IF THEY DID IT, I CAN TOO

I don't know why but I love the 1940's. To me it seems like it was a time I would like to go back to if I could hop in a time traveling machine.

I've been thinking a lot about what life was like back then. Mostly what did women do to keep in shape? Why is it that you very rarely see overweight women in photos dating back to the 1940's?


I think a lot of it had to do with how people ate back then. They didn't have fast food places. They didn't have frozen TV dinners to pop in a microwave oven. They didn't have all the preservatives in their food like we do now.

Millions of gardens were grown. They called them Victory Gardens. Since food was rationed out during the war and money was scarce, planting a garden allowed families to enjoy fresh, fruits and vegetables to keep them full and healthy.

The government was asking everyone to plant their own Victory Garden and to share what they grew with each other. If you grew tomatoes and your neighbor grew potatoes, swap with each other and that way you can have twice as much variety.

They handed out booklets to teach everyone how to grow their own food.

So, why don't we do these Victory Gardens any more? Sure, there are some people who grow a few plants a year but nothing like they did in the 1940's.

Yet, we are at war and our economy has been hard on lots of people.

Well, did you know that after the war was over, the government didn't want people to grow their own food any more. They wanted everyone to shop at the stores again and spend money.

Isn't that how it still is?

Well, I think this year, I'm going to grow my own Victory Garden. I'm even going to call it that.

I don't have a lot of space so I'm going to plant in pots. My sister, Maureen, has already planted a lot of things in her backyard. So maybe we can swap items.

I have blackberries growing already.

I'm even going to can some stuff this year. I love to make jam so I'm going to try other items to can. Even if I buy the food to can. At least it will taste better, have no preservatives and I'll have fruits and veggies all year long and not just in the Spring and Summer.

Yum, I can taste it now, fresh canned peaches at Christmas time.

Plus, when you work out in the garden, digging, planting, weeding and watering you are getting exercise and we all know that helps keep us in better health too.

Women in the 1940's did a lot more home cooking then we do now too. I think we need to return to those times.

Stop the fast foods and frozen microwave foods. Forget the prepackaged items and foods with so much stuff in there that we can't even pronounce 1/2 of the words.

Make up bigger batches and freeze our own dinners to be reheated later. Can foods when possible. Bake our own breads.

Let's get back to the basics. Back to when people were healthier and didn't have to try so hard to stay in shape.

Think of it as a new hobby. Save some money and eat tastier food at the same time.

After all, there is nothing like fresh picked from the garden food.

So what do you say? Anyone want to take a step back in time with me and plant your very own Victory Garden?

I'm going to start mine tomorrow! I'm even going to stick a flag in my garden or get a sign made saying Victory Garden.