
During July I made two presentations on the same topic – Winning World War II on the Home Front. The first presentation was at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, the second was at the Fountain Park Chautauqua in Indiana. While Victory Gardens was the main focus of the presentation I also spoke about scrap metal and rubber drives during the war, collection of scrap paper by school age children known as Paper Troopers, and collecting tin cans by the Tin Canoneers school children. We also spent some time talking about rationing and how vocational agriculture students repaired farm equipment during the war because the farm equipment manufacturers were making equipment for the war effort. The audience were somewhat surprised to learn that we (primarily school age kids) collected milkweed pods for use in life preservers. Women were asked to give up their silk and nylon stockings for war use. Silk stocking were made into gun powder containers and the nylon was used in parachutes. This was an age of patriotism and Americans working together.
