Dripping Life April 16

From the time I was a toddler, any time I visited my grandparents in Dallas, my grandmother made sure her cookie jar was filled to the brim. On every visit, with an hour of my arrival, I would check the crockery cookie jar—and it was always full.

Then when I was six or seven, we visited after my grandmother had been hospitalized for gallbladder surgery. We had come to care for her as she recovered.

As was my tradition, I checked out the crockery jar on the side table in the kitchen; and lo and behold…not a SINGLE cookie in sight! I began thinking why it was empty. I had nine cousins in the Dallas- Fort Worth area. I began to think “they” had probably stuffed their mouths, and their pockets, with MY cookies. I was NOT a happy camper. Then my mother explained that my grandmother had been ill for several weeks and had been unable to bake MY cookies.

Later, when I was sitting on the porch swing with my dad, I confessed I was ashamed of having unloving thoughts about my cousins. He agreed. While it was what other kids might do, too, my cousins were my family, and families love each other.

That evening, my dad -- as best he could -- explained what taking things for granted meant. I, at first, thought he was saying “granite” and pictured the cookie jar turning to granite, much like the biblical story of Sarah turning into a pillar of salt.

But Dad simplified the concept by saying we don’t think about things like a full cookie jar until we find the jar empty. Then we miss the cookies, and oftentimes, those cookies then become the most important things in the world to us -- because we always took it for granted that they would be there—up until the awful day when they weren’t.

That’s when I learned the meaning of taking things for granted.

Dad told me about rationing during World War II, when it necessary to ration food, gas, and even clothing during that time. Americans were asked to conserve on everything. With not a single person unaffected by the war, rationing meant sacrifices for all.

The Food Rationing Program was begun in 1942. The federal government needed to control national resources as we waged war against Adolf Hitler and the Axis Powers. Rationing was introduced, in part, to avoid hoarding (toilet paper anyone?), manage shortages, and not allow the wealthy to purchase in excess which would have led to public outcry and anger and weakened the war effort. (During the Nazi occupation of Paris, the Germans and French collaborators unwisely flaunted their easy access to food and wine, leading to heavy anger and ugly retaliation by Parisians, but that’s a story for another day.)

Americans were required to give up many material goods, so people joined together to support and maintain supply levels for the troops abroad. This meant making daily adjustments. Their efforts included scrap drives, taking factory jobs, goods donations, home victory gardens, and other similar projects to assist those on the front.

Rationing regulated the commodities and the amounts consumers could buy. Sugar rationing took effect in May 1943 with the distribution of "Sugar Buying Cards." Registration usually took place in local schools. Each family was asked to send only one member for registration and be prepared to describe all other family members. Coupons were distributed based on family size, and the coupon book allowed the holder to buy a specified amount. Possession of a coupon book did not guarantee that sugar would be available. Americans learned to use what they had during rationing.

"Red Stamp" rationing covered all meats, butter, fat, and oils, and with some exceptions, cheese. Each person was allowed a certain amount of points weekly with expiration dates to consider. 

"Blue Stamp" rationing covered canned, bottled, frozen fruits and vegetables, plus juices and dry beans, and such processed foods as soups, baby food and ketchup. 

Ration stamps became like currency with each family being issued a "War Ration Book." Each stamp authorized a purchase of rationed goods in the quantity and time designated, and the book helped achieve some equity in the fair share of goods made scarce by the war. Of course shortages existed, and having a coupon for something didn’t mean you could actually purchase it if your local store was out, but Americans understood the importance of the war and the sacrifice that was asked of them.

Rationing did not end until 1946. Life then resumed to “normal” and the consumption of meat, butter, and sugar inevitably rose. America collectively issued a heavy sigh of relief of the war’s end, and the men who were lucky enough to returned counted their blessings and started families—hence the baby boomers. (In his book, “The Fifties,” David Halberstam chronicled the story of perceptive men who became millionaires by supplying Americans with the foods and goods they had pent up demand for after the war.)

Today the changes we’re experiencing during the COVID-19 quarantine have been very different from the sacrifices Americans experienced during the war against the Nazis. The “holes” in our daily lives range from the small to the substantial – not getting haircuts, manicures and pedicures, two-day delivery from Amazon Prime, the absence of paper goods at the grocery store, eating out, seeing friends and extended family, or going to movies and concerts. I’ll confess. I took all these things for granted. This past week, for many Americans, the absence of worship services, fellowship, and the taking of communion on Easter Sunday, left a hole in their family lives as well. 

Of course as we “flatten the curve,” and return to “normal,” we’ll face the dropping of the other shoe. How many small businesses will not return after having been shuttered for so long? How many people are in serious crisis of not being able to pay their mortgages, car payments, or cost of other essentials due to being forced out of work? 

Then there are the tone-deaf celebrities who make online videos from their mansions and gated communities, and extoll us to grow philosophically from during this quarantine. How much personal growth can you have while worrying about your kids and  losing your house because you have no money coming in? 

My emotions about these things, now MIA, have run from frustration to anger, from sadness to angst. But that’s what happens when you think these things will go on forever, will never change.

Like Fuller said, “We never know the worth of water until the well is dry.” 

Let’s hope this never really happens America!