What would Amazon do? Seventy five years ago, in the midst of World War II on Feb. 19, 1943, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported on the temporary demise of what it called “armchair shopping,” the practice of placing orders from home by telephone and having businesses deliver goods.
Fuel and tire rationing made it difficult for businesses to make deliveries, so housewives were now expected to do all the shopping themselves and carry goods home.
“Mentally roll a snowball of unnecessary deliveries across the country and it becomes apparent that thousands of truck lives are shortened by individual thoughtlessness,” the paper admonished. Instead, it called for “armful shopping,” that is carrying a bundle of small packages home oneself.
Hospitality house
On Feb. 20, 1943, the servicemen’s Hospitality Center at the Downtown YMCA sent out an public appeal. Servicemen visiting or stationed in or near Berkeley were using the facility in large numbers and the Gazette announced a call for “much needed provisions” to serve them.
First on the list was rationed coffee. “There is nothing the servicemen enjoy as much and the supply is running very low. Thanks to a coffee machine, the women are able to get more than 100 cups to a pound, but they need the pounds.” Any form of sugar was also requested.
Cots were needed. “The men are beginning to pile into the dormitory week ends, and last week 75 were there. Bedding also is wanted … photographs and records, ditto.”
More shortages
On Feb. 22, 1943, the Drive Inn Barbecue at 2434 San Pablo Ave. reported an overnight burglary that targeted scarce food items. Robbers broke through a back door and made off with 150 pounds of sugar, 60 pounds of coffee, 22 pounds of fresh pork, 40 pounds of roasted turkey and canned soup.
The business would have to close within the week, owner Nels Larsen said, unless he found some way to get more food. Something may have been worked out because there’s a small barbecue shop called “Smoke Berkeley” at that address today, just down the block from Ohmega Salvage.
Bunny hop
The Gazette seemed have a lot of coverage of food-related issues 75 years ago this week. On Feb. 23, there was a small story that police Officer B.M. Reynolds was parked near Action and Carrison when an eight-pound white rabbit “poked his pink nose through a hedge and looked so defenseless, the patrolman picked him up.”
The paper joked that there was “stew brewing.” but the patrolman actually took the rabbit to the pound.
Berkeley historian
The Feb. 20 Gazette carried an article reporting that Dr. George Pettitt, “special assistant to the president and lecturer in anthropology,” had taken a leave from his University of California job and was going into the Navy as an aviation lieutenant. Pettitt, a 1925 Cal graduate, had worked as a journalist, then a staff member at the University News Bureau and the California Alumni Association where he edited the California Monthly magazine. Much later, he would serve on the Berkeley City Council.
Today, he’s best remembered as author of two Berkeley history books: the first a biography of Robert Gordon Sproul’s 29 years as UC president; the second, “Berkeley: The Town and Gown of It,” a somewhat irreverent but well illustrated and information filled 1970s history of our community.
Accident death
An 18-month-old girl from Missouri was fatally injured by a car at San Pablo and Hearst on Feb. 21, 1943. Her family had come to the Bay Area just five weeks earlier, and her father was working in the Richmond shipyards.