While sorting through a box of old papers, antique collector Amanda Kehler of Steinbach came across an item from the Second World War.
As she hunts for valuables to sell at her store, there are times when she discovers something that Kehler feels belongs in a museum or with the family of the original owners.
She recently found a Dominion of Canada ration book from the Second World War. It belonged to a 10-year-old boy, Cameron Hedin, who lived in Radville, Saskatchewan. This is an item that Kehler says will stay in her personal collection, for now. She expects this book will, at some point, end up in a museum.
Kehler enjoys spending time in search of items that have a story, and sometimes they end up in her personal collection. Other times, they end up for sale at her store, Prairie Pickers Café and Bakery.
Introduced in 1942, ration books were part of the Second World War experience for most Canadians outside the military. People presented coupons when buying items such as sugar, coffee, tea, butter, meat and gasoline. Starting in 1945, meat tokens gave Canadians more flexibility in buying small amounts of rationed meat. - www.warmuseum.ca
“It's always a little shocking to see how much Canadians really supported one another, where I feel like sometimes, we've lost a little bit of that now,” Kehler says. “Like in the first couple of years of the war, the Canadians willingly did this, this is something that they were not mandated to do, they were willingly sacrificing their own nutrition so that as much food can be sent overseas to the soldiers that were fighting. So, I think it's interesting to kind of see, have we learned from the past?”
Rationing helped free up food for other countries, especially Britain, and helped feed Allied military forces. Starting in 1939, the federal government urged Canadians to buy less of anything in short supply. The government then asked people to voluntarily limit purchases of scarce items, including sugar. - www.warmuseum.ca
“The further we go into the future, the less people who are alive to share those stories, and share how difficult it was having only one cup of sugar per person per week, or maybe only one gallon of gas per week,” says Kehler. “It's things that we don't have to experience in our life because they fought, and others fight for our freedoms in this country.”
Voluntary measures were not successful. Coupon rationing soon began, starting with gasoline in April 1942. Over the next year, sugar, coffee, tea, butter and meat were also rationed. The government restricted food served in restaurants and cafeterias. Many people added to their supplies by growing their own food in gardens. Later in the war, rationing for coffee, tea and meat was suspended. From 1945 to 1947, rationing was reintroduced for some kinds of meat. This helped feed countries facing food shortages as a result of the war’s devastation. Meat tokens were introduced in 1945. If people bought less than a coupon’s worth of meat, they would get “change” in tokens to use for a later purchase. The tokens were made of wood fibre, and were designed to be difficult to counterfeit. - www.warmuseum.ca
Kehler is passionate about supporting our veterans, saying that it starts by supporting the local Royal Canadian Legion.
“It's amazing that we come together as a community and we support them for the first two weeks of November,” she says. “But support them year-round. Find your local Legion, become a member. Anybody can be a member; it doesn't have to be only for people that were involved with fighting in a war. You can contact them, volunteer, there's options. Just give them a call, they're really friendly folks.”
The government also controlled many other items such as new household appliances and automobile tires. In other cases, there were limits on what could be made and sold. This included clothing, which could only be made in certain styles, or with certain fabrics. These limits helped free up more materials and manufacturing capacity for wartime needs. Canadians faced far fewer limits on food and other products than people in many other countries. Canadians generally supported rationing, although there was an active illegal market for some goods. This was especially true for gasoline and automobile tires. - www.warmuseum.ca