The Luxury of Indulgence

Today is National Eat What You Want Day, and while many of us might celebrate by indulging in a treat, this object from the museum’s collection reminds us that such indulgence wasn’t always possible.  This War Ration Book No. 3 was issued during World War II by the Office of Price Administration.  On it, the owner would fill out the front with their information, while the back detailed instructions on how to use the stamps within the booklet.  Despite the fact that the federal government issued the ration books and oversaw the rationing system, it relied heavily on volunteers not only to distribute these books, but to educate people and businesses on how to use them; local rationing boards, staffed by volunteers, did the bulk of the work.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when the United States entered World War II, a rationing system was almost immediately put into place, restricting the sale of certain in-demand goods.  Everything from rubber, to metal, to paper, and to certain foods were restricted to preserve them for the war effort while ensuring that the public still had access.  Tires were the first thing to be rationed since Japan controlled Indonesia, which was one of the main suppliers of rubber to the United States.  Sugar was the first food item to be rationed, followed by coffee, meat, cheese, and canned milk.  These foods had a monetary cost, with a ration points cost on top of it - a person would need both enough money and enough points in order to purchase what they wanted.  As expected, there were flaws in the system, and when rationing for a new product was announced, there was often a rush to go out and buy that product before it was restricted, resulting in further shortages.  We all experienced this in 2020 on a much smaller scale (toilet paper, anyone?). 

It is objects from the past such as these that remind us to be grateful for the ability to indulge ourselves and celebrate Eat What You Want Day.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar

Office of Price Administration propaganda poster proclaiming the benefits of wartime rationing.

Aaaaaall Aboard...

It’s National Train Day!  These hats are just a sample of the numerous railroad related objects that NUMU has in its permanent collection.  They were traditionally worn by those who drive and operate the engines, and ensure that everything runs smoothly.  This now-classic style was invented in the early 1900s by train engineer George Kromer and his wife, Ida.  At the time, and as baseball was increasing in popularity, George took time off from the railroad industry to play semi-professional and professional baseball.  When he returned to engineering, he wore his baseball caps to work, but they didn’t quite fit his needs. So he and his wife designed a more practical cap that he could wear to work, which she made out of the blue and white pinstripe pillow ticking that she had on hand.  

Los Gatos train depot, 1900. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Los Gatos train depot, circa 1880. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Los Gatos train depot, circa 1880. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

George and Ida Kromer. Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad Museum.

George and Ida Kromer. Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad Museum.

The railroad industry played a large role in the development of Los Gatos, which was still a small, relatively unknown community before the Southern Pacific Coast Railroad chose the town to be the site of an important freight and passenger train depot on the line connecting the Bay Area with Santa Cruz in 1876.  It took two years to build the depot, and once they were done, Los Gatos became part of a busy and thriving railroad network, attracting not only industry, but tourists as well.  The Los Gatos station was also critically important as a water-refueling stop for steam locomotives about to make the trek up and over the mountains to Santa Cruz.  

There is more to this history we want to explore through the Los Gatos History Project. Particularly the stories of the Chinese laborers and other under-represented communities of color who were integral to the success of the railroad industry, not only locally, but nationally as well.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar

Train passing Los Gatos depot, 1955. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Train passing Los Gatos depot, 1955. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Happy National Beer Day from your friends at NUMU!

It’s National Beer Day!  If you were living in Los Gatos around 1900, you might have celebrated by pouring yourself a drink out of a bottle like this one.  This bottle in our permanent collection was previously identified as a wine bottle, but upon further investigation, we found that it is, in fact, a beer bottle!  This particular bottle was made by Rudolph Scherf, a San Jose resident who ran his own beer-bottling and distributing business out of his house on N. Sixth Street.  Scherf worked with a variety of breweries, including the Fredericksburg Brewing Company, one of the earliest “craft” breweries in the South Bay.

Prevailing public sentiment toward beer, at the turn of the 20th century, was very different from today’s.  In 1904, The Ladies’ Home Journal endorsed beer as a more suitable substitute to patent medicines, stating “A mother who would hold up her hands in holy horror at the thought of her child drinking a glass of beer, which contains from two to five per cent of alcohol, gives to that child with her own hands a patent medicine that contains from seventeen to forty-four per cent of alcohol.” 

Although The Ladies’ Home Journal was partial to Budweiser - as it “contains only 3 89/100 per cent of alcohol. It is better than pure water because of the nourishing qualities of malt and the tonic properties of hops” - San Jose and the surrounding areas had a number of their own “healthy” brews, including the ones Rudolph Scherf bottled and distributed.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar

The Los Gatos Mail - Christmas Edition 1895

The Los Gatos Mail - Christmas Edition 1895

See the images below for excerpts of this publication.