Ask not what your country can do for you......

      It has been a tough weekend in terms of world news.  Being an ex pat often means that I read the news from the US in the role of an outsider looking in.  I'm not going to discuss politics here, mostly because that's not what this blog is about, but I would like to acknowledge the armed forces of the US, (and also the Diggers from Australia) who are serving in Afghanistan.

     I love vintage and part of the reason why I love vintage is because I love history.  I love the glamour of the 1930's and 1940's mostly because of the contrast and escape it offered from the day to day reality of most people's lives during that period.  My grandmother saved her ration coupon book from the era and passed it to my mom, (who I hope still has it - I have a worrying feeling that she gave it to a 12 year old me and I have no idea what happened to it).  I don't know where it is now, but I remember looking at those coupons, one for eggs, one for flour, one for sugar, one for meat (each with corresponding picture) and thinking "that was it?"   Don't forget, it didn't mean that you got those things for free. It meant that when you went to the store to purchase those things, you could only buy them if you had a coupon, could only buy the amount specified and only if they were available.  No coupon, no stock, no luck.  Food was rationed.  Fabric was rationed.  Most industrial materials were funneled into the war effort and consumer goods were not as widespread and readily available as they are now.

    That's the key phrase, really, "as they are now".  The US has been involved in major combat operations since 2002 but what has the average citizen given up, had rationed, or gone without?  Not much.  We live in a la la land of shopping malls, amazon.com, free delivery and free returns, Starbucks coffee, all you can eat buffets and weekends in the Caribbean.  Any fruit we want is available year round at the local super grocery store.
    I know that has changed a bit since 2008 with the economic downturn, but I think you understand what I am getting at.  Can you think of one material thing you have done without since the first planes bombed Afghanistan or the troops marched on Baghdad?

    It seems that the people who have been the ones doing without are the ones who have family members serving in the conflict zones.  And now there are 38 more families who will do without, forever.  The men who died in that chopper crash, be they American or Afghan, will never go home again.

     It has been a week of news about asking what your country is going to do for you rather than asking what you can do for your country.

    This seems silly, after all the seriousness of the last paragraphs, but once upon a time some of what you did for your country included knitting for the soldiers.  It gets cold in Afghanistan in the winter, and even though these patterns are 64 years old I don't suppose any soldier is going to turn down the offer of warmth.  So, lets think back to a time when knitting wool was rationed, (chances are you just unraveled and rewashed the yarn from an old sweater to make anything new), but our soldiers could still look forward to a warm cap and vest to layer on those cold days.
And think about those soldiers who will never make it home......

The patterns above are from "Guide to Modern Knitting and Crocheting" by Alice Carroll, published in 1947 by Wm H. Wise and Co. NY.  I don't own the copyright to any of these images. 

My intention, as always, is to share and inform, not to profit.