lakers & wwii homefront newsletter
DESCRIPTION
How did Lakers support the war effort?TRANSCRIPT
ML Centennial FOCUS: WWII at Home
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
A Document-Based Assignment for our Students
How did LAKERS change their lives to support the war effort?1
While the United States struggled with the Great Depression of the 1930s, Germany, Italy, and Japan prepared for war. As the “clouds of war” formed in Europe and Asia, many Americans remembered the losses suffered in World War I and supported a strong isolationist foreign policy. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, the US still had a small and outdated army that used horses to pull its artillery. On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor killing over 2000 Americans including Laker William M. Thompson.
According to Mountain Lakes 1911-2011, even our small community was already engaged with the global conflict prior to Pearl Harbor. Author Patricia Reid Herold notes “the hum of confident preparedness (that) prevailed” in Mountain Lakes describing how Laker Gilbert Higgins formed the Mountain Lakes Defense Council that “organized first-aid classes and converted station wagons and delivery trucks to rescue and emergency cars.” In her ML Centennial collection, Herold reports on a gala at the Mountain Lakes Club for British war relief that “ran nearly from dawn to dusk boasting ‘mixed doubles all day, luncheon, afternoon bridge, dinner, junior dance, formal charity ball, and special breakfast following the dance.’”
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
1 The following introduction is adapted from “Homefront America DBQ” by Peter Pappas (http://www.peterpappas.com/journals/dbq/index.htm).
After Pearl Harbor, the American isolationist debate was over, and within days the United States was at war with Japan and its allies, Germany and Italy. A war of this size required an enormous commitment of resources and labor. Victory was dependent on the contributions of Americans on two fronts: the battlefield and the homefront. Between 1941 and 1945,millions of American men and women served in the armed forces in a global war. Here at home, millions more worked to produce the weapons, equipment, and supplies needed to fight the war. The federal and state governments were required to take a very active role in managing the lives of Americans to ensure that their efforts would support the war. Use the following documents to describe how citizens in Mountain Lakes responded to the call of service during World War II.
Oral History Recollections2
“So many of the younger men in town were in the service that we had almost no fire department. So the older high school boys were organized as the Junior Fire Department and they were trained and were quite effective. And if there was a fire, they got to leave class. They were all there was. The Lackawanna RR had four tracks at that time. The war freight was very heavy. During several summers, a small group of high school boys worked summers on the RR section gang maintaining the tracks...Terribly hard work and hot and dirty but very macho. I had to lie about my age because I wasn’t quite sixteen. We would show up at Island Beach filthy dirty for a swim.” Wally Mills, MLHS Class of 1945
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
2 http://www.mtnlakes.org/History/TheWarYears.htm
Oral History Recollections
MLHS Alumni Remember Growing Up during the War“My memories of high school are of a wonderful time but also a very sad time due to the war. We like many others had a small blue flag with 2 silver stars (2 of our family in the service) hanging in our front window -- sadly several families in town had to change the silver to gold as sons were killed. We listened to the news on the radio (no TV) and kept a map to mark the many battles that were reported. In those days of strict secrecy families did not know where their sons and husbands were -- you knew their battalion or ship and feared hearing news of them being in a battle. Letters were written on very thin paper called victory letters and all were censored -- anything that looked suspicious was either blacked out (ink went through to the other side) or cut out with a sharp knife so you often only got half a letter.” Carolyn Carlson Mills, MLHS Class of 1945
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Laker Women at War! The US Census Bureau reported that during the war more than one-fifth of the US population moved — 15.3 million — to find jobs and 16 million to serve in the armed forces. With millions of men overseas, America looked to its women to bring up our workforce strength.
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
According to the Red Cross history museum, millions of Americans at home volunteered by serving “in hospitals suffering from severe shortages of medical staff, producing emergency supplies for war victims, and maintaining training programs in home nutrition, first aid, and water safety.” Also, “the American public had contributed over $784 million in support of the American Red Cross. Nearly every family in America contained a member who had either served as a Red Cross volunteer, made contributions of money or blood, or was a recipient of Red Cross services.” Continue reading to learn how Lakers specifically aided the Red Cross war effort!
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
On duty at the Newark Army Air Force Hospital: Mrs. Constance Tapper, of Mountain Lakes, NJ, an assistant field director of the Red Cross, is seated at desk.
The Red Cross During WWII
rationing for the Boys at the Front! “There was much rationing and many ‘do withouts’ -- we got used to very little sugar, two pairs of shoes a year, saving meat stamps for a special occasion, growing as much food as we could in our ‘victory garden’ when we could buy eggs we put them in a jug of waterglass to prolong their life. We made our own soap and some of us picked berries at a farm in Parsippany and due to the lack of man-power many of us girls mowed lawns and of course little or no gasoline. Cars had a sticker on the windshield denoting the amount of gas they could buy -- most had an "A" but we had a "C" because my father was in the Navy.” Carolyn Carlson Mills, MLHS Class of 1945
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
“Everything was rationed. Tires, gasoline, no new cars at all, virtually no meat, butter, eggs, and sugar. Many things that were not rationed were just not made or produced. All the production went to the war. You literally could not buy anything new. Rationing was
controlled with issued ration books and food stamps. I don’t know how we got these but you could hoard them for a special occasion or be given some by a friend, etc. You would hoard meat stamps for a special party. My parents visited me (at Cornell) only once in 32 months. Everyone was behind the war effort with almost no exceptions.” Wally Mills, MLHS Graduate Class of 1943
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
WWII Ration Books
“The worst part of it was... (the) ration books. And of course I ended up with pounds and pounds of sugar because we never used that much sugar, and you always felt you had to use your (ration stamps). The worst thing was children's shoes... -- because they -- of course their feet grew.” Myrtle Hillman Kingsley, Moved to Mountain Lakes in1921
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Using the Ration Books
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
WWII Rationing
“During the ‘black out’ time of the war years there were no fireworks (from island beach on 4th of July) - but the fire department shot water up into the air and shone colored light on it.” Carolyn Carlson Mills, MLHS Class of 1945
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Victory Gardens & Chicken Coops?!?
