Like me, you may remember hearing our elders speak of how things were prior to and during WWII. Stories of the Great Depression, WWII and the Korean War that followed. Their memories were fresh and vivid. We were shown pictures of uncles and cousins who served, some of whom we never knew because they died in military service before we were born.
Occasionally I was fortunate enough to hear an actual account from one who served and survived the ordeal. Most of those accounts were interesting, but I would learn later in life that I never really understood the gravity of war or the pain of the accounts being shared. They were just stories with no reality for comparison in my primary school years.
As I grew into my preteen years and learned American and world history in school, those stories began to take on meaning that I could understand. Seeing the accounts, dates and figures in text books established facts that made me aware that the whole world had suffered through what I thought were just stories that affected my family and community. It was then that I began to see those accounts in a more realistic perspective. I began to ask more questions of my grandparents, uncles, older cousins and siblings to refresh me on those stories that had not meant much to me as a child. I wanted to hear those stories and see those pictures again. Suddenly, all of those veterans were heroes that I wanted to know more about.
Wars create devastating shortages, too. Many necessities and comforts were in short supply; those that existed were often rationed. Gardening and canning became more than a hobby and small, backyard chicken flocks were common for meat and eggs. Since honey could be used as a substitute sweetener, and sugar was scarce, some kept a few hives of honeybees. Tires, gasoline, sugar and coffee, just to mention a few items I remember being discussed, were difficult to acquire most of the time. Waiting in long lines for what was available was common.
Jobs and money were scarce. Automobiles were not manufactured for several years in the mid-1940s. Women were forced to enter the workforce, taking jobs previously held by the men who were away serving in the military. Those who were left at home waiting for letters from their loved ones on foreign battle fields often did not receive welcome news. The letters that came were from the president of the United States or some official in the Pentagon with the worst possible news.
My grandparents were born in the late 1800s and my parents in the early 1900s – and all lived through the Great Depression and the above-mentioned wars. They never forgot the hard lessons they learned during those years and tried to teach them to my generation. Conservation was the predominant practice that governed the rest of their lives. Even when living conditions were much better, they lived as though the bad times would return tomorrow. They never got over it. We heard stern warnings like, “Don’t throw away anything that is still usable. If you don’t want it give it to someone who could use it.”
Another one was, “If you put it on your plate, you eat all of it. Somewhere there is a starving child who would love to have those few bites you would throw away.” Waste was not tolerated. My grandmother’s motto was “waste causes want.” I’ll never forget her still boiling her coffee grounds a second time – years after the wars – when times were much better. Such a practice seemed unnecessary to me, but what did I know about stretching the useful life of any product. Grandma was an expert at getting the most bang for her buck.
I received those lessons reluctantly as a child; that is to say I disliked living as though we couldn’t afford better. However, looking back, I can see that those lessons stayed with me and have influenced my decisions on many occasions. I’ll admit that I have never had to scrape, save and reuse to the extent of my forebears who did so to survive those lean years. Nevertheless when the future does tend to appear unpredictable, belt tightening does kick in. The practice of saving for a rainy day is always in vogue with me, too.
Jerry Ginther served two years in the U.S. Army, 1966-68, and was employed by the Illinois Central Railroad as a telegraph operator and train dispatcher for nearly 25 years. He and his wife reside in Texas.