Depression slap into WWII and the more I learn about them and their fortitude – the more amazed I am!
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The fear and uncertainty must have been unbearable, and you’re so right about how easily entertainment can be had today, with so little effort. Really good post, GP.
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Nowadays, the soldiers can Skye home or email, text (and whatever else is out there). I hope the families remember to print them out for future websites like this rehash them.
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Me too. I have often wondered how the digital age will affect the artifacts that our descendants will stumble upon.
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Cyberspace can not be held in your hand.
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I think this was before I became addicted to your blog. I’m going over to check it out.
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Judy and I collaborated on these back when we both first started blogging. How time flies!!
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i’m so glad that these posts have come back, i always learn so much from you –
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Thank you so much for telling me! You make it all worthwhile!!
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It was good to reread, GP, to be reminded of how things used to be.
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Thank you, Bev. I wasn’t really expecting my long-time friends such as yourself to re-read it, so this is much appreciated!
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We read and learn so much on WordPress that it’s often a good thing to reread posts from time to time. Otherwise a great many things fall into my forgettory.
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Oh, I sure know THAT feeling, Ann. I’m right there with you!
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Hi GP. Great post. It’s amazing to think about all the rationing. I can’t help wondering if our nation could cope with it today. Well done. Hugs.
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I can’t see the generation that now seems to have a bad case of Gimme disease (give me this – give me that), rationing down to the bare bones of survival.
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LOL… Love the “Gimme disease” GP. I’m drowning in it at work, and not just from millennials. We’ve enabled self-entitlement for far too long, especially in the workplace… Okay. I’ll spare you my Julia Sugarbaker soapbox. 😉
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You go right ahead! A little venting does a person good!
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my mother and grandmother use to talk about rationing…..and use it as a shaming tactic….LOL chuq
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Many parents used their experiences to try and teach us the value of money, to take care of what we already had and to appreciate all the extras we were receiving.
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Really interesting to see what your Rationing Coupons looked like:) Had a discussion only last week how shortages during the war scarred our parents. The young things at work could not believe my stories of not being able to leave the dinner table until every scrap of food was eaten. If pumpkin was on that plate I would sit there for hours.
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My father used to say that my mother could stretch a dollar farther than anyone he knew. It was embedded in their character to save, save, save.
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Even when I was born (1952) there was still food rationing in Britain, a legacy of WW2. It didn’t end until 1954, when meat finally came off the rationing list. The needs of being in a country at war were similar to those in America of course. Growing vegetables anywhere, making use of old clothes and other goods by sewing and re-modelling them, and living on a greatly-reduced diet. Of course, Britain also had to endure this whilst being bombed or attacked by rockets for most of the war years.
That wartime diet is now highly praise by nutritionists. Once things came off ration, many families used things like sugar to excess, probably making up for all those years of abstention.
Best wishes, Pete.
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The UK had far more to deal with back then. The US was lucky to be so far from the maniacal rulers we were all fighting. We weren’t bombed but we lost quite a bit.
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You did indeed, GP.
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A story well told that many Americans don’t understand. We Americans haven’t had a war on our soil since the Civil War. I doubt most people can grasp life after war. Thank you, Pete
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Thanks, Jennie. I am not discounting that US involvement ultimately won that war, and the loss of so many men was just awful. But civilians in Europe endured unimaginable hardships, as well as austerity.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Exactly! I was trying to say the same thing, I but did not do that very well. The ravages of war fought on your own soil, meaning the hardships on all people and families who live there, is unimaginable. And Americans can’t imagine what that is like, because we haven’t had a war on American soil since our own Civil War. Cities bombed and burned, scarcity of food… Americans can’t grasp the magnitude of hardship. Thank you, Pete. Best to you.
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As you know, I can recognise much of this, GP
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I know you can, Derrick. We’ve been reading each other for many a year!!
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🙂
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Thank you very much.
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