The Duration

One of the fun things about listening to old radio shows is that you get a feel for the times. Besides the information in the story you listen to, there are the commercials. Where the story is fiction, the commercials reflect reality.
And you find that the problems and solutions from sixty years ago are not very different from today.

This is very apparent when listening to the Signal Oil program, ‘The Whistler’. I have just finished listening to the episodes from the early forties and the main topic for the commercials is how to get through ‘The Duration’. The Duration was how long WWII was to last. Because everything was needed for the war effort, there were many things that were rationed and some things you could not buy.
I don’t think new cars were being built. Tires and gasoline were rationed.

So your car had to last for ‘The Duration’ and you had to take care of your car. Change the oil every 1,000 miles, have your tires checked for nicks and cuts. (so you can get them recapped)
The amusing thing I have found was the advice on saving gas. Last summer, people complained about the high price of gasoline. During WWII, because gas was rationed, if you ran out of ration stamps, you could not buy any more. (okay, there was the black market.)
Sixty years ago, the advice to save gas was the same as it is today.
Slow starts.
Keep your tires properly inflated.
Keep the car tuned up.
Car pool.

And buy Signal Gasoline. The ‘go farther’ gasoline.