Opening UP a sealed 1945 US K Ration Breakfast

hollydolly said:
I have never seen a Ration book in real life.. my mum was only 5 when the war started and 11 when it finished.. .. I've always however been fascinated with the Domestic side of WW2...
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I used to take my Mum's ration book to a shop called Irwins to get food.

One day, I found a ration book (almost full), which I took home and gave it to my Mum, she promptly put her headscarf and coat on, and with me in tow, we went to the address inside the book and knocked on the door.

"Hello", said Mum, "Our, Tim, found this down the road, is it yours?"

It was clear that that woman had been crying, but she threw her arms around Mum, then me and tugged us both inside her house. She made a pot of tea and said. "I've only got condensed milk I'm afraid."

That lady and my Mum became lifelong friends.
 
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timoc said:
I used to take my Mum's ration book to a shop called Irwins to get food.

One day, I found a ration book (almost full), which I took home and gave it to my Mum, she promptly but her headscarf and coat on, and with me in tow, we went to the address inside the book and knocked on the door.

"Hello", said Mum, "Our, Tim, found this down the road, is it years?"

It was clear that that woman had been crying, but she threw her arms around Mum, then me and tugged us both inside her house. She made a pot of tea and said. "I've only got condensed milk I'm afraid."

That lady and my Mum became lifelong friends.
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What a lovely story. I know that Ration books were worth more than Gold, so to most people it would have been very tempting to keep or sell the Ration book that you found!!

My mum would never have seen a Ration book as a child because she was raised in an Orphanage.. My father was older, so he definitely would have seen one, but he never spoke of the war.. even tho' he was too young to have served.. but not even about the Home Front side of things.. so my fascination has been since I started studying it as a Young researcher..
 
Aunt Mavis said:
I have met the enemy and he is us.
Pogo.
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FWIW: I had a few of the Pogo books when I was a kid that my father bought me. I thought they were hugely funny, like comic books for older kids, maybe even adults. I just found a package of 4 on ebay. Some were very expensive, as many vintage comics can be. But these were cheap, as the description read, "Some writing on the covers, some loose pages, but all pages are there." I ordered the pack of 4, just to see what my reaction to Pogo would be today. They are scheduled to arrive today. Tracking information says "Out for delivery," as of this morning.
 
JustDave said:
FWIW: I had a few of the Pogo books when I was a kid that my father bought me. I thought they were hugely funny, like comic books for older kids, maybe even adults. I just found a package of 4 on ebay. Some were very expensive, as many vintage comics can be. But these were cheap, as the description read, "Some writing on the covers, some loose pages, but all pages are there." I ordered the pack of 4, just to see what my reaction to Pogo would be today. They are scheduled to arrive today. Tracking information says "Out for delivery," as of this morning.
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I don't know what Pogo is..., however I've always agreed with the sentiment We have met the Enemy and he is us.....anyone who has ever travelled widly will know what that means. People are the same wherever you go... and when we fight we're fighting ourselves in another person's body...
 
@JustDave Remember "I Go Pogo"? It was Walt Kelly's answer to "I Like Ike". And then there's "Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the flowers is".

I remember that my mother, aunts, grandmothers saved up or pooled their ration stamps for special occasions like birthdays or holidays.
 
hollydolly said:
I don't know what Pogo is..., however I've always agreed with the sentiment We have met the Enemy and he is us.....anyone who has ever travelled widly will know what that means. People are the same wherever you go... and when we fight we're fighting ourselves in another person's body...
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I understand that too, although I don't understand, "I have met the enemy, and he is Pogo," although I can come up with one theory behind that comment.

Pogo was a comic strip when I was a kid, but I never followed the strip. I was exposed to the books, probably after the comics had disappeared. Not sure.

But Pogo was a possum that lived in the State of Georgia's vast Okefenokee Swamp, with a bunch of oddball swamp animal friends that would do all kinds of crazy things, much like humans. So saying, "The enemy is Pogo," might be the same thing as saying, "The enemy is us."
 
hollydolly said:

1945 C Ration Review Preserved Vintage​

This 74 year old C Ration set was some of the last of it's kind in this condition (Stored in Alaska). Nearly all components were perfectly preserved,
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And probably tasted much the same as fresh.

