Stories from the Tree - WWII and rationing

A few more items that originally belonged to my Aunt Ina have come my way. I blogged previously about her rather extraordinary keep-sake album here. My sister recently passed several more items on to me, in part because I have become the default keeper of things related to the family history, and in part because she's moving and cleaning house!

Among several rather fascinating items was a rationing book from WWII. I'm old, but not old enough to know about war-time rationing first hand. All I know - beyond some very sketchy memories - is from what I have read, so this is all new to me.

The front

The back

Rationing became necessary because virtually all of the Nations resources were being channeled into the war effort. Rationing was a way to avoid public anger with shortages and to provide price parity across all economic strata; without it only the wealthy could afford to purchase scarce commodities.

According to Wikipedia, the list of rationed items was extensive: tires, gasoline (and automobiles themselves); foodstuffs of all kind, such as sugar, and coffee, meat, lard, shortening, food oils, cheese, butter, margarine, processed foods (canned, bottled, and frozen), dried fruits, canned milk, jams, jellies, and fruit butter. 

Anything made of metal of any kind was soon added to the list, such as typewriters, bicycles, stoves, metal office furniture, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and sewing machines. Leather and certain fabrics were in short supply so products such as footwear and nylon hosiery were rationed.

There were different types of ration books, and different types of stamps within some books. For example, red stamps were used to ration meat and butter, and blue stamps were used to ration processed foods. The kind and amount of rationed commodities were not specified on most of the stamps, which were distinguished by drawings of military machines, and sometimes just letters and numbers. Aunt Ina's book was a "Book 3," with 48 numbered stamps of a diving airplane, 48 of a ship underway, 48 of a tank and 48 of a cannon.

 

The actual rationed items and required coupons were not specified on the coupons, but were later defined when local newspapers published information from the Office of Price Administration (OPA),  that set the dates, commodities and coupon requirements. For example, beginning on a specified date, one airplane stamp was required (in addition to cash) to buy one pair of shoes and one stamp number 30 from ration book four was required to buy 5 pounds of sugar. Here's another example:

The commodity amounts and coupons required changed from time to time, depending on availability, and just because it was on the list didn't mean it was actually available.

There's a lot more about rationing and examples of other types of books on the Internet on sites such as Wikipedia. The really interesting thing about this particular book, however, is the connection to the family story.