Ice cream eventually disappeared from Boyer's store in the south end of town and Pinkerton's store in the north end. The ice cream came from Dairy Maid in Greenville and sometimes, they would deliver a 5 gallon cardboard container of vanilla ice cream. Gosh. It was heavenly stuff.
In those days ice cream cones were dipped by hand and pints and quarts were also "hand packed" as it was called. It was cheap and for a nickel you got one dip and two dips for a dime.
I remember many times when I would walk in the store, to get the mail, I would stop and open the ice cream case lid and look down inside hoping to see a container of chocolate ice cream but it was always vanilla or empty.
To a child, it seemed like everything was rationed during the war. We didn't own a car but those who did had to have a special windshield sticker just to buy one gallon of gasoline. If you worked at a "War Essential Job" then your gas sticker had a different number and you were allowed to buy more gasoline than everyone else. They had letters on the stickers — A, B, C.
My mother used to go with our neighbor lady to Englewood, Ohio to a place that sold meat — it was a 'meat locker.' Meat, butter, lard, sugar, coffee, tea, flour, and many different groceries were rationed.You were issued ration books with small tickets for specific items like butter or sugar and you were only allowed so much each month. Small, coin-like tokens were also issued and used in place of money.
Kerosene was rationed. Kerosene was always called, "Coal Oil" in those days. I suppose people would look surprised if you asked to buy a gallon of "kerosene."
During the War, when the summers were hot, people kept small kerosene stoves on back porches and those were used to fix meals on. The old cast iron stoves with tons of bright nickel were left cold until fall when they were lit again.
And people lit their stoves with corncobs soaked in tin cans partially filled with coal oil. A cob like that would burn a long time and start any fire you set.