Letter N° 6
6.
To Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes
107th Infantry Regiment
New York Army National Guard
England, United Kingdom
Brooklyn, NY
Dear James,
I hope that you are well… I wish you would send me a letter back, at least one, just to know that you are still thinking about me, because I sure am thinking about you.
We’ve had some news from the war front, quite encouraging news in fact.
But good Lord, what comes next? Everything is rationed, yes, and I bet you know as I have told you about in that last letter that went without you answering. Can’t say I expected a reply as all the other letters went by without one but sure, I guess I thought it would have been nice…
So much time has passed and there is still no answer. Is your unit on the move? Or maybe I got the address wrong after all. Please, could you just send back a few lines so that I know that you are doing well over there. It’s just… with everything that’s been happening here, I am not sure that you are doing too well over there.
I feel like everything is being reduced down to a ration, even the air we breathe. So, now we have to sign up supplemental allowances of sugar. Mum said that its use was authorized for home canning just a few weeks ago, but now canning jellies, jams and fruit butter or preserves requires identification of household members who are authorized to consume them. What is that all about? I cannot wrap my mind around us having to detail every little piece of food that we produce or consume.
Now, now, I know that the rationing process is necessary so that we can support our soldiers in the best way possible, but let me tell you, it is hard! Quite hard indeed. Gasoline and tires are now strictly rationed, as is anything associated with operating a vehicle, like rubber belts, auto parts or lubricants. It is almost impossible to buy a new car, even for the mayor, because all the factories are being retooled to make jeeps, tanks, ships and aircraft. Can you believe it? Not that I drive a car – you know how lost I was when you let me drive yours, and honestly, I’d rather not – but now the national speed limit has been lowered to 35 mph, to save gasoline and rubber.
As if that’s not enough already, we are also supposed to limit our weekly intake of meat, coffee, cigarettes and lard. People over the age of 12 were supposed to not consume more than 2 ½ pounds per week, children under that age ¾ to 1 ½ pounds. And don’t you get me even more started on the bread. It’s form-pressed and already sliced bread now! This just sounds as weird as it tastes. It’s been around for a couple of years already, but now with all the limitations, it quickly became all the rage, and has already developed a pervasive, devoted following.
Mom sent me to the depot two days ago and I had to get in line to get half a pound of lard, which was being scooped from a big barrel. You cannot believe how disgusting the whole process was. The smell was almost sickening, it was a really hot day! They would put that lard into a plastic bag and add a red dollop of artificial colouring and you need to to squeeze and knead the package until—lo and behold—it looks like butter. I can’t even start to describe what it tastes like, as it is the most tasteless thing I have ever had to eat, but it makes the dry and stale bread a little less dry and stale.
And then of course, they rationed silk. As you perfectly well know, we ladies wear silk stockings, and now the silk is needed for parachutes and medical supplies, so some of us girls just draw a line down the backs of our legs to imitate the seams made by silk stockings. It is ridiculous, but we try to keep up the good spirit.
Bonny came over yesterday and joked about even men being rationed. She said that she really wanted to go out again, have a good time and forget a little about the war and the rationing, but she just couldn’t find any healthy young men, as the military had most of those. She has always said that the ones who did not go were regarded with suspicion by the women, although some allowance was made for the good dancers.
I hope that at least with you soldiers, they are a bit more relaxed with the rationing, as I remember you liked a good smoke from time to time.
I truly hope that you are doing well and think of me from time to time, as I do think about you all the time. I miss you...
Forever yours!
With love, Connie.