I remember my parents telling me that during WW2 there was rationing of certain items

[Ohioboy]

Did that generation have protesters all pissed off because they were asked to ration? Were there morons complaining that their rights were being trampled because they weren't allowed to practice non-rationing? Just wondering.

[elleng]

1. I don't think so, haven't heard about such, and they grew gardens to supplement available food.

[sinkingfeeling]

36. I have my parents' ration books for gas and sugar. They were little

coupons.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Not that I have ever read about.

Human nature being what it is, I imagine there were and a black market for rationed stuff. Scams on ration cards, forgeries etc.

[greatauntoftriplets]

28. Oh, there definitely was.

I had an uncle who made a fair amount of money that way.

[Maeve]

38. Oh, yes! And there was a certain # of police turning a blind eye to it

For a cut of the profits.

How you doing, my friend?

[greatauntoftriplets]

43. This WAS Chicago, after all!

I'm very happy that my uncle was allowed to operate freely. He wouldn't have liked jail. Also, he was a World War I veteran who enlisted at 16 (and lied about his age).

I'm hanging in there. Not thrilled about yet another holiday weekend without a family get-together, but not much I can do about it. How are you doing?

[Maeve]

44. Getting bored--no storytelling, no volunteer work

Son can't come over because he's working with Covid patients and wants to keep us safe....I've actually started doing some deep cleaning around the house, just for something to do!

[greatauntoftriplets]

45. And this is the season for storytelling for you so it can't be easy.

We do family Zoom meetings on Sundays, which are something of a "not good enough" scenario, but better than nothing. I've even signed up for Kids' Messenger at my 9-year-old great nieces' request. Really, I'm awed at the fact that they wanted to keep in touch with me that way. I'd have thought it was for their friends.

But, since five family members have had Covid (all mild cases and now fully recovered), I do understand the reason for all this.

[hlthe2b]

3. Trumpster types would have set up black markets...

for which some would have been justifiably prosecuted (or the more benign equivalent of "tar & feathering" )

[roamer65]

4. Most items were either rationed or not even available.

Just because you had the stamps, did not mean you automatically got it.

If there was no sugar, there was no sugar.

My dad tells me there was a LOT of bartering.

Civilian car production stopped in January to February 1942 and did not resume until 1946. A 1942 car is a rare beast. The feds gave dealerships two options:

1. Load all of your inventory on to trucks and take our check...or...
2. We will confiscate them all and you get nothing.

The dealerships took option 1.

Gasoline went to the war first, agriculture next and then if there was any left it was rationed.

[DURHAM D]

5. No.

I still have my ration book. Never have really gone through it to see what coupons were left over. The only shortage my mother really ever talked about was gasoline. She didn't drink coffee so exchanged for gas rations.

[Newest Reality]

6. It was done...

It was done, mostly, as a patriotic way to literally support the troops overseas. There were shortages based on that, etc. Nylons and chocolate were in short supply and a real treat to acquire. It's an interesting topic to look up and compare to the grown ups who are acting just like adolescents who live in their parent's home and are fully supported but complain about how their parents get in their way and stop them from pursuing what they want to.

So, in those times, acting like a moron because you can't have or do this or that would have been considered unpatriotic, not supporting our troops and frowned upon. Everyone had to do their part.

[appleannie1]

7. No. And they put up black blinds and everyone closed them at sunset.

I remember playing on the floor while my family listened to Roosevelt on the big floor model Zenith radio in the living room. Everyone did their part. If someone needed sugar and a neighbor needed flour, they traded. Every family had a book with paper stamps, some for gasoline, some for flour, some for sugar etc. etc. If you had a flat tire on a tire that no longer could be fixed and you had extra gas stamps, you might be able to trade all your gas stamps for a tire that still had tread on it but gasoline and tires were really scarce. Inner tubes were patched until they could no longer be patched and then they were cut to fit the bottom of shoes that needed resoled and glued to the bottoms. Women put makeup on their legs because nylon was used for parachutes. Bartering or doing without was the way everyone lived.

[mercuryblues]

37. My Grandmother

was a mid-wife and worked in a Dr's office. When she delivered a baby she got paid with chickens, hair pins and nylons. My Gmom being my Gmom would then use the nylons to barter for butter, sugar and gas or sold them outright.

