Dear Sergeant Honey

1943 Wartime Facts

• Polio killed 1,151 people and was called an epidemic.

• A 48 hour minimum work week was announced by Pres. Roosevelt for war industry workers, including women.

• In February, 1943, shoe rationing began. Civilians could only get three pair of shoes per year.

• In March of 1943 canned foods were rationed. Also, at the end of March, meat, fat, and cheese was rationed. Sugar had already been rationed in April of 1942. Coffee rations were less than a pound a month. The first thing to be rationed was tires in 1942.

• Typewriters were rationed from March of 1942 to April, 1944.

• In April, the War Manpower Commission stated that essential workers could not leave their  jobs which affected some 27,000,000 workers.

• Salvage drives collected tin cans, fat, wastepaper, and iron and steel scrap by the ton.

• The fashion for a lot of  men was the zoot suit. The guys who wore them were called hepcats. The jacket was a long one button garment and the pants were high waisted. They were wide at the knees and tight at the ankles.Also part of this outfit was a knee length key chain. It was completed with a broad-brimmed hat.

• The zoot suit riots in Los Angeles in June of 1943, are mentioned in one of Hildie's letters. Sailors assaulted Mexican-American zoot suiters and cut their ducktail haircuts. This went on for four days.

• The jitterbug was THE hot dance.

• Pleasure driving was banned in 1943.

• Victory gardens produced a third of the vegetables grown in the U.S.

• Norman Rockwell's painting of Rosie the Riveter appeared on the cover of the May 29 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. The idea of Rosie the Riveter originated with Lockheed Aircraft on a motivational poster.

• In 1943 women made up 35.8% of the U.S. workforce but only made 50.8% of men's wages. (Statistics from the World War II Desk Reference).

• The top actors and actresses in 1943 were: Betty Grable, Bob Hope, Abbot and Costello, Bing Crosby, and Gary Cooper.