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Something I've always wondered about...
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
10/3/2007 4:56 AM |
When I was just a little guy, there was a war going on. It was a big one, too. World War II. My memories of that conflict are thankfully quite fleeting, but I do remember a few details; like all the cars were black. Years later, I remember staring at the first red car I had ever seen, like it was something surreal or out of science-fiction. Anyway, all the headlights on all the black cars had the top halves of their glass covers painted black, too. Blackout lights, they called them. When I asked my father why all the headlights were painted that way, he said it was so bomber pilots couldn’t see them at night. That was an explanation that made little sense to me, because I thought the headlights, though degraded in their performance, still lit up whatever was in front of the car, so surely the pilots of Nazi aircraft could see that. But I didn’t say anything about it, so it remained a mystery to me.
I also remember little ration books, whose contents were parceled out to the local filling station whenever we had to buy gasoline for the car. There were lots of other commodities in short supply, and rationed, too. Sugar, rubber, butter (I believe) and many others were all restricted, because they were needed for the war effort. I never did quite understand why keeping those items from the public helped in the war effort, but nobody questioned it, to my knowledge, so I didn’t either. I thought rationing just came along with a war.
A few years later, when the Korean Conflict broke out, I was older at the age of 10, and able to understand the ways of the world a little better. Our troops were sent to Korea, battles were waged, territory exchanged hands, and all the while, I wondered when the rationing of essential items would begin. The war raged on for five years, but as far as I know, nothing was ever rationed to the public because of the hostilities.
Then as an adult, along came Vietnam which ground on for endless years, but again, no rationing of critical supplies, to my knowledge, took place.
I always wondered, and still do from time-to-time, why rationing of all that stuff was apparently so vital during World War II in the 1940s, but apparently not needed at all during Korea in the 1950s, or during Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.
Anyone have any opinions, out there? |
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