Lansdale Historical Society Opens Trunk on WWII

The Lansdale Historical Society concluded its 2011 Community Program schedule Tuesday with “The World War II Trunk Show” at the building.

Janeal Jaroh, former educational curator of the Cumberland County Historical Society, told stories of courage and sacrifice occurring on two fronts, Europe and America.

“I’m not a traditional historian,” Jaroh said. “I’m not interested so much in dates, what have you. I’m looking for the big connections, the why. Why should you care about World War II?”

Her answer came as no surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with the war: “Everything was different when it was over,” she said.

Food, fashion, work, education, manufacturing—in short, everything.

“Take college, for instance,” Jaroh continued. “So few people went to college before WWII. The G.I. Bill changed that. Today, we have the most educated military the world has ever known.”

Her WWII trunk was loaded with memorabilia from the early 1940s, such as nylon stockings, a parachute, soda bottles and uniforms of soldiers overseas, as well as uniforms of factory workers in the U.S.

This was the age of Rosie the Riveter, Jaroh said, as women stepped up to fill the void left in the nation’s workforce as men left their jobs for military duty.

People at home had war on the brain, and on their plates. As Jaroh explained, “Everyone made use of what was around them to serve the war effort.”

People quit buying choice cuts of meat from their local butcher; they settled for scraps and made the best of it. Some of her favorite recipes from that era include scrapple with peanut butter gravy, liver meatballs with mushroom cream sauce, and, no one’s favorite, creamed brains on toast.

Jaroh brought out a jar of pickled pigs feet she recently purchased at a grocery store, a remnant of the rationing movement.

Rubber, “the most highly rationed item,” was used sparingly, if at all, Jaroh continued.

“If you were really patriotic, you would take your girdle and have it melted down so the rubber could be used to make soldiers’ boots,” she said. “From your rear end to his feet.”

Bathing suits, once made of wool, were now rayon. Women took to “painting” their legs, using grease pencils to simulate stocking seams. After all, as one advertisement put it, “185 pairs of nylon stockings make one parachute.”