Our Ration Board

Our food was cooked in the kitchen and a detail from our room went after it and brought it back to the room in a large tub vat. I was on detail several times and it was a job to carry the vat just one block. Once the food was in our room, we had one man to dish it out. Each man lined up in his place and carried his bowl by the vat and received one cup of soup. Always there would be another half cup each so we went around twice. There were times even after that when there would be a little left so rather than try to give every one a third helping we had voted to give another cupful as long as it held out. One day five men would get thirds or perhaps no one would. The next time there were thirds we started where we had left off. We hoped for thirds on a day when the soup was thick. This day it was soy bean soup and rather thick so I felt blessed to get thirds on that day. We always had a problem with the soup. There were not many solids and what few potatoes or carrots or peas were in the soup would go to the bottom. So we selected one man to stir the soup while the other dished it out and to further in- sure more equal distribution, the squad which was served first one day would be served last the next day.