As Christmas approaches, I’m
struck by the sad reality that during this time of a foreign war, some
families will experience the absence of one or more members overseas.
This recalls to me the holiday seasons during World War II
and my childhood. All of our celebrations during this time were
tempered by feelings of absence.
War times curtailed the usual traditions. It could be
something as small as the scarcity of new holiday ornaments, because
raw materials had to be devoted to the war effort. The worst and most
obvious absence: the millions of young men and women who had gone off
to war.
Yes, World War II became part of our lives just as we were
dusting off and recovering from the long economic hardship of the 1930s
and the Great Depression. And it brought us together in many new ways.
City folk who had never grown anything beyond a geranium
found that they could grow food they could eat in impromptu gardens
where mowing was no longer necessary. During that time, Life
magazine published a whole series of articles detailing how everything
from buying a horse to needlework and knitting could be accomplished.
Fuel rationing regulations limited housing temperatures during winter.
“The most obvious economy is implicit in the fact that U.S.
homes are notoriously overheated as rationed oil burners will testify
when they find themselves comfortable at 65 degrees,” Life magazine concluded.
 One newspaper article from then told how Duluthians were asked to “save every piece of Christmas wrapping for paper salvage.”
Harry W. Clark, chairman of the Duluth Civilian Defense
Council’s salvage committee, said in the story, “Paper is too precious
this year to be burned. It is a weapon with which we all can wage war.
It is more valuable at this time than even money - for money alone
cannot purchase the paper needed for military and life-saving tasks.”
During the years of World War II, the author was barely a
teen-ager, too young to enlist in military service but old enough to
remember the effects of the war on the country. By the time of the
Korean conflict, Jim, still a young man, signed up to serve (below).
Yet with the worst times were the best times.
A display titled “Holidays on the Homefront During World
War II,” done last year at the Richard I. Bong WWII Heritage Center in
Superior, Wisconsin, reminded us that, ironically, the holiday seasons
during the war were the best that many Americans had seen in years.
Why? Unemployment in the 1930s averaged up to 20 percent in a work
force made up of mostly men. But during the war, unemployment averaged
just 1 percent in a work force that contained large numbers of women.
World War II was very real to me as a young man. The memories
are still vivid despite the fact that the war ended 60 years ago this
year with the surrender of Japan.
My days were scattered between doing errands, stealing apples
and enviously watching neighbors who had full bottles of milk; ours
were usually mostly empty. Yes, like most everything you could not live
without, it was rationed.
Just about every family had put away their automobiles.
Between the expense, lack of tires and the fuel shortage back then,
most people had one running automobile. Bicycles were very useful, but
walking was the common way to go anywhere, when time and distance
allowed.
Holiday baking was difficult because sugar was also on the
ration list. My father, a longtime expert in dental supplies, traveled
several states assisting in the distribution of dental supplies. Many
of the younger dentists had left their practices to go into the
military where they were very much needed.
Joyce Bong Erickson, sister of Major Richard I. Bong, the
Poplar, Wisconsin, farm boy who became “America’s Ace of Aces” as a
fighter pilot in the Pacific, recalled her Christmases past for the
exhibit in the center named for her brother.
“Christmas each year was always a big deal as it is today for
everyone. Mom was a wonderful seamstress and knitter. We always had a
new sweater, blouse or dress. She always made fruitcake every year.
 “Dad
always got the Christmas tree from our back 40 or thereabouts with the
help of us kids. The trimming was done on Christmas Eve day and
finished before supper. We younger kids always had to go upstairs and
take a nap. While this was all going on, mom bustled with all the
finishing touches of her handmade items, and the wrapping took place.…
Supper was always lutefisk. Mom had a special way of preparing it and I
learned to like hers! Our oldest sister, Nelda, refused to even eat it.”
Duluthians may remember how they were urged to make Christmas
a “light up” holiday in contrast to the “blackout” in other parts of
the world. This took the form of a Christmas home-lighting contest
sponsored by the Duluth Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Duluth News-Tribune and Herald
- yes, there once was a morning and an evening newspaper. The contest
called for lighted displays from 2 to 11 p.m. from December 24 to
January 1, 1944.
Christmas was a busy time, too, in the Twin Ports of Duluth
and Superior, where the shipbuilding industry closely linked the
homefront to the nation’s fighting forces. One launching that came
during the holiday season was that of the USS Midland at Walter
Butler Shipbuilders in Superior. On December 23, 1944, a crowd watched
as Mrs. William G. Mitsch Jr., whose husband was fighting in France,
christened the new cargo ship with a bottle of champagne.
The Midland was the fifth ocean-going ship launched at Butler yards in less than three weeks.
I have yet another memory of those war years. During the war,
northern Minnesota accommodated quite a number of Boy Scout troops from
many areas. Duluth school buses were constantly hauling scouts and
others out into the woods for a bit of fun amid the hard times.
Many of these scouts were “city” kids, so the north woods
were new to them. I was just into my teens, but as a young “bushrat”
who spent most of his time in the woods, I could help out. I spent lots
of happy hours encouraging these kids to catch on to the outdoors while
their dads and uncles were off at the war. Most of them did indeed
catch on, and they thoroughly enjoyed the wilderness camps.
Must have been this experience that gave me the courage to become a canoe country guide and outfitter later on.
We, the more mature folk, have many vivid memories of this period in our history.
Yes, the Christmas holidays then, as for some families now,
were difficult due to missing family, neighbors and material goods that
we normally had taken for granted.
But most people were united in doing whatever it took to help and that spirit rang as a true tribute to this special season.
Wishing you and yours all the best for the coming holidays.
The second edition of Shipwrecks of Lake Superior,
edited by Jim Marshall, has recently been published. And a selection of
Jim Marshall’s columns of lake lore and his inland sea voyages
has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge
by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link
for more information.
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