Part 3 What to do About Aunt Dot

Looking back to the 1940's and we know it was a most uncertain time. After Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. That very day, our country declared war on Japan and on December 11, that same week, we also declared war on Germany. The entire world changed at that point.

With the Germans trying to overtake Europe and America always on the alert for an invasion on our shores, and then we had Japan on the Pacific desiring to overtake our country from the West. We had blackouts, were all lights in large areas were required to be turned off until danger was over. In schools, the teacher taught us what we could best do to survive bombing should it happen. We practiced quickly getting under our desks, covering our heads with a book and be still. All along our coastline on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific, there were troops stationed to keep watch for planes, ships or submarines approaching our shores. Populated coastlines had frequent "black outs."

Thank God for all the men who fought to keep us safe and brought an end to the horror.

After that week, times became really, really bad; men disappeared from the work forces and women took their places in factories, farms, hospitals, volunteered for the Red Cross, etc and many joined to go to the battle areas to care for the men abroad.

My Aunt Dot took a job at what was called "The Tin Mill." She wore regular clothes to work where she changed into work clothes. All the women wore slacks, work shoes, cotton short sleeve shirts, heavy gloves and their hair tied up in a turban made of a scarfs. This kept their hair from being caught in machinery. At the end of their shifts, she and all the girls went to a local cafe to socialize and have a late supper.

Times were hard. Victory Gardens were in every yard. Any surplus was canned for the winter.
Meat was rationed. We had no ice cream as there was no sugar. of course, no candy. I was blessed by being to young to remember having sugar and exotic fruits. We had dried fruit in the winter and fresh peaches and apples in season.

All tin cans, bits of aluminum and such were collected and taken to the collections bins for the War Effort.

Gas was not available for cars had there been any cars to buy. Older cars ran with a ration of gas for them. All that steel, tin, iron material used to make cars was going into building ships, planes, guns, tanks and whatever the troops needed
It was our job to survive while the world was at war.

If you can imagine a world without televisions, telephones (1 to each community to be shared for emergencies only.)

AH! The Ice Box.
The Ice Box was in our kitchen. Basically it was a zinc lined cabinet that kept the cooled air inside and ice from melting quickly We had The Ice Man make regular rounds to our neighborhood selling ice in chunks of 25, 50 or 100 pounds for which Mother paid.

I loved to see ice being chipped off into large or smaller blocks. The small icepick made a line in the large block of ice and it would simply break apart at that line. Amazing to a little girl. (There wasn't much entertainment for children in those days, therefore anything new was a treat.)

The guy using a large ice tong would placed the ice on the top shelf of our ice box.
Children were not allowed to open the door as the cooled air would escape and melt the ice.

Most everyone had a few chickens for eggs and a chicken here and there for a meal on special occasions. There were cows nearby and we had fresh milk. I don't know how my Mother lived without coffee, but that was not available as well.

The one radio was for the adults to listen to the news after we were put to bed. It was a terrible time to be alive, however, I was so young I didn't remember life being different.

Our neighbor, the lady who had the community telephone received news that her son was killed in what was later called, "The Most Colorful Battle of WW II"...the Battle of Midway. I remember that being a terrible time for all in our community. I noticed his mother didn't go to her mailbox at all anymore. Aunt Dot told me the lady probably didn't go because she could bear the mailbox being empty.

A little girl has such big feelings about things going on around her, but lack of power to control anything. I was told to "be cheerful and feel blessed for what we had , as there were so many children in this world with nothing to eat or a place to sleep." We were taught to pray every night for World Peace. I prayed for a handsome man to come home from the war for Aunt Dot. I also prayed for a dog.

To be cont...