1600 BEHIND ESTIMATES FIRST-DAY FIGURES

Declarations Show Local Housewives Are Not Hoarders

Officials Urge Registrants To File At Assigned Time

WAR RATION BOOK NO 2 : Norwood housewives have been faithfully registering at the Junior High School each day this week for the booklets that will entitle them to purchase many canned goods that have just been put on the ration list. Mrs. Grace Plummer (nearest camera), Mrs. Mary Colbert and Mrs Helen Finn are shown registering with school teachers Lucy Steele and Erna Kiley. (Messenger Photo Harry Surrette).

With over 15,000 people expected to be registered in the five-day period that began yesterday and ends on Friday, the estimated total of 1400 Norwoodites who registered at the Junior High School yesterday was far off the hoped-for 3,000 that was necessary if the total registration was to be handled on a daily proportionate basis.

Officials hoped, however, that the two nights that the school will be open will take up much of the slack, and it was for this reason that Tuesday and Thursday evenings between seven and nine o’clock were set aside.

The rationing, set up on an alphabetical basis, was designed to bring equal numbers into the registration point on each of the five days, so that rush hours and peak days could be eliminated. On the basis of the first day’s rationing, there will be a bottleneck later in the week, unless local residents are more cooperative in attempting to get to the junior high school on their assigned day.

The rationing itself went along very smoothly, with few complaints being received. Some 113 Norwood public school teachers handled the detail work, and had little trouble in handling the 1400 who registered. While there was no rush, and the teachers were not called upon to hurry the work, it was significant that the average registrant was disposed of more quickly than anticipated, despite the complexity of the cooperation.

War Ration Book (Webber Family Collection)

Declarations of the amount of rationed food on hand prior to registration Indicated that Norwood housewives had done little stocking up, and tailoring of the No. 2 War Ration Book was kept low.

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Officials reiterated their plea that housewives should have the consumer declaration blank filled out when they appear for registering, and these blanks are available at the school.

Persons whose last names begin with D to H must register February 23: those whose names begin with I to M must, register February 24: those whose names begin with N to S must register February 25, and those whose names begin with T to Z must register on February 26.

February 23, 1943 – The Norwood Messenger