Among the most striking things about WWII is almost everyone in the US was connected to it, most in a very real way, but even the kids were collecting scrap.
That is why there are so few surviving Model T's and other vintage cars. Before the war they were abundant and seen on the roads every day. But after Pearl Harbor you couldn't get tires, spare parts were in short supply, and gas was rationed, so many people sold or gave away their ageing cars that were sitting idle, even though they still capable of running OK, as scrap metal to help the war effort.
I wonder how much vintage radio stuff, particularly transformers, met similar fate?
My grandparents couldn't get metal screen wire for their screened-in porch during the war, so they had to settle for plastic screen instead. Interestingly, that plastic screen lasted until the early 60's when real metal screen would have long since rusted away.
There is a wartime issue of
QST that has pictures of panel meters all over the front cover. The signal corps was begging amateurs to donate panel meters for the war effort. I understand they took in some commercially built transmitters and even well-built homebrew ones early on as well, but I'm not sure what they used them for.
The entire world was a far different place after the War than it was pre-WW2. Vintage radio gives some prime examples.
I have a vague recollection of attending a big night-time V-J Day celebration with my family, at age 3. Probably my earliest real recollection of a past event.
BTW, if you missed an episode of
The War, PBS is re-running it in weekly episodes. It starts to-night on our local station. They ran it twice a day, back to back every night. I have never seen them offer such blanket coverage of a program in the past. There is no reason for anyone in the country to miss a single episode.
