When Ceci Droll talked to a group of Jefferson County school kids about life during World War II, her tales sounded a lot like stories told about the contemporary eco-movement: carpooling, growing your own food, buying local, raising chickens in the backyard, victory gardens everywhