04-04 From Bacon to Bombs

I can still remember mother pouring bacon fat out of the frying pan through a strainer and into an empty tin can. "It's for making bombs," she explained. It was 1942, and we lived in a bungalow on Bowie Avenue in the Dufferin-Eglinton area of Toronto.
People were saving everything. One day trucks would be picking up rubber, another day steel bits and pieces, then bones for glue or rags for blankets; but collecting bacon fat was more personal because we needed a can of bacon fat and a quarter to see “Hi Ho Silverware, Tonto lost his Underwear” at the local theatre.
I remember saying to the lady at the ticket office that the bacon fat was for making bombs. And she replied, “They also want the tin in your tin can.”
Collecting fats to extract the glycerine was essential in both Canada and the U.S. because from glycerine, they could make nitroglycerine. The promotion in Canada and the U.S. was extensive. “One tablespoon of kitchen fats makes five bullets.” That type of comment frequently appeared in newspaper advertisements. And then there were Disney cartoons promoting the saving of fat for the war effort.
Glycerine was also used to make lubricants, special protective paints, solvents and all kinds of essential things. There were official fat collecting stations, often the local butcher shop. Mother said it was hard to get good lipstick during the war because it was made from glycerine.
My greatest memories of the war as a child was that everyone I knew or met was doing something to help the war effort. Dad was travelling to the camps with me on the weekends to take orders for officers’ uniforms. Mother was working with the Women’s Land Army giving gymnastic lessons to ladies working on the farms. And my best friend next door said his dad had given all his old tools so the steel could be melted down and used to make rifles.
I felt so grown up handing in my tin of bacon fat at the Saturday afternoon matinees.