What were some of the shortages you faced during WWII?
The main shortages were gasoline. You had coupons for that. Also meat and eggs were scarce, so we didn't get much in the line of meat. My mom [Courtney's great-grandma] was a great cook, so she learned to make cake without eggs — she used Mayo instead! Not too much baking going on then, but she made delicious bread. I really wonder how she put on the meals she did.
How did you deal with those shortages in terms of clothes, cooking, etc.?We didn't really have a problem about clothes. We didn't have much money to buy a variety of different dresses — pants weren't really in vogue yet. My sister and I would borrow from each other.
Also, sugar and butter were in great demand — we had little red chips for them. That is when Oleo came into use — my mom would not use it! Actually, it was lard with a little yellow ball in the bag. We would work it into the lard and it would color it yellow. UGH!
Please feel free to submit more questions for my Grandma in the comments below! :)
Thank you so much! This is so very interesting to read! My mom told me a story of how she used to mix the color into the Oleo! Her reaction was UGH as well!
ReplyDeleteNot long ago, my daughter started making a cake and we realized we didn't have eggs, and I'd read somewhere about using mayo as a substitute. The cake wasn't half bad!
What music did you like the best during the war?
(Thanks Courtney-I think your grandma is pretty keen!) :)