Rationing: ‘Use it up, wear it out or make do without’

Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment in the West Hills Gazette’s nine-part series that looks at life in Robinson Township during World War II. This series, written by Janet Gonter of the Robinson Township Historical Society, originally ran in the Suburban Gazette in 2017 but is timely now, as the 80th anniversary of the end of the war will be observed later this summer. Check back each Sunday for a new installment.

At the beginning of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “There is one front and one battle where everyone — every man, woman and child — is in action. That front is right here at home, in our daily lives.”

The battle at home depended on rationing. Federal officials agreed that the only way to meet the demands for food and raw materials for both the military and civilians was through rationing. Americans were issued books of stamps for small amounts of key items such as gasoline, sugar, meat, butter, canned foods, fuel oil, shoes and rubber. Purchase of these commodities required a stamp, and rationing soon became a way of life.

Of course, Robinson Township was no exception. Meat, in particular, was in short supply. The late Robinson resident Bob Parker remembers a rather traumatic incident related to rationing. “I was 5 years old in 1943 and it was my first day of school. I was a little afraid that morning, but my mother promised me she would be waiting at the school door when school was over. She wasn’t. I later found out that the meat ration had come in that day and she had no choice but to wait in line for our meager allotment.”

Moon Run’s Gwen Brouker also waited in endless lines for rationed items. “I remember my aunt putting us kids in line for certain food products. Using the kids [to stand in line] sure helped for large families.”

While many items were rationed, some things simply were not manufactured during the war: refrigerators and automobiles (steel was used for ships and tanks), tires and shoes (rubber was needed for tires for the military) and nylon stockings, curtains, etc. (nylon was used for uniforms and parachutes).

The slogan, Use it up, wear it out or make do without! became the catchphrase of the day. There were many items people were forced to “do without.” Children went barefoot all summer to save their shoes for school. Cars were patched and mended for those rare occasions when an urgent trip to the doctor for a sick child necessitated its use. For women, leg makeup became a substitute for stockings. Gas was so scarce, many people walked great distances to work or to the store. It was just the way it was.

Rationing became such a “normal” way of life that halfway through the war, seven out of 10 Americans said they had not had to make “any real sacrifices.” After all, they had just come through the horrific Great Depression. In a 2003 interview, an area resident remembered, “. . . to try to [spend] one’s ration coupons, buyers had to stand in lines for hours, sometimes only to find that the item they wanted had been bought out moments before.” However, compared to the widespread suffering during the Great Depression, they considered these sacrifices small.  We in the 21^st century, with our abundantly stocked shelves, can hardly imagine such deprivation. In the 1940s, deprivation was the norm.

Robinson Township residents who lived through World War II recall neighborhoods coming together like families, sharing whatever they had. If you had a lot of one thing and none of another, you would trade with your neighbor. Even in the darkest days, few complained. Nearly everyone believed that their sacrifices would hasten the end of the war.

Indeed, their sacrifices and perseverance did.