An interesting example of how rationing and material shortages impacted daily life during World War Two:
Radio Repairmen: Carrying the Whole Load
It would never have occurred to me, but wartime shortages meant repairs rather than replacements, and must have been a boon to repairmen. . . when they could obtain parts.
By 1942 nearly every household in the US would have had a radio and they were depended upon for news and entertainment. They were, back in those days, fairly repairable as well. Indeed, even as late as the 1970s my father installed replacement tubes in radios and televisions we had in our house and I can recall at least one radio repair shop and two television repair shops in town.
Nothing like that around now.
