Does anyone know of a slang word or term that was used for food ration stamps in WWII?
1 Answer
My mom always refers to them as "coupons", "ration coupons", or "ration tickets". She lived in New England, US.
Incidentally, (for those of you who feel like society is going to hell in a handbasket) in those days it was common for people to take in foster children (from families who could not support them) in order to steal their rations.
Ration coupons were distributed to each citizen - adults and children, alike - so the children's tickets were simply taken from them by greedy "benefactors". The children were forced to subsist on gruel, while the adults ate their rations of meat and butter.
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1I recall reading that, by the end of the war, over 90% of the population had somehow managed to get their ration quotas raised. IIRC, becoming a minister was a popular way to get a larger gasoline ration. (I recall seeing several articles on the topic of rationing ca 1970, but nothing recently.) Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 12:35