The Heroic Milkweed
There was also a swell of patriotism. Even kids, having to cope with family members leaving on troop trains, blackouts, overworked moms, and scary news reports on the radio, were eager to do whatever they could to help their country win the war so that their loved ones could come back home.
In the fall of 1944, the War Department issued an urgent call for milkweed pods, as it had been determined that the fluffy “parachutes” of milkweed seeds could be used in place of the kapok no longer available to allied forces. Thus the unassuming milkweed entered the war effort with a national campaign encouraging school children all across America to gather milkweed pods.
In our farming community, milkweed was abundant along fence rows, edging fields, and where ever weeds and brush could grow freely. Our elementary school janitor was in charge of providing empty mesh bags, supplied by the War Department, to students who wanted to gather milkweed pods. Each full mesh bag returned to the janitor’s closet paid 15 cents.
To an eight-year-old kid, here was an opportunity! Earn 15 cents while helping to win the war? You bet! Each bag of milkweed pods could buy a bottle of soda pop and a handful of Bolsters or other favorite penny candies, a real treat during that time of rationing.
The common milkweed earned its place in history that year, with varying account crediting millions of pounds of the fluffy material collected by the end of the war.
One impressionable youngster never forgot that autumn campaign so long ago, later joining the U.S. Army to serve in Korea during that memorable war era. Today, watching the milkweed progress from blossom to pod to “parachutes” is an annual treat almost as good as a bottle of soda pop and a handful of Bolsters.
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Bittersweet memories, yet a comforting, wholesome time in America. Thank you. We need to hear more recollections.