[appleannie1]

46. Having just come out of the depression, they were all well seasoned on how to survive with little.

I can remember being taught how to rub newspaper between my knuckles to use as toilet paper. It was then put in the burn barrel in the back yard. Our grandparents would shake their heads in disbelief if they saw what people are whining about today.

[applegrove]

8. Gas, sugar. Lots of stuff. My mom knitted parts of wool glives for airmen

before she was ten. I think they took in a child from England. Everyone did their part.

Remember when George W. Bush didn't ask americans to sacrifice anything after 9/11 except for people who enlisted? Republucans have a long history of not bringing the country together for important things. They hate it when people cooperate.They only like cooperatiin if it alienates people from each other: tribalism. Doesn't work in a democracy. And that is their goal: democracy that does not work.

[msongs]

9. back then most protestors were likely hustled off to jail pronto nt

[catrose]

10. So many things were rationed. I'm sure people missed things,

but (at least in Britain) the govt was more sensitive than what we have. For instance, you had coupons for clothes, but that meant you could buy only so many items, whether from the age's equivalent of Walmart or Neiman Marcus. People did complain that the Walmart-level clothes wore out faster, and a sturdy, affordable kind of civic uniform was developed.

I think it also shows something that when Princess Elizabeth was engaged to be married, British girls and women sent her their "spare" coupons to buy a nice wedding dress. Parliament voted the princess 200 extra coupons, and transferring your coupons that way was illegal, so Princess Elizabeth sat down and wrote each donor a nice thank-you letter as she returned the coupons. True queen material, even before she was one.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Women couldn't get nylon stockings

because all the nylon was being used to make parachutes. My mother described how they'd draw a line down the backs of their legs (nylons had seams in those days) to make it look like they were wearing them. Commodities like sugar and gasoline were also rationed, and people grew victory gardens because there were intermittent food shortages.

[Ilsa]

20. Some women drew a line up the back of each leg to

Simulate seamed stockings. A little over the top, I think, but you do what you can!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. That's what my mother described having done

as I mentioned.

[Hoyt]

12. Point is right on. But, that was a very different time. A higher percentage

of population had done without all their lives, even what we consider necessities today.

Perhaps, more importantly, we had leaders that people trusted. And WWII was probably a bigger deal/threat than CV19 (not trying to minimize CV19).

[UncleNoel]

13. I was a kid, but I remember rationing of gas. I also collected

tin foil in rolls to sell to gas stations and collected rubber as well. Other items were rationed and as for gas one had pads of tickets to use to buy the stuff.

No one objected. It need to be done to support the troops in Europe and the Pacific.

[FirstLight]

14. great point!

...and no, people dug in and did what needed to be done,
but then again, there was a Unified response from the govt and that helped society through the difficult times...
we are without that luxury

[herding cats]

15. My grandmother went to work as a machinist.

She hoarded sugar and coffee until my last memory of her.

She was extremely proud of her contributions to the country, and I never once heard her complain of the rationing. She just bragged about how they found new ways to bake and even how they learned to dry and turn taro roots from lakes into a flour. It should be noted my mother was born long after all that and there may have been some details changed for politeness after the fact.

[jberryhill]

16. .

[The Magistrate]

26. The Date Is Interesting, Sir

July 7, 1941.

Much of the language in the signs is the stock Communist line during the Hitler-Stalin Pact period, but by a couple of weeks after Barbarossa one would expect Communist influence to be running the other way. At this time plans were pretty well advanced for the U.S. Navy to begin assisting escort of convoys to Britain, and while these measures were supposed to be secret that were on a scale hard to keep concealed, and there was effort to prepare public opinion for support of them. This did involve actual combat by September of that year.

My guess is a Trotskyite group, possibly the then Socialist Workers Party, which pressed a similar line even after Pearl Harbor. Most unlikely to be America Firsters or Bundists.

Interesting footage.

[Turbineguy]

17. In Great Britain

I believe the WWII rationing went on until 1953.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. The protesters are astroturfers and people who have been urged and programmed to dissent.

[KT2000]

19. I found some ration stamps

in my mother's effects. There were also victory gardens. There was a sense of everyone sacrificing because everyone knew someone who was fighting in the war.

