What was life like in Floyd, a small rural farming community, during the WW2? The war effort had the backing of everyone. High school boys enlisted in the military service as soon as they were old enough. Some before graduation.
The Victory Corps was organized in the high school. They sponsored numerous war bond drives, scrap metal drives, scrap rubber collections, tin foil collections drives, etc. Aluminum, rubber and tin were scarce materials and essential to the war effort. Toothpaste tubes were made out of pure tin as well as the foil on chewing gum and cigarette wrappers. You had to turn in an old toothpaste tube when buying a new one. I remember one veteran who had lost a leg in World War I. He had an aluminum leg which he contributed to the war effort.

The war bond sales drives usually had an objective such as sell enough to buy a jeep or a fighter plane, etc. A jeep cost around $1,000 and a fighter plane about $25,000. I remember one such drive which had an auction with the items on sale going to the bidder who would buy the most bonds. One of the
items at an auction was a set of second lieutenants bars which had belonged to a local boy who had been captured by the Germans. This set of bars went for a $1000 bond purchase - enough to buy a jeep.

Very soon after the war began the store shelves went empty of non-essential products. Ladies hose and hair pins were some of the items difficult or impossible to find and sometimes caused the ladies to fight for them if they were found in a store. Ration stamps was a necessity of life, for almost all items were rationed. The ration list included all meats, butter, sugar, flour, coffee, canned foods, gasoline and shoes. Food rationing, with
the exception of sugar and coffee, really had little effect on our life with the exception of sugar and coffee since we seldom bought any other food item.

Gasoline rationing affected almost everyone. Every licensed vehicle got an "A" ration stamp book which allowed the owner to purchase three gallons of gasoline a week. Farmers were allowed a "B" stamp book which allowed more
gasoline for farm vehicles. Our farm truck and tractors qualified for a "C" book which allowed dad to purchase as much non-road taxed gasoline as he needed for the tractor and off-the-road farm truck. In order to conserve gasoline, dad purchased a 1936 Chevrolet pick up truck for farm use and put his 1936 Chevrolet
sedan on blocks and out of service for the duration of the war.

Anyone else have memories of the war years in Floyd?

Jack Spangler
Ellicott City, MD