GROWING UP IN WORLD WAR II I'm going back in time. To the days of war and wrath, of ration books, the OPA, savings stamps, newspaper drives, Victory Gardens, blackout drapes, and air raid wardens strutting in Sam Brown belts — when drug stores had soda fountains and juke boxes. "I'll be With You in Apple Blossom Time." The country was at war, but it was a fine war and a great time to be me. I was six when the war started. Later I'd hear about bombs and blood, but they were there, not here, so I didn't fully understand their deadly consequences. In most ways the war, to my immature mind, was an abstraction. Corregidor, Battan, El Alamein, Tobruk, Salerno might have been names of rock formations on the moon, and the concept of a Holocaust was unthinkable. We were cocoon-like Midwesterners (my father born in Indiana, my mother Missouri, I Kansas, my brother Illinois). Melting pot aside, we epitomized American culture of the time. We knew few Catholics, even fewer Jews, no negroes, certainly no Hispanics.

I was safe, we were safe — or so we thought. We had blackout drapes over the windows and air raid wardens patrolling the sidewalks ... but never an air raid. On the radio I listened to "Let's Pretend" on the CBS station out of Detroit, WJR. In school we read, yes, Dick and Jane. My favorite book at home was Little Buffalo Boy by H.C. and Lucille Holling. Our house, 3637 Grantley Rd., Toledo, Ohio, 1942. In the screened-in porch to the house's left, my father, after work, would draw amusing caricatures of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. The company he worked for, National Supply, built oil well pumping equipment, but during the war it also made submarine parts. He attempted to enlist but was rejected because of his age (he was 34) and the fact that he had two children, in addition to working for a company said to be important to the war effort. My father (Marion), me (Don), my younger brother (Steve), and mother (Helen). My mother was beautiful. She'd gone to college for two years at Lindenwood in Missouri before withdrawing to become a secretary.

We endured gasoline and other rationing, and few people drove their cars. It was hard to buy tires. We were issued ration stamps. No one complained, but some people hoarded. As always there was a black market. First day of school, first grade, DeVeaux School. 1943. My neighbor and classmate Barbara Prickman and me. I'm holding a Crayola drawing I made of a jar with representations of vegetables inside. Barb, Steve, and Don. Sortly after this photo, I accidentally whacked Steve in the nose when he came up behind me as I was swinging the remnants of a kiddle lawn mower. He still carries the scar. Barb under our cherry tree. She was six months older than I, but I vowed I'd catch up. Barb's mother, Nell, behind their Grantley Rd. house, destroyed by an expressway. Barb's father, Bill, magician by night, dentist by day. He rubbed mercury onto dimes. Adults bought... war bonds. Kids bought... defense stamps. As always, we were reminded of the Nazi specter.

On the vacant lots behind our houses we planted Victory Gardens to raise vegetables. My mother canned them and stored the stuff in Mason jars on shelves my father built in the basement next to the coal bin. Her canned vegetables were mostly inedible. We all tried to make do with less, although the war still seemed far away. But, like most kids, I wanted more. Despite the war we always had time for Christmas. eclipse chocolate 72 fabric shower curtainHere I was compelled to "kiss" my brother for a photograph. ikat chevron grommet curtain panelThe disgust on my face is apparent. walmart blackout curtain linersBesides, Steve always played with my toys instead of his.sidelight curtains 78 inches long

Even though the war was ever present we grew up as if it wasn't. It appears in this picture as if I'm having exotic dreams as my bemused brother watches, but like most children I had few thoughts regarding the future, except about the lightning bugs I was going to jar that night. World War Two ended in bloody triumph, but a cold war ensued bringing with it the threat of nuclear annihilation, and, domestically, an anti-Communist witchhunt prevailed. beaded curtains hills like white elephantsSad times were ahead as Americans preyed on other Americans.target boho boutique curtainsWWII children's books and picture bookscurtains and blinds putney Children's Books and Picture Books--Poole to Ziefert

