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Show Volume XV Issue XII The Ogden Valley news Page 13 June 1, 2008 Lest We forget: Stories about World War II From stories collected by Mrs. Jane McVaugh’s fourth grade students from Valley Elementary in 1999. This story was related by Erma Wilson of Huntsville. During the Second World War [I] was a teenager. I want to tell you some things that happened during that time. In Ogden Valley there were more service men who enlisted in the service per capita than anywhere else in the United States. Our little post office on 200 South had a large picture frame in the post office with all of the servicemen’s pictures in that frame. After the war the postmaster Avrin Yancy donated all those pictures to the American Legion. I copied all the pictures of the servicemen for the town’s history and you can see them over in the history department in Huntsville. Some of the citizens in the small towns were tattooed underneath their arms with their blood type. They did it in Huntsville, Plain City, and other areas, but not in Ogden. I’m sure that it was done so in case there was a catastrophe they would know immediately what blood type the people had so they could help them. The women in our area divided up the names of the servicemen in order to write to them. This way the servicemen would get some letters from people back home. We also had a serviceman’s flag. This was to honor the boys who were serving in the Armed Services. The flag had a white background with a red “V” (for victory) and blue stars (one for each enlisted boy). The stars were cut out of felt so they wouldn’t need to be hemmed. The name of each boy was sewn on the flag by a star. The stars were scattered on the flag so any number could be added. Gold stars replaced the blue ones when boys lost their lives in action. The flag turned out beautifully. It was made of heavy white satin with fringe and a long gold cord with gold tassels hanging on one side. The flag was put in the church. When the (Huntsville) red church burned in May 1968, the flag was destroyed along with one made earlier for World War I. Because our country was not prepared for the war, they did everything to raise money to help the war effort. Even the children helped with this. In school classes the children would have stamp day. They would bring their nickels, dimes, and quarters and buy stamps. The stamps would be put in a little book and when the book was filled they would get a bond. The Weber County Rationing Board was a group of men and women who looked over the rationing. Because of the war some thirteen million service men had to be supplied with food and other essentials such as sugar, flour, and meat. They had to be supplied with war machinery. People were cut back severely on the amount of gas they could use. Only a certain amount was allocated to you each month for your daily needs. A lot of people rode the bus to and from work and saved their gasoline for important things. The bus company also asked people not to ride the bus during the time that the defense workers were riding the bus because they needed the space. The farmers nationwide were holding a campaign for the salvage and collection of scrap iron, steel, and rubber. The farmers would take turns using their small trucks. They would ride together and use their smaller equipment. It would save rubber. They had different tires in those days. They had rubber tires with inner tubes on the inside. The rubber was needed for the war effort. The farmers were also urged to save antifreeze. The ingredients that makeup antifreeze were used to make explosives and it was used for the radiators of the tanks and airplanes. Even the old unused railroad tracks were removed. We used to have a train that we called the Toonerville Trolley that used to come from Ogden to Huntsville up through Ogden Canyon. Since it was no longer used, they started tearing up the tracks in Ogden Canyon for the war effort. The tracks that circumvented the Great Salt Lake when the railroad first came to Utah in 1869 were taken up so they could be melted down and be used for ammunition, building of tanks, and big guns. All the resources the country could come up with they salvaged and reused for the war. They even asked children The Ogden Valley News is looking for Ogden Valley and Ogden Canyon historical biographies, stories, and photos to use in its publication. Please mail, email, or call Shanna at 745-2688 or Jeannie at 745-2879 if you have material you would like to share. to donate their toy trains so they could use the metal. They needed the lids form grandma’s coal stove if she wasn’t using the stove. They closed the scout camp down because of the rubber shortage. It would handicap transportation if they used the extra vehicles to go to scout camp. During the war I worked as a secretary at the Defense Depot. I hadn’t graduated from high school, but they needed all the help they could get because all the young men had to go into the service. There was no air conditioning at that time and it was really hot in those offices. Every day they would come around with salt tablets. We had to take a salt tablet to replace the perspiration that we had lost during the day. That was when all the women started to work. The women learned everything, they even worked on the ships and the planes. They had a picture of Rosy the Riveter because she riveted the metal parts that had to go into the ships. We were asked to clean and paint our properties to preserve what we had, and to fix up rooms that could be used for the defense workers. There was even a plan to get nurseries started to help tend the children for the women who worked. The housewives were asked to save fat and grease. These items were used to make soap. The soap supplied glycerin and the glycerin was used to help make explosives. Housewives were asked to avoid wasting food. They asked for recipes on how to turn leftovers into good meals. I found a cook book of mine, “How to Bake by the Ration book.” It tells how to bake without eggs and to use substitutes for other things. Food was rationed. Sugar and coffee were rationed. Shoes were rationed because a lot of the shoes had rubber soles. You were allowed to purchase a certain number of shoes in a given period. To regulate this the government issued stamps. If you made a purchase you would have to tear off so many stamps to pay for the items HIsTOrICAl cont. on page 14 Historical Photo HunTsVIlle Jr. HIgH 1942-43 Top row left to right: Fred Shupe, Lonn Wangsgard, Richard Shaw, Maxine Shaw, Erma Wilson, JoAnne Stallings, Paul Ward, Don Clark, Keith Grow. Middle row: Mrs. Ina Berlin, Ray Harris, Mack Fuller, Jeanne Tucker, Norman Montgomery, Rulon Jensen, Eugene Wilson, Evelyn Fuller, Dick Shannon, Ned Clark. Bottom row: Lola Allen, Dona Smith, Virginia Nelson, Annette Graham, Sharon Barnett, Lois Smith, Lorraine Price, Ruth Stoker, Lila Jean Harris. Absent from picture: Karma Wangsgard, Nelda Burton, Georgia Hinck, Maxine Wilson, Eddie Haines. Photo courtesy of Ned Clark. Celeste C. Canning PllC Attorney at law 2590 Washington Boulevard, Suite 200 Ogden, Utah 84401 local: (801) 791-1092 Office: (801) 612-9299 Email: ccanninglaw@aol.com Meeting the Legal Needs of Small Business and Their Owners Free Initial Thirty Minute Consultation. Appointments in Ogden Valley upon request. www.iversondental.com |