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Pages of History
By the first of December 1946, the Christmas season was getting underway.
The Cedar County News noted silk and nylon stockings still were hard to find but perfumes, watches, and costume jewelry were almost back to pre-war norms. Household goods such as pressure cookers, aluminum and stainless steel utensils were more widely available than in recent years.
Socks and neckties for men were in ample supply, but shirts were not. Jackets, shoes, sweaters, and leather goods were in fairly good supply as were mechanical pencil and pen sets, including the recently invented ballpoint pen.
Toys for children were in fairly good supply as well. Popular gifts for girls included teddy bears, dolls, doll buggies, and toy washing machines for doll clothes.
Popular gifts for boys included bicycles, scooters, and action toys operated by spring or electric motors, cowboy guns and the new “atomic ray” pistols.
The production of automobiles and household appliances, such as stoves and refrigerators, was hampered by the continued shortage of steel and other materials. Some of the shortages were due to the government policy of stockpiling steel, copper, lead, zinc, rubber, and other strategic materials in case of another war.
There also was a need to replace the ships, planes, tanks, and other armaments lost in the war. On the homefront, housewives were complaining about the continuing shortage of sugar.
Congressman Karl Stefan noted huge quantities of sugar had been produced but much of it was being shipped to foreign countries. A similar situation prevailed with meat.
Main Street was decorated a bit more extravagantly than during the war years.
Of course the churches had special services either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as well.
In other news of December 1946: James C. Olson, Superintendent of the State Historical Society, noted the first official recognition of Christmas in Nebraska occurred at Fort Atkinson in 1820. Fort Atkinson, the first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri river, was established in 1819. It was located just east of what is now Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. The recognition took the form of an order which read “Tomorrow being Christmas, all duties will cease for the day and the men will be permitted to amuse themselves. It is expected that their conduct will not be marked by impropriety.”
The order was signed by Colonel T. Chambers, commanding officer.
For the first time in six years, Laurel High School would have an annual. The Seniors who were in charge of the project decided to call it “The Growler” to go along with the athletic team name “Laurel Bears.” Annuals had been published in 1939 and 1940 under the name “The Laurelite“ but no annuals were published between 1921 and 1939.
It was announced that due to a shortage of steel, Nebraska motorists would receive small metal tabs dated 1947 to attach to the corner of their existing license plates.
Gov. Dwight Griswold declared the period from Nov. 25 to Dec. 25 as Christmas Seal Month in Nebraska.
The money from the sale of Christmas Seals was earmarked to fight tuberculosis. Tuberculosis claimed 173 lives Nebraska lives in 1945 and 523 new cases were reported through November 1946. By contrast 41 cases of tuberculosis were reported in 2024. This was a 20year high.
As the year 1946 came to an end, there was trouble brewing in a far off place few Americans had heard of.
The place was Vietnam where fighting had broken out between France and Vietnamese insurgents who wanted independence.
The oldest Baby Boomers, who were still in diapers in 1946, would become quite familiar with Vietnam by the time they reached adulthood.