Children's Books and Picture Books--Krinitz to Polacco Children's Books and Picture Books--Abells to de Paolo Children's Books and Picture BooksI hope you all had a merry, relaxing Christmas. Our was spent with my brother and his family, with a breakfast bar-b-que by the beach, prawns and roast turkey and salad for lunch on the back deck by the pool and another walk on the beach to watch the sunset….a great Aussie christmas! Today the cricket has started, the family have gone and I am sitting by the pool wait for our lunch visitors to arrive. How different in wartime, with rationing, wondering if your family would survive, and being so far from loved ones. So many people in the world today live the same fears, and it makes me so grateful to be living in Australia in 2016! Anyway, a few little snippets from December 1939…. Wishing you a happy 2017 💋Deb From the Australian Women’s Weekly, February 1940 – Hello, again, I know it’s been a while…but I have busy working and setting up my new online vintage store (still hoping for bricks and mortar one day). I

f you have time please visit at.   h Anyway, it’s gray and cold and wet here in usually sunny Mackay, the perfect day to read old magazines and cuddle up with a cat or two. Here three articles on decorating from April 1939. It’s just amazing how modern some of the furniture looks – I swear I saw a chair like that one below right at IKEA! We only get a few weeks of winter here, but on a rainy day like this I’d love to be sitting in front of a fireplace. I usually put the fake fireplace on the television (through YouTube) but the television blew up this morning after a severe thunderstorm…Well a chance to make the living room more vintage perhaps! And to finish here is a lovely ad for floor wax…have a great weekend! I have mentioned in another post that my grandfather was in the Dutch Army Bicycle Corp during WWII. Today I finally dug out the photos that my grandmother left me some years ago and found the photos he had kept of those days. Weren’t they so handsome?! M

y grandfather is the one standing with his arms stretched out and no hat! You may also like a post on my other blog about Victorian Military Bicycle Uniforms I have been very busy with work recently, so forgive the lack of blogging. For the next while I will just post interesting articles I come across, like this one from 1940- Fabulous fashions photographed New York in March 1940 – My grandfather was Dutch. He emigrated to Australia in 1956 and when I was a teenager he told me stories of his time in the war. He was in the bicycle Corp of the Dutch Army, and told many tales (some exaggerated I’m sure) of being in work gangs for the Germans. My grandmother gave birth to two children during his ‘internment’. This page made my think of today’s media, where sometimes we ignore or pass over what’s happening, thinking, “it won’t happen” or “it doesn’t affect me.” This is from 3 February 1940. Germany invaded Holland on 10 May 1940. Imagine inheriting diamond jewellery – a lot of diamond jewellery….and during WWII. Wo

uld you keep it or turn it over to the war effort? As a royal I suppose you’d need to keep a few, and anyway personally owned diamonds could not be taken by London’s Diamond Comittee during the War, according to this article from February 1940. And from March 1940- Of course Holland was invaded two months later, in May 1940, so let’s hope the diamonds did travel to England the the US. This article from October 1938 shows that some smart (and obviously rich) people were already thinking ahead about war and investing in diamonds. There are interesting comments about Jewish people too, and how diamonds were easily transported across “unfriendly borders”. Unfortunaltely diamonds did not save many, if any, Jews from persecution and execution. Many had sewn their diamonds and other jewels into their clothing, and these were routinely removed from clothing after the Jews were murdered at the concentration camps.  There are accounts of diamonds being moved to a vault in banks in France in order to provide “rainy day” money for nazi officials to make new lives for themselves after the war.

Of course this article could have been just part of  De Beers 1938 American marketing campaign encouraging people to by diamond engagement rings – a campaign that was obviously extremely sucessful, with a jump in US diamond sales of 55% in the four years between 1938 and 1941 – but then again I haven’t actually been able to find any Debeers ads from before 1948, so maybe it was the war…… I did find this ad from 1938 for an Australian Jeweller, which advertises diamond rings, and watches, as anniversay gifts rather than engagement rings. I now work in a an antique jewellery store and find it interesting that many couples are now buying diamond bands for their wedding bands, as well as diamond engagement rings.  Debeers really did well….. Read more about diamonds in WWII here. Continuing on from my post Fashions of January 1939, today a look at fashion from February 1939, the last month of Summer in Australia. And let’s not forget the foundation garments!