Hey everybody. Welcome to Retell Seller, an ephemera podcast where I uncover forgotten stories and the ephemera people leave behind. I’m Angie a reseller of 10 years, and I’ll share one of those snippets with you. Let’s see what today’s find has to say.
Today’s piece is about a book’s dust jacket. It’s a brown color and the font is in green. It’s stained, torn, with lots of holes and very dingy.
On the back, there’s an image of a hand coming in off the side and it’s holding a piece of crumpled paper. Underneath the hand, it says:
“It’s only a piece of paper! It doesn’t look like much, does it? It could be the torn-off cover of a cardboard box, or a piece of an old magazine, or just some discarded wrapping paper.
But if it is saved and collected, it will become the container for a quart of blood plasma that will save a GI’s life. (Every precious bottle of blood plasma is wrapped in corrugated paper to protect it against breakage. Each blood plasma box is made of heavy brown paperboard).
Or it may become part of an airborne container (yes, they’re made of paper) dropping food or medicine to liberated peoples.
Or it may show up as the shell case for the shell, or the bomb band for the bomb, that will be the very last explosion to finally shatter the nerve and will-to-fight of the enemy
Or as the map that points the way for our final breakthrough (our invading forces use more new maps of France, for instance, than the total number made from the beginning of history to 1940!)
So you see, that piece of paper can be pretty exciting, But only if it is saved. Our armed forces need every scrap of every kind of waste paper. That goes for paperboard, newspapers, magazines, every kind of waste paper. Throw them away, and you’re throwing away helmet linings, gun covers, ration containers – countless war materials too numerous to mention here. Save every scrap and you’ll help end the scrap!”
While the collection and salvaging of various materials was encouraged, I imagine most of the claims on the dust jacket were more of an exaggeration for propaganda’s sake. They wanted to drum up citizen involvement. We need ordinary people! YOU can help! I’ll link to a few sites which go into more detail about the various efforts that went on and discuss it much better than I ever could.
With permission of my husband, I’m going to tell a short story about his grandmother. Every bit of her personality was a firecracker. She was the perfect representation of someone who lived through the depression.
They kept everything, they canned, they made things, and they fixed things. So, when my husband’s sister got married in the late 90s, grandma brought over a jar of mints and we opened ‘em. The smell of that jar about knocked us on our feet. Pickled mints anyone?
It was a moment none of us will ever forget. We loved it and obviously remember it to this day. It surprised us in one way, but, it’s more about knowing exactly.how.she.lived. About how the past certainly met up with the future 80 years later.
For those who endured the depression, a scrap of paper or a jar on a shelf wasn’t clutter. It was possibility. Just like purpose being found in reusing that pickle jar.
My question to you is, how did the depression era effect you or meet up with you?
Thank you for joining me. As I shared a snippet of the past, I’d love to know if it connected with you in some way. Did it spark a memory or make you see something differently? If so, consider sharing it. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional info, links and ways to connect. It’s not nostalgia, it’s human. Until next time, may you find something worth holding onto.
Thank you for coming along with me & if interested, consider signing up for the Newsletter.
DISCLAIMER: The content on this site is for informational & storytelling purposes.
ADDITIONAL LINKS & INFO:
GRANDMA’S HOUSE
PINNY PLEASE
