Letter transcription:
MRS R.S. YEGERLEHNER
KENTLAND
IND
3-1-43
Dear Daddy – We have passed thru Jan & Feb with a lot of cold weather, snow, wind, blizzards etc. and today is Mar. one and still the same kind of weather. I was going to write a long letter yesterday but Floyd and Ruth were here and after they left Clarice & Bob came and I didn’t get around to writing so will try and write two today. We are allowed 3 V-mail daily. Ruth M. wants to go to C.C. with us if we get to go so may over and get her. Earl can’t get enough gas only for driving to work. The ration board over there checks on the mileage, but in an area like that I suppose they have to be pretty strict. Floyd & Ruth are to be in Blufton the first of this week. They don’t know yet about Georgia. They have never found out why he was rejected. Today we can start buying on point rationing. 48 points per person for March and we have 5 persons to buy for so I think we can manage. We were allowed 25 cans when we got our books – I didn’t have quite that many but have at least 15. Canned fruits, juices, vegetables and dried and dehydrated are the rationed foods so far. We are going to have a garden I think we can get a plot by Links. You know he had a place by Bill’s garden. Mark is to take care of the garden and John is to take care of the lawn. I think that will be a fair division of the work. If we have as much rain as last summer I know John will have plenty to do. They could hardly keep the grass cut with both working on it. With a little help I think we can get a garden planted and with a little supervision I think Mark can take care of it. I didn’t get a bond for Jan & Feb so will have to double up for Mar & Apr. Haven’t seen any of Statons to talk to them for some time but see them go to work every day. Mrs. James isn’t very well. Has a cold and coughs some. David is asleep since his bath & feeding. Ruth thought he had grown a lot. Weighs just about 16 lbs now.
Love – Mother
©2014 copyright owned and/or written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2014/01/20/point-rationing-begins-gladys/
Genealogy Lady 
“We are going to have a garden I think we can get a plot by Links. You know he had a place by Bill’s garden.” Puzzled a bit by this. Sounds like a community garden of some kind, but there was plenty of lawn that could have been converted to garden in our back yard, the Staton back yard. The Zells had a huge garden in their back yard.
Poor Mark and John with lawn and garden duty. I know I hated it….that is, mowing the lawn.
I can’t imagine trying to parent young children alone and deal with things like rationing and gardening. These letters are a good reminder that the heroes of war take on many different roles.
I definitely agree. The women on the home front who managed the homes and families while the men were off fighting had a tremendous burden to carry at some points. I can’t image only having 25 cans of fruits & vegetables to feed a family of 5 for a month. I am assuming that she also had home canned fruits and vegetables from the previous summer to supplement their diet.
What a nice window into the daily life of a family!