This year of living like 1942 has been a year of organizing here at our house. We studied about ww2, Charles read some history books and we mostly lived an old fashioned life. Rationing was not a big part of our living like 1942 because in the United States our rationing did not start to get intense until 1943.
Rationing was beginning in 1942 and affecting Tires, Automobiles, Gasoline, Bicycles, Fuel oil, Stoves. Then food items started being rationed such as sugar, coffee. The country needed rubber, metal and such so rubber footwear, typewriters were put on rationing.
Rationing was coming though and when we did our year of 1943 we learned it was hard to ration. We dug deep into studying the year of 1943 and we spent a lot of time at our local library researching information and going through the microfilms. We visited antique shops and found old rationing books and then made our own ration books.
We tried to live as much like they did with rationing as we could considering the real time in which we lived.
I made notebooks from all the research done at the library. The book on the left is from 1943 and the one on the right from 1942. As you see there was not as much study done this year because rationing was not as intense.
When we started living like the 1940s we did not understand at the time how much this would change our lives. At first it was a bit romanticized thinking living like the 1940s but then it turned into a serious history project. Had we known we would have started in 1942 and gone to 1943 but we did not do that. My blog has many post about our living like 1943 and the rationing.
When we started 1943, our year of rationing, that was the beginning of weight loss for us. We learned portion sizes and eating in moderation and how we eat too much sugar.
We took a break from our war time history project after we finished 1943 and we moved to 1948. What we learned from that change was the 1940s was the time that food was becoming very processed. I have a newspaper article from during the war about how the home front people would be eating more soy and food substitutes.
What happened is it opened up the market to processed food and then to convenience food.
We started putting weight back on during that time we were doing the year of 1948 and realized we had gradually increased our portions again and ate too much gluten, dairy and sugar so we had to get it in our heads that smaller portions matter. We learned we did not like the direction that we were going, the world was getting too modern getting closer to to 1950s so that was when we decided we wanted to go back to the early 1940s.
Then this year Charles psoriasis started getting worse and we went on a modern elimination diet and much weight loss for both of us and put us right back into realizing we need to eat as those before us did. In today's time we eat entirely too much sugar, bread, dairy and such as that. We need to eat more vegetables, fruits and small portions of meat and not eat meat every day. I am only telling you what we are doing, I am not suggesting a diet for anyone. You can read on the internet about elimination diets and such as that and learn as we did.
As of today Charles has lost 60 pounds and I have lost 20 pounds. Our cholesterol is down without medication.
So I guess I can say that living like 1942 forced me to get my house in better order. I kept saying to myself, they would have not had this or that in 1942. I was not going to give up all of our modern things but instead get rid of unnecessary things. Several months ago you may remember I spent 9 days moving furniture around and getting rid of clutter. What that did was thin things out but it was not enough.
So this month I have moved things around again and started all over again with purging things. I now have my fabric and sewing things in this cabinet. Before I had it on shelves and drawers but now it is all together. I am sure I will do this again in a few months.
I moved linens, the dogs bath towels top left. Extra hand towels and old fashioned cloth diapers I use for many uses top right, Bottom left queen size sheets, bottom right bath towels.
We found a book shelf at a thrift store and got rid of the large dresser that I showed a few posts back with the books organized on top. Well that was donated and we put the bookshelf in this room, the closet is my gdonna office and this room has a small guest bed, sewing things and a cabinet with our small tv we use for news and weather. The two chairs is so we can have a movie night since people went to the movies in the 1940s.
This is the cabinet across from the two chairs and behind the curtain is our small tv.
People did not have television during ww2, they listened to radio shows but we don't have that. We do listen to our national public radio but we do like to stay up on our local current news and weather and have a Friday night movie night which is very 40s only they physically went to the movies.
I bought some boxes and organized small items in those boxes. They are mostly sewing items.
I went back through every cabinet and drawer in the house. I realize that at my age we have accumulated many things and it takes going back over and over it to let go of things.
Just this past week I finally let go of items that belonged to my mother. I kept holding on to these things but I realized I would only put that burden on my children after I am gone so it was up to me to donate these things. They would have been of no use for anyone, it was just a box of memories and my memories are always in my heart.
This week it was time to get ready for Christmas. I don't like to decorate early, because having Christmas decorations up too long takes away from the special time it is suppose to be.
I will be posting soon our decision on what we are going to do for the year 2018. We already know, I just have to get my pictures and post together. I will post about this very soon.
Grandma Donna
