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Started by billy rubin, October 12, 2019, 11:51:22 PM

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Tank

Quote from: Icarus on February 23, 2020, 02:55:46 AM
11.5 years old. Conscious of the seriousness of the event and its aftermath.  For example I, along with thousands of other kids, sought out empty cigarette packages.  The interior of the  packages were typically laminated with tin foil.   We peeled the foil from the paper and made balls of foil that were eventually converted to a useful alloy for the war effort.  No one was compensated for that kind of effort.  That was part of the deal, our freedom and maybe even our survival was the deal that everyone seemed to understand.

Once again I salute the resolve and courage  of the Brits whose efforts did not necessarily include kids with tin foil.  They made Spitfires and Mosquito Bombers partly of plywood, we made tanks and munitions and "liberty ships" of concrete. ...

It is near 10 Pm as I write this.  I went to the kitchen to get some Ice from the refrigerator for my wee dram o' scotch.  I puhsed a button and ice cubes came spilling into my glass, as usual. Somehow, that reminded me of the ice wagons of the early forties.  Many were horse drawn wagons that carried 300 pound blocks of ice. The "Iceman' would use his ice picks to chop the blocks into smaller blocks that cost 5 cents or larger ones at 8 cents.  The chunks of ice were carried into the houses and stores that had "ice boxes" not refrigerators.  The kids, in summer, would run after the ice wagons to get the small chips of ice that broke from the chopping process.  Yep, I am on a nostalgia kick.  Please forgive me for that.

We don't need to forgive you! Tell us anything and everything you want.
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"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
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Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Icarus on February 21, 2020, 11:48:19 PM
To set the record straight: No I was not in Hawaii on December 7th. I was a kid who lived in Tampa Florida at that time.  What I do remember, vividly, was the depth of the emotional crush that instantly became a national resolve. There are things so much engraved in ones long term memory that those things are not modified by the passing of time, or  an atrophying brain.

For starters there was national rationing. Meat was rationed and each family was issued food stamps that were required in order to buy a limited quantity of meat.  Gasoline and heating oil was also limited and there were gas stamps that one had to redeem at the gas station in order to buy part of a tank of fuel.  Lucky Strike cigarettes were popular. Their package came in a dark green color. Green dye was a needed material for the war effort....think camouflage colors on war machines like tanks and planes.  The cigarette manufacturer changed their packages to pure white.  My father worked in a shipyard, we had frequent air raid drills in school and frequent required "blackouts" at night.   Air raid sirens signaled the need to blackout, automobile lights had the top half of the headlight permanently blocked out.  Most of all there were no skeptics about the need for unity and cooperation for the benefit of the war effort.   That was a time of American patriotism and resolve that we may never ever see again. 

Too damned bad that we are now so divisive, unappreciative, and stupid.  Too many of our American  Bubbas would shoot us in a fit of rage for rationing his beef steak and potatoes.

I have vivid memories of what we would now describe as insufferable hardships.  I suspect that Tank, Siz, Essie Mae, et al  might be acquainted with some older Brit citizens who have been through the 1940s hell that was indescribably  worse than mine.  We never were bombed, England was.  Here is a sincere salute to those indomitable Brits who fought back valiantly, no matter what.

:thumbsup:

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billy rubin



set the function, not the mechanism.