Have you lived through any type of rationing during your lifetime? Rationing has occurred off and on throughout the United States for various reasons. I remember back in the early seventies one could only buy gas on odd or even days. During the seventies Odd-even rationing was introduced — meaning that if the last digit on your license plate was odd, you could get gas only on odd-numbered days. The same reasoning was applied if the last digit on your license plate was even, you could only buy gas on even-numbered days.
What is rationing? Maybe you’ve heard about rationings throughout history. Maybe it is a new concept for you. However, some form of rationing has occurred for various reasons throughout history and not just in the United States.
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one person’s allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.
Rationing in the United States was introduced in stages during World War II. During World War I food rationing was mandatory, however, it was highly suggested for people to curb their food consumption.
During the summer of 1941, Americans were warned of potential gasoline, steel, aluminum, and electricity shortages. It was believed that due to factories converting to military production and their consuming a tremendous number of critical supplies, rationing would be deemed a necessity when the country entered the war. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) established a rationing system after the attack on Pearl Harbor. They came up with the idea to issue ration books and the use of exchanging used stamps for certificates. These were handled by some 5,500 volunteer workers selected by local officials.
Fuel oil and gasoline were rationed only to those who could justify a need. Each ration stamp had a generic drawing of an airplane, gun, tank, aircraft carrier, ear of wheat, fruit, etc. and a serial number. Some stamps had alphabetic lettering.
The above fuel oil ration stamps are numbered with the amount a person could get per ration stamp. These ration stamps and the ration book belonged to my paternal grandfather and were among my father’s belongings I acquired after my mom passed. I had never seen a ration book or ration stamps prior to going through this particular collection of objects my dad had accumulated and preserved. Growing up I heard about the various wars the United States had been involved in including World War I and II. Hearing about them at the time I just figured that was a part of our country’s history. I never considered previously how the wars affected my parents, grandparents and ancestors. Seeing the ration book and ration stamps makes what people, my family, went through during those times of war. Learning how the war affected my family members makes everything more real and brought an understanding of their struggles.
Photo Credit: (c) Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
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