[csziggy]

42. Yes, I found my mother's parents ration stamps

It's surprising how many there were left. I think they were very frugal and living in a rural area, they could barter for supplies rather than having to use their ration stamps to buy them.

Both my parents were in the Navy during the war - Mom was a Navy Nurse and Dad was a submariner - so they only heard about the rationing from their families. But both had grown up during the Depression and were used to limitations on what could be bought.

[Archae]

22. Most affected was gasoline.

"A" stamp got a certain amount (a small amount) of gas each month.
If you ran out, tough.

"C" stamps got all they needed, government and cops used those.

(Running gag in WW2 cartoons was switching "A" on the windshield of a car or airplane for what was a "C." )

Toys were really badly affected.

Many toys were made of steel at that time, so make new ones? Forget it.

Stuff called "composite" or "composition" was used, it fell apart quickly.

Bit of a side effect of this, this stuff called "plastic" was introduced to toymakers right after the war.

[Blue_true]

23. I read a historical account of what San Francisco was like during the 1918 Pandemic.

There was big resistance to wearing masks (then made of gauze). A group of civic leaders, politicians and other prominent citizens formed to resist the law on the grounds that it violated their personal freedom

People caught not wearing masks were taken in and initially given a warning and their ID was recorded. If they were caught a second time, they were fined $5. If caught a third time, they got 30 days in jail, if caught after, they went to prison. Even with the penalties, people actively resisted, claiming personal freedom and the mask made no difference. There were pictures of cops taking people to jail.

Even gauze mask were eventually shown to reduce the infection rate by 25%.

[dalton99a]

24. WWII rationing program:

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/take-closer-look-ration-books

Ask anyone who remembers life on the Home Front during World War II about their strongest memories and chances are they will tell you about rationing. You see, the war caused shortages of all sorts of things: rubber, metal, clothing, etc. But it was the shortages of various types of food that affected just about everyone on a daily basis.

Food was in short supply for a variety of reasons: much of the processed and canned foods was reserved for shipping overseas to our military and our Allies; transportation of fresh foods was limited due to gasoline and tire rationing and the priority of transporting soldiers and war supplies instead of food; imported foods, like coffee and sugar, was limited due to restrictions on importing.

Because of these shortages, the US government’s Office of Price Administration established a system of rationing that would more fairly distribute foods that were in short supply. Every American was issued a series of ration books during the war. The ration books contained removable stamps good for certain rationed items, like sugar, meat, cooking oil, and canned goods. A person could not buy a rationed item without also giving the grocer the right ration stamp. Once a person’s ration stamps were used up for a month, she couldn’t buy any more of that type of food. This meant planning meals carefully, being creative with menus, and not wasting food. More than 8,000 ration boards across the country administered the program.

Let's take a closer look at some WWII Ration Books. You’ll notice that they change slightly throughout the war. The first two images explain how ration books were to be used. It could get a bit complicated. As a matter of fact, when a Gallup Poll on March 5, 1943, asked Americans, Do you understand how the food point rationing system works?, only 53% of men answered “Yes”; 76% of women answered “Yes” (why do you think that was?).

[RockRaven]

25. The proximity of the Great Depression probably had a big impact on settling everyone the fuck down.

Whereas now we've had half a century or more of relative non-calamity proceeding this crisis moment. Selfish, myopic, small-minded, and ignorant people are all freaking out because they've never had to truly deal with something like this before and lack the coping skills/resiliency to do so.

[KentuckyWoman]

27. Almost everything was rationed.

I was little but I remember.

I'm not saying it's right, but if people pissed and moaned then like this bunch of snowflakes, they would either be run out of town or taken out in the woods and had their attention got.

[marybourg]

35. Or chided by others:

“Don’tcha know there’s a war on”? I remember that from my childhood.

[MichMan]

29. If they were Japanese Americans, FDR rounded them up and put them in prison camps

[The Magistrate]

30. And Your Point Is What, Sir

"Enquiring minds want to know!"

[MichMan]

31. People were afraid of the same thing happening to them

[JI7]

32. People were afraid of what happening to them ?

White People weren't afraid of being sent to internment camps .

