Mary and Shauna Blog #2

After diving into research about food production during WWII, we set up an interview with Shirley Smith to talk to her about victory gardens. We met with her to have lunch and before we got into the formal interview process we had a conversation about our daily lives and talked to her about herself to make the atmosphere more confortable. As we talked, we learned that Shirley lived in a rural area in northern Kansas around the Russell area. She expressed the fact that even before the war, the rural communities relied on gardens and canning the produce from the garden. Shirley said that women took great pride in their gardens and what they could grow. The women would save the seeds from each growing season and plant them again the next year. If they didn’t plant them again, they would trade with neighbors for already made products or more seeds. The planting and tending process was a family ordeal with the women and children and as was the canning process. The women canned everything from vegetables to meat, with meat being the hardest to can. Shirley seemed to focus in on the fact that the process of canning a pickle was not done right unless a loud ‘snap’ was heard when biting into the pickle.

Shauna, Mary, and Shirley during our interview

After the beginning of the war for the Americans, the canning process became a little more difficult for these women of rural Kansas because of the rationing on sugar, which was a vital ingredient for the canning process. Being a neighbor was a large part of making the rationing process and canning process easier on families. Families with more children were allowed more coupons for sugar and could share with their neighbors when they had extra. Trading or bartering with neighbors was a large part of society in rural Kansas. While talking about trading with neighbors, we brought up the subject of going to the store or getting new things when it was needed. Shirley said this really wasn’t part of their lives at this time, they used what they had, and when it broke they did without because it couldn’t be fixed anymore. Towards the end of our interview we asked Shirley why everyone stopped growing their victory gardens right after the war was over. She told us she believed everyone was tired of doing without and now that they could have more and didn’t have to work as hard, they could just rest.

After the interview with Shauna, Shirley, Linda, and Mary

We also talked with Shirley about community gardens and why she thinks it is important for people to grown their own gardens today. She believes that getting your hands dirty is therapeutic. Shirley is helping with a community garden that is across the street from Park Elementary School in Great Bend. She brings the children over in the spring to help with this garden. She believes this experience gives the children something to be proud of when they can plant a seed and watch it grow and gives them smaller responsibilities. For every weed a child pulls, they get to take home a fruit or vegetable.

For our next blog, we have already planned another oral history with a teacher at Barton County Community College. She has gone back to growing organically and shopping less at the local stores. She believes this makes her whole family healthier. We will also be discussing information we have found about the Oklahoma and Kansas Food Coops.

Shauna studying the Farmers Bulletin gave to us by Tom Geissel