June 9, 1945 (Saturday)

DICK POPS CORN. EDNA PURCHASES A BOND.

A fine day.

I went to Alto this A.M.

with Lucille to do my

week-end shopping.

Henry working in

back field digging trenches

and laying tiles.

Kate + Bill out to-night.

Played "dirty 8." Dick

staying all night

he also popped corn

for us this evening.

Hank went out to

night.

I purchased 500.00 bond at Alto

Bank this morning.

---

In my grandfather's journal for this same date he notes that he went "to Bowens Mills in the evening." There was was a dance hall there. My grandpa liked to dance. I remember dancing with my grandpa at my dad's retirement party in the late 1980s. He hadn't lost his step. He was still a very good dancer.

With Bob (my grandpa) off to a dance, my dad (Dick) is spending the night with his grandparents (Edna and Henry). The dances were late night affairs and Dick is thirteen. His brother (Paul), a recent high school graduate, must have been out for the evening as well. It's possible Paul went to the dance with his dad. Rosy (Dick's and Paul's mom) had taken off awhile ago and hadn't come back.

Instead of staying home alone, Dick spent the evening with his grandparents and made popcorn.

Making popcorn for an evening snack is something that my father would do for many decades. For most of my childhood, he would pop corn in a pan on the stovetop. Electric oil popping machines and air poppers were not his style. The best-tasting corn resulted from the right amount of oil (crisco) and appropriately timed shaking of the pan on a burner at just the right heat. As kids, my brother and I would watch as the exploding corn would push the lid up off of the pan. Then, dad would dump the popped corn into a bowl. A bowl that we ONLY used for popcorn (and occasionally for homemade potato salad). Once in the bowl, dad would carefully spoon butter and shake salt on the popcorn, tossing it around in the bowl with his hands (one bare and the other holding a butter knife). The sound of the butter knife scraping the bottom of the wooden popcorn bowl is something I still recall with ease.

In later years, an air-popper took over for the pan on the stovetop. It was healthier. But every now and then, Dad would say, "let's do it the old-fashioned way."

It's been a while, but every now and then, I make popcorn in my own home the old-fashioned way...dad's way.

Earlier on this day, before eating popcorn, Edna went to Alto to do her shopping. While there she also purchased a $500 war bond. That particular bond sold during the seventh war loan drive of World War II, which began on May 14, 1945, and ran through June 30, 1945

The United States government spent over $300 million during World War II, of which $185 million was funded by loans (bonds) from American citizens.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt purchased the first bond sold during WWII on May 1, 1941. It was the start of a campaign to encourage Americans to do their part to help the country finance the war. Citizens were asked to put at least 10% of their paychecks toward the purchase of bonds.

The War Advertising Council, incorporated in 1942, was founded "with the intention of mobilizing the advertising industry around WWII efforts, producing propaganda including “Women in War Jobs,” “Buy War Bonds,” and “Loose Lips Sink Ships.”

Now known as simply Ad Council (a widely recognizable brand), they are responsible for some of the most iconic campaigns in advertising history including:

• Smokey Bear

• Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk

• A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

• Love Has No Labels

When the 7th War Loan Drive began on May 14, 1945, there were concerns that sales would be difficult given the recent victory in Europe. The War Advertising Council swung into action.

The May 31, 1945, edition of the Lowell Ledger was filled with propaganda promoting the bond drive. I am sure the same is true of newspapers (large and small) across the country.

The work of the Ad Council also appeared across the country in several other ways.

Posters with the flag raising on Iwo Jima were imprinted with the message "Now All Together."

Newsreels played before motion pictures.

During the six-week long 7th War Bond Drive, Edna, along with countless other Americans, responded to the propaganda by collectively purchasing $26 billion in bonds.

There would be an 8th War Bond drive. The second of 1945 and the final one of that year and of World War II.

Also, did anyone else catch that Edna said, "I purchased" and not "we purchased"?