Rosie at Yankee Air Museum - Part II

Continuing from yesterday's post, below is a close-up view of the right section of the Rosie display. 

Displays in the museum pertaining to Rosies.

~ Riveting Rosies ~

Briney Marlin is Cockney slang for Darlin'

Modern-day Rosies did their part to save the Willow Run Bomber Plant as a historic site.  

I mentioned yesterday that I'd share a bit about tea rationing during WWII.    In the United States rationing began in 1942, with sugar being the first food commodity rationed, and coffee soon followed with a one lb. allotment every five weeks.  Tea was rationed to send to Great Britain and Canada, but it wasn't a big hardship since there were more coffee drinkers in America than tea drinkers.  All rationing in the United States ended in 1946, with coffee being the first commodity to come off the rationing list.

[Internet Photos]

Tea was a different story in Great Britain.  It was so deeply embedded in British everyday life that in 1942 the government bought up every available pound of tea from every country in the world except Japan.

One historian summarized tea as Britain's secret weapon in the war.  It was one of its most visible symbols of national unity.  Winston Churchill is said to have called tea more important than ammunition and ordered that all sailors on ships have unlimited tea.

Tea had the advantage of being light and portable.  It reduced the reliance on alcohol to calm troops as they prepared for battle and to relax them at the end, and keep them sober and alert while they sat around waiting.  The caffeine combined both a pick-me-up, and calm-me-down effect.  

The rationing of food and clothing items in Britain lasted until 1952 - seven years after the war ended.  2 oz. of tea a day was the rationed allotment for anyone over the age of five.  That was enough to make three cups a day.

A tea poem was even written in Great Britain:

So keep your ration book in hand

And we'll drink tea across the land

And add a cup for granny too

And all our dashing lads in blue.

The teapot above is a British Brown Betty, and the photo is a Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea advertisement titled, 'Hurrah for the Teapot.'  [Internet Source]

I hope you've enjoyed this flashback in history.  To read informative and inspiring Rosie stories go to the American Rosie the Riveter Association website: https://rosietheriveter.net