ARE YOU OLD ENOUGH…. WERE YOU POOR ENOUGH…

In the 1960’s.. there were something called commodities..  On the packages was marked.. MADE FOR US GOVERNMENT.   Which meant it was totally only… made for the US GOVERNMENT. 

My sister in law and I went down once a month to a building…..got a shopping basket and went down a roll .. there were about 3 rolls if I recall right.    I had a 3 on my cart and she had 8 on hers.. it was how many was in your household. 

Now Commodities were for those who did not make much money.  Bill had just got out of the Navy.. and being their wasn’t a big call for boat drivers, which is what he did in the Navy..  driving the officers from land to ships..  and also LDT landing- something the other - transportation..    So he sold encyclopedia  books which didn’t pay much.. about 50 cents an hour and commission on how many sets you sold..  you didn’t sell any?  No commission.

My sister in law Willie showed me the ropes..  both in getting the food, plus how to cook with it..   See this was NOT food stamps..  Food stamps where you went and bought what you wanted (with in their guidelines… like no bath soap, no clothes soap, no toilet paper and etc)   What we got was boxes of flour.. 5 lbs size,   sugar 5 lbs size,  18 inch long 4x4 tins of meat,  of cheese and peanut butter.    Which by the way..  was the best ever cheese and peanut butter…  which you could not find any where else..   as the manufacturer did not make the product under their own company name.    Willie got two of everything and I got one..  because of the size of our families.  There was powdered milk, which did make some pretty good milk.. nothing like the commercial ones in the stores that tasted like paste water.

The other part was you had to know how to cook with these items.. as there was NO premade food..  it was all up to you to know how to make pancakes, bread, and etc..  even pasta..  I got pretty good at making noodles..   rolling them out and cutting them with a knife and then boiling them.    Thanks to Willie showing me how.  

Bill learned how to weld from his older brothers and went to work in the ship yards.. where he got to work on the Navy ships he served on..   which he made too much money for us to get any more.

 

So are you old enough to remember?   And were you poor enough ?