jim pastorius posted:With no new cars you could have the "junk" cars on the road !! As a kid we participated in all the scrap drives, going around the 'hood" with our wagons. I remember a big pile of aluminum at the end of our street, then much later I learned they didn't even make canteens out of the stuff. Only virgin metal in aircraft. A bunch of WW I cannons in parks were melted down but after WW II some of these towns got German artillery to replace them. A high school not too far away had a German 75mm PAK41 anti tank gun in the front. I almost got my hands on it but I had no help and couldn't do it alone. I wonder if it is still there ?? A lot of the scrap drives and other stuff was to make the peasants(us) feel good about the sacrifices.
Yep, my Dad did the scrap drive thing as a kid, too.
As there were two giant rayon mills in the next town (Elizabethton, TN), I think a few people probably had cars, but all were older ones. You hardly ever see photos of cars that look washed, either. People stopped taking pride in their cars for the duration, it seemed. I would model a car up on blocks, but I'd think such a vehicle would have the wheels off and in a shed and the car covered over. I still might model that someday.
I've done a lot of research into the WW2 years since I was a teen, and found out years ago that most scrap drives gathered up material that nothing was ever done with as they couldn't know the metal content. I know of one case where a giant ball of aluminum was collected by kids, a big fanfare was made, then it was quickly dumped into a nearby lake after everyone had gone home with nobody knowing a thing until long after the war was over.
I have a civil war 12-pounder "Napoleon" barrel on a pedestal (my Dad made the barrel and I did the rest) for a civil war memorial. East Tennessee was about 50/50 split in who they sided with in the war and sent as many soldiers North than South. So, a memorial in that part of the country could be for either side.
I'm seriously thinking of putting a sign in front of it stating it's to be melted down for the war effort, to illustrate the tragic loss of historical artifacts for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
