Stockings
With a “War Ration Book” families were allowed to buy limited amounts of food, clothing, shoes, coffee, tires, gasoline, and other essentials, based on the size of the family. People learned to use everything sparingly and to waste nothing. Even razor blades were re-sharpened. Butter was so scarce that a vegetable-oil substitute was invented, called margarine. Posters appeared in the stores saying, “Do with less so they’ll have enough.” The shortage of consumer goods was severe in all areas, but in one case affected women particularly. Lourelei Prior was a female defense worker in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She explained:
We couldn’t get stockings either all the silk was used for parachutes and nylon hadn’t been invented yet. Now, stockings didn’t matter at the plant. There, all the gals wore tight clothing and pants and a hat and safety glasses and no jewelry because of the heavy machinery. But no gal or new bride wants to be seen in a skirt without stockings! So when I would go out with Herb, sometimes to make it look like I had on stockings, I would draw a black line up the back of my legs with an eyebrow pencil to make it look like I was wearing silk stockings.312
Like most Americans this woman took the shortages caused by the war with good humor and ingenuity, and made the best of what she had. She expressed the attitude of most civilians toward these hardships and gave us good advice for the present day:
In our house we didn’t grumble about the shortages… I had four brothers-in-law who were in the service. If giving up a little bit helped the boys “over there” and would bring them back sooner, it was fine with us… We just thanked God for what we did have.313
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.
—Ecclesiastes 7:14