Pages of History
The year 1945 arrived in the midst of a cold snap. Temperatures hovered around 10 below zero with high winds that forced cold air through every crack and crevice. This was followed a few days later by a full scale blizzard. “No fitting weather for the old black Ford because it is not equipped with skates,“ said Editor Allison.
Fortunately, the weather moderated and the old black Ford soon was out and about.
“Pretty cold weather for a parking party, but the car showed up on Gospel Avenue at the usual time. The old bag loaded in and away they went toward a warmer climate south of town.“ Things got pretty hot on the west edge of town on the morning of January 4, but it had nothing to do with romance, illicit or otherwise. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Gade (parents of Verneal) was badly damaged by fire. The fire was caused by an electric iron that was not shut off. The hot iron burned through the ironing board and then through the floor causing a fire in the basement. The fire burned through the floor causing a piano to fall into the basement. Firemen were hampered by dense clouds of smoke coming from a pile of burning cobs in the basement. (For readers too young to remember, corn cobs were often burned in stoves and furnaces in the days before natural gas.)
Later that month, the fire department was called to the George Walters clothing store on Laurel’s Main Street where an overheated chimney ignited a roof fire. No serious damage was done. Walters was about to move his clothing business to Gothenburg. He sold his dry cleaning business to Louie Jurgensen of Ponca who would operate it until 1974.
American boys were dying at a rapid rate on the battlefields of Europe. “If we were running this war, we would serve notice on Britain and Russia that they had better start doing more fighting instead of grabbing territory for themselves,“ wrote Laurel Advocte Editor Allison.
“Russia chose to grab the Balkans instead of opening up a front in Poland like they were supposed to do. Britain is busy making the Mediterranean safe for the British and has almost forgotten the war in her front yard. We Americans are left to carry on almost alone at terrible sacrifices. We would tell both of them if they don’t quit their present policies, we will pack up our armies and all of our equipment and let them handle the Germans themselves.“ Despite severe shortages of workers throughout the country, the selective service was drafting an increasing number of young men. Congress was debating a “Work or Fight“ bill. The proposed legislation called for the induction of any man between the ages of 18 and 45 who refused to accept essential work or who changed jobs without permission from their local draft board. Congressman Karl Stefan warned that there would be a food shortage if farmers lost any more workers.
War Mobilization Director James F.
Byrnes ordered race tracks to shut down for the war. This was supposed to make 40,000 track employees available for essential work and also curtail absenteeism by factory workers who had been skipping out of essential work to bet on the horses and dogs.
In January, 13 Cedar County boys were inducted into the armed services and another 55 were ordered to report for physical exams. ‘Meanwhile, the Coast Guard also was looking for a few good boys. Seventeen-year-olds who wished to enlist in the Coast Guard were required to have at least one year of high school and pass physical and mental examinations.
Travel and pleasure driving would soon become more difficult than it already was. The number of car tires allotted for the 118,300 cars registered in the Sioux City Office of Price Administration (OPA) district, which included Cedar County, was reduced from 8381 to 7542 for the first three months of 1945. The number of truck and tractor tires also was reduced but by lesser amounts.
The Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) was charged with limiting non-essential travel during the war. This was accomplished mainly through gasoline and tire rationing, restrictions on travel, and a national 35-mph speed limit. Carrying on in the back seat of a black Ford must have been considered essential.
Most people think gasoline rationing was imposed to conserve gasoline. It wasn’t. The U.S. was not short of petroleum but there was a severe shortage of rubber needed to manufacture tires. Natural rubber supplies were cut off when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies and synthetic rubber was still under development.
Carl Carstensen, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Carstensen of Laurel, was working in the Northrup aircraft factory in Hawthorne, CA. What distinguished Carl from the other Laurel men and women working in defense plants was that Carl was blind. His job was to assemble roller bearings for Northrop’s new Black Widow fighters.
A picture in the Sioux City Journal, said “Carl literally sees with his fingers.“ Unfortunately, Carl’s fingers were a bit nearsighted. On Christmas night, he stepped in front of a street car and was badly injured. He recovered and lived until 1980. He is buried in Laurel.