When I worked for the Forest Service fighting fires in the 70s we got a lot of "C ration" meals. Looked them up and apparently what we called C rations were actually MCIs (Meal, Combat, Individual) replaced the original C rations in 1958, but still called C rations.

They were awful, just marginally better than starvation... The beef and/or pork or cheese spread type II were bad, but the Spanish rice was absolutely inedible.
 
Georgiagranny said:
@JustDave Remember "I Go Pogo"? It was Walt Kelly's answer to "I Like Ike".
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I Go Pogo is one of the books I just received. I started reading it this afternoon. I was chuckling right out of the starting gate when the first story was about one of Pogo's oddball friends, a manic rabbit, who decided to start a movement to save time and energy by getting all of the holidays of the year out of the way by celebrating them all at once on one day. All of Pogo's friends are opting in with their opinions about it, and the all of the opinions are entirely devoid of logic. And they don't stay on track either, because someone is always going off on some stream of conscious fantasy that has nothing to do with the discussion.

Walt Kelly seems like the Dave Barry of the cartoon strip community.
 
Alligatorob said:
And probably tasted much the same as fresh.

When I worked for the Forest Service fighting fires in the 70s we got a lot of "C ration" meals. Looked them up and apparently what we called C rations were actually MCIs (Meal, Combat, Individual) replaced the original C rations in 1958, but still called C rations.

They were awful, just marginally better than starvation... The beef and/or pork or cheese spread type II were bad, but the Spanish rice was absolutely inedible.
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apparently the Russian Rations are far superior...
 
JustDave said:
I understand that too, although I don't understand, "I have met the enemy, and he is Pogo," although I can come up with one theory behind that comment.

Pogo was a comic strip when I was a kid, but I never followed the strip. I was exposed to the books, probably after the comics had disappeared. Not sure.

But Pogo was a possum that lived in the State of Georgia's vast Okefenokee Swamp, with a bunch of oddball swamp animal friends that would do all kinds of crazy things, much like humans. So saying, "The enemy is Pogo," might be the same thing as saying, "The enemy is us."
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the original saying of course was We have met the enemy and they are ours ...

We have met the enemy and they are ours, part of a message from American naval officer Oliver Hazard Perry in 1813 after defeating and capturing Royal Navy ships in the Battle of Lake Erie. We have met the enemy and he is us, Pogo creator Walt Kelly's 20th century parody of Perry's quote.
 
Alligatorob said:
And probably tasted much the same as fresh.

When I worked for the Forest Service fighting fires in the 70s we got a lot of "C ration" meals. Looked them up and apparently what we called C rations were actually MCIs (Meal, Combat, Individual) replaced the original C rations in 1958, but still called C rations.

They were awful, just marginally better than starvation... The beef and/or pork or cheese spread type II were bad, but the Spanish rice was absolutely inedible.
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None of the entrees were very good. I remember being disappointed every time I opened one and got the Spanish rice. However, the peaches were good, and if they happened to be in the same package as the canned pound cake, I would pour the peaches over the pound cake, and I thought that was a great desert. But if I got the fruit cake, which was all too often, that was always a let down no matter what the can of fruit was in the package.
 
Alligatorob said:
Don't remember ever getting peaches. I do remember the pound cake, not good, but maybe less terrible than some things. Sometimes people would go through the cases and take all the pound cakes out before they got to us...
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The same thing happened to a couple of our guys. When the warehouse foreman was out, they opened all the fire packs, took out the rations, and created a couple of packs with the best rations that they reassembled from all the other rations. Then they marked the good packs and put them behind all the ones with the crummy rations, which would be grabbed by whoever was going out on fire. When it was their turn, they would take the marked packs.

But somehow they got caught. I can't remember what happened to them. They didn't get fired, but I'm sure they got a reprimand. The ranger warned the entire crew at the next safety meeting that this would not be tolerated, and that was the last we heard about it.
 
If you watch the show Pawn Stars, they fairly often have people bring in combat rations from the WWII, Korean, or Vietnam War eras to sell. In addition, items like canned water are brought in designed for fallout shelter storage. The pawn value for such items is seldom high, with prices offered in the $50 to $100 range for such things as a whole case of canned fallout shelter water. Employee Chumlee is often tormented in a good-natured fashion by being encouraged to consume such goods, but never complies…
 
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