Letters

5. 5.

To Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes
107th Infantry Regiment
New York Army National Guard
England, United Kingdom

Brooklyn, NY

Dear James,

“Don’t you know there’s a war on?” … I can’t tell you how often I have heard that phrase lately and how much I hate hearing it.

The government just loves to issue new campaigns. The newest toy is Food for Victory to conserve and produce more food. They say that the war effort on the "Home Front" requires sacrifices and cooperation and yes, I get it, but we have gotten to quite some extremes. Rationing has become part of everyday life. We have learned to conserve vital resources. We are living with price controls and deal with shortages of everything. The young boys from our street are now taking a dime to stand in line for the rationed provisions. Everything has gotten much more expensive.

Now, I don’t want to come across as a crybaby because I know that this is all for a good cause, for a common cause. But still, it is not easy. Yeah yeah, I know that you will be thinking that I am not seeing the bigger picture here. You are wrong. I am! I know what I am talking about and it is not just me. It is not easy at all for any of us – for you guys at the front and also for the ones who are left behind.

Eating leftovers is now a patriotic duty and civilians are encouraged to grow their own vegetables and fruits. My mother has one of the many "Victory Gardens", in her backyard and damn, does that make her proud! You can see those gardens in people’s backyards, on roof terraces, in vacant lots, and even public parks. Central Park is not the same anymore. There are small fenced-in patches where they grow lettuce, corn, potatoes and then some more. Mother has her beans and tomatoes, Mrs. Jenkins, our neighbor has onions and cucumbers. Meat is sparse but we get by with what we grow. We also eat only food cooked under guidance of "Victory cookbooks", a paperback full with recipes and tips to make the most out of the rationed goods.

I mean, there are a number of reasons for rationing and I can see where they are coming from, but some families are really struggling. Everything is scarce and buying groceries and the most basic hygiene articles is somewhat gruesome. There is no way of getting anything canned, but we are allowed to keep everything we produce from that “Victory Garden” of ours. The slogan "grow your own, can your own" is in everybody’s mouth. Every bit of home grown produce allow the farm and commercial grown varieties to be pointed towards the war effort! People are producing over 1 billion tons of food, or so they say on the TV.

Many people privately swap their cukes for their neighbor's green beans – as we do, and it is nobody's business but the two of them. At least something the government lets us have a say in with all those reduction and rationing rules. Selling produce, however, can make you get a reputation as a Black Marketeer. You definitely don’t want that in these difficult times, so there are no open sales. Forget farmer’s market, that’s all long gone, but those green patches of growing food serves as much of alimentary supplements as a morale booster – and that is something everybody is in dire need of.

So, I guess what I am saying is that we are hanging in here. I just wish that you would reply, James! One short and sweet letter, just one. Please!

Something else is new. Thousands of the men who were not drafted, (and some women, too!!) are now joining defensive militias at home and there has been a great increase in the number of women serving for the military itself, and I am not talking about nurses only. Women training aboard aircraft carriers? Women learning how to pilot a war place? Women driving provision trucks? Can it get any more crazy? Well, I don’t know, but they say that it is a good kind of crazy.

Maybe I should look into that and try to get to where you are? But well, I am not sure what good I could do over there. You know how easy it is to scare me… And I assume that they are looking for experienced people to cover that field.

But well, at least there are still some possibilities to take your mind off of everything bad that is going on. Movies are cheap and a quite the big deal. People go more than once a week and it doesn’t tear a hole into your pocket. The movies run Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Friday and Saturday nights they often show a double feature now and I can tell you, everybody’s there! On Saturday afternoon there is also a double feature for kids plus a cartoon and a serial. Even adults go from time to time. Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday night they show even another film.

Before each film, they show a newsreel and guess what, that Captain America guy is all over it, calling everybody to join in the war effort. Honestly, I don’t see how much more we can actually do. They always seem to want more! I might just be seeing him sometime soon, he will be doing some entertainment shows on Broadway and mother said that we would go.

To be quite honest, this Captain America looks an awful lot like your little friend, Steve. Are they related, something like cousins third grade removed? I mean, the resemblance is striking, but Captain America is so much more, in all ways! I told you that I had seen Steve a couple of months ago, at the recruitment center. I am still wondering what he was doing there, surely he couldn’t have thought to join the armed forces…Would he be able to even lift a gun? I tried once to hold my father’s shotgun and could only do it for a second or two. Can you imagine Steve with his scrawny little body running about out there with a rifle? I still wonder how he could even be your best friend.

Well, I should be getting ready for bed. Work starts early as usual.

I miss you, James.

Love, Connie.