[The Magistrate]

33. No, Not at All, Sir

People who actually acted against the war effort would have found themselves in difficulties. Racketeers who peddled counterfeit ration coupons, chiselers and black-marketeers of various sorts certainly wanted to avoid being caught. Black-out regulations, particularly on the coasts, were strictly enforced, once established and habitual. Breaking these had actually resulted in destruction and casualties early on on the east coast, as submarines spotted merchant vessels at night against the glow of coastal cities. There were strikes, even some major rioting during the war, Los Angeles and Detroit coming quickly to mind. Conscientious objectors might find themselves jailed, certainly any attempt to organize resistance against the war effort would have been quashed. It is also true that 'enemy aliens', German or Italian citizens in the U.S. when war was declared were taken into custody in some numbers. But the idea there was some spirit of terror abroad in the land that moved people to comply with rationing and other restrictions only to avoid fearsome consequences is flat nonesense. The war was genuinely popular, and most everyone wanted it won, hard as that may be for some to wrap their minds around nowadays.

[MichMan]

39. I was referring to general complaints about the government or the war, not rationing per se

"Conscientious objectors might find themselves jailed, certainly any attempt to organize resistance against the war effort would have been quashed. It is also true that 'enemy aliens', German or Italian citizens in the U.S. when war was declared were taken into custody in some numbers."

Jailing people for objecting to the war, or due to their ethnicity, is not something we should find acceptable, regardless of whether or not it was popular with everyone else. Neither is jailing people for disagreeing with the government regarding the pandemic.

[The Magistrate]

41. None Of Which, Sir, Has The Least Bearing On The Dire State You Postulated

It was not some machinery of terror which produced popular acquiescence to rationing and blackout regulations. People did not comply because they feared being hauled off to 'special camps'.

You will find that people who object to military service in time of war are generally incarcerated, as a means of enforcing conscription, and whether one approves or no, it is so general a practice, and so generally approved by a populace which supports a war effort, that complaint about it cannot be treated any more seriously than complaints about gravity. Most of us have a finite amount of energy we may devote to outrage, and so are forced to choose among the many candidates for ire an average day offers, let alone the plethora which poking into history might afford.

Similarly, you will find the detention of persons who are citizens of a hostile power is a general practice. Often initial detention is followed by repatriation to the home country, at least of persons unfit for military service, or who lack useful skills, as sending such back might aid the enemy's efforts. One might sensibly complain about conditions of detention, but that is a separate matter. The practice was dirt normal, and certainly nothing to raise an eyebrow over at the time.

What was unique about the treatment of Japanese citizens was precisely that they were citizens, and not resident aliens. Arguments these people were a potential 'fifth column', while they could be supported by reference to the course of events in China over the previous decade, fail utterly before the fact of citizenship, and the rights inherent to citizenship. It is also instructive that in the Hawaiian Territory, where a great proportion of the labor force were citizens of Japanese descent, there was no general rounding up. Persons clearly identified as loyal to Japan, or who had spent much time in Japan recently, were detained or kept under close surveillance, and these categories together amounted to about one in twenty among the whole population of Japanese descent. The Hawaiian Territories were under martial law at the time, and a far better case could be made that in them disloyalty among persons of Japanese descent posed a genuine hazard. This leaves little room for doubt the actions taken on the mainland owed to no genuine security concern, but to prejudice of long standing, particularly on the west coast.

Again, however, the detention of citizens of Japanese descent in no way served as some sort of example which the citizenry in general feared might soon be their own lot if they complained about not getting all the meat or gasoline they wanted, or opened their curtains after dark with their living room lamps on.

[CBHagman]

34. And the British went through rationing for years following the Second World War.

I had a co-worker who observed that when she was growing up in the U.K., it was rare indeed to have a new dress.

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Rationing-in-World-War-Two/

[DFW]

40. My wife's parents went through the same thing, but their government had an easier solution

They just shot anyone who complained.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

47. Don't give 'em any ideas.

Stephen Miller would love to implement it. Finally, a solution for undocumented immigrants, or anyone else who isn't "like us".

[DFW]

48. If Stephen Miller had been around here when my in-laws had to worry about that

He would have ended up as a lampshade. I don't think even he would have wanted to risk that.