May 4, 2008

Then and Now: Years of sacrifice end in victory

By Matt Bowling / Daily News columnist

Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series on the Palo Alto home front during World War II.



Palo Altans, like all Americans, were also called to sacrifice during the war years. Volunteer workers at the Palo Alto Ration Board placed limits on such items as sugar, meat, butter, coffee, gasoline, tires - even typewriters.

The strict limitations on driving led to a comeback by the bicycle. The Palo Alto Times reported to readers that, "the automobile replaced the horse, and now the bicycle has replaced the automobile."

Crammed racks of bikes were everywhere along University Avenue during the war years as tire rationing was severe - during the entire month of February 1942, the entire city was allowed just 18 car tires.
And Palo Altans had to get used to going without. The Times reported that "folks wait weeks for laundry without a peep for fear of being cut off the driver's list" while "shoes wait weeks for repair in local cobbler shops short of help."

With so much of the nation's work force on battlefields in Europe and at sea in the South Pacific, the American labor market saw wholesale changes. Famously, women were pressed into traditionally male professions from bank tellers to factory workers. Still, it was hard to forget that such advances were due more to necessity than open minds.

A 1944 Palo Alto Times story sounds a rather patronizing tone: "Many a man realizes now how competent the girls are at his old jobs. In (Palo Alto) they have pitched in and 'manned' taxis, buses, the cannery, gas stations, the banks, the post office. Let 'em stay on after the war, we say, leaving the men to hunt and fish - as God intended."

A 1943 article exclaimed that "it's fashionable to be useful, as well as beautiful, this year," as it told of how nearly 40 Palo Alto women trained for Stanford drafting, chemical analysis and industrial accounting courses were on their way to finding jobs at Bay Area war plants.

Other housewives served in other ways. Hundreds of volunteers rolled bandages for the Palo Alto Red Cross, while one Palo Altan, Mrs. Walter Rodgers (as she was always identified in the press) opened "Hospitality House" in her own residence, tallying a guest book registration of over 50,000 by 1944. During Christmas in 1943, she organized the transport of some 700 individually wrapped gifts donated by Palo Altans to soldiers overseas.

Finally, a little after four on the afternoon of Aug. 14, 1945, reports began to circulate throughout the city that the Japanese had finally surrendered.
As in most parts of the country, an impromptu party immediately broke out in Palo Alto.

A city siren appropriately malfunctioned and blared for a quarter of an hour as firecrackers were lit and makeshift confetti thrown. One woman gleefully marched down University Avenue banging a milk bottle against an ice cream freezer, and cars packed with young men from Stanford's army training corps - some in full battle rattle - rolled into town with horns honking.

Youngsters ripped down American flags from J.C. Penney and the Hotel President and waved them excitedly while the Stanford Band marched down University Avenue to the Stanford Theatre where they triumphantly played "The Star-Spangled Banner."
At last it was all over.

After more than 3 years of rations, shortages, blackouts and worries, success was finally at hand. Peace had arrived, the future was bright, and victory had been hard-earned.



To view the entire article go to www.paloaltohistory.com/homefront.html.

For more of Matt Bowling's articles visit www.paloaltohistory.com. Then and Now writer Matt Bowling can be reached at mbowling@pausd.org.