Though "Victory Gardens" were often characterized as man's work in government literature, women gardened, as well. The growing and canning of food on the home front reached a peak in 1943. Having a garden became a patriotic act as well as a way to get fresh foods on the table.
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Air Raid Preparation in Mt Lakes
Wally Mills, MLHS Graduate Class of ’43“On a field which is now near Lake Intervale was a short tower. This was manned day and night by people who reported all plane activity they saw to a central control post. They were looking for enemy planes. Where they might come from, I can't imagine but they took it very seriously. Women in the daytime and men at night.”
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
“Motor vehicles were directed toward the war effort and became increasingly scarce with bicycles standing in. Ultimately a community civil defense building with a high vantage point was designated at the corner of Lookout and Briarcliff Roads (now a residence).”
“Air raid tests signals sounded every Sunday at 1PM. Because Mountain Lakes was in the national Defense Zone, it cooperated with the American Legion in a manning a 24-hour air raid watching post shared with Boonton. The Defense Council enlisted more than sixty Mountain Lakes airplane spotters, whose job was to scan the skies for enemy planes.” Patricia Reid Herold, Mountain Lakes 1911-2011.
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Civil Defense in Mountain lakes
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Carolyn Carlson Mills MLHS Class of 1945“We were limited to where we could go (gas rationing) and a bit limited as to food (victory gardens) and clothing (2 pairs of shoes a year). Knowing that the after graduation the boys would go off to war was accepted with great sadness - and when one was listed as missing or as being killed the entire town felt it.
“As I remember, the street lights had been turned off and we would sometimes have a test air raid and a block captain would wander the street to make sure the was no light showing from your house. Once a week my mother and I would walk from our home at 50 Bellvale to the grade school (Lake Drive). It was a dark walk with only a flashlight to guide us. When we got there we would join several others and roll bandages for the Red Cross -- always hoping that they would not be needed on our loved ones.”
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
David Higgins, Born in Mountain Lakes 1922“During the early part of 1942, when we got into the war, we had this airplane spotting service here. We had posts all over the country watching for aircraft. I worked with an elderly gentleman who was retired from the army who ... was in San Francisco during the earthquake in 1906. He was quite an interesting character, a good friend of my folks. During WW-II, he put together a little mimeographed newspaper type of thing, which he sent to as many people in the service that he could think of, about what was going on back home.
“And I worked with him and our outpost was on a hill in the Lake Intervale section. We had a little shack there. We had a telephone service to it and lights. It was the whole evening. Our sole purpose was to look for aircraft and report what we heard. Direction. Estimated number of planes, Estimated height. No jets in those days, of course. We reported what we heard. Evidently they could tell if it was bad or good news. We never had any problems. (We would report airplanes) on the telephone, as you heard it. It followed the British system.”
The ML Boy Scouts
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts participated in the war effort in
many different ways. Boy Scouts took part in scrap drives,
collecting tin, aluminum, rags and tires for recycling into
war materials. Girl Scouts knitted socks for soldiers. The
victory garden pictured here provided civilians with
vegetables at a time when most food supplies were being
sent to soldiers overseas. http://goo.gl/N7ion
SCHOOLS & the War Effort“I remember each year the Memorial Day service and speakers from the military and people talking about people who were shot down. I remember demonstrations and warnings done by police and army personnel. How to use a fire extinguisher. What to watch for. Don’t spread rumors. If you learn something about a troop ship, don’t repeat it. Lots of things like that went on and it scared all of us. We did in grade school have to go into the center hallway and cover our heads during an air raid warning. We had air raid drills. We used to bring to Miss Calendar’s (kindergarten) class--we’d gather the milkweed pods and bring those in and they’d hang them up and they would dry and then somebody would come from the military and pick them up and take them away. They made life vests from them. Instead of air inside, they had milkweed pods. This was one of them. Another was, we had a place where the parking lot is by where they sell Lionel trains today, there was a little shed and we’d bring scrap metal down there. We collected newspapers and bought war stamps, all for the war effort.” Tom Brackin MLHS Class of 1953
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
SCHOOLS & the War Effort“Echoing Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mayor Halsey Frederick cautioned residents that ‘our greatest danger is in hysteria and misdirected zeal.’ School officials joined him in discouraging panic, ordering parents not to drive or walk to pick up their children when the air raid alarm sounded. In case of attack, they informed worried parents, ‘there is no time for the children to go home safely.’” Patricia Reid Herold, Mountain Lakes 1911-2011.
“‘There was a shed on Romaine Road, clubs and families would donate scrap metal and newspapers for the war effort there.’ It was called a Junk Rally, with the jaunty motto: Let’s Jolt Them with Junk!”Patricia Reid Herold, quoting Tom Brackin, Mountain Lakes 1911-2011.
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
From the Mountain lakes News
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
HomeFront Tasks3 Whether it was the children, parents, neighbors, or educators, the community of Mountain Lakes clearly responded to President Roosevelt’s call for national unity and service. As Laker boys and men (including the MLHS principal!) crossed the oceans to join the fight against fascism, Mountain Lakes citizens dutifully gave it their all here at the “homefront.” Based on your teacher’s assignment, analyze the documents with your classmates and family to discuss the questions below.
http://ml100.org/ Winter 2011
3 Another interesting webquest that can be combined with this lesson can be found at http://library.thinkquest.org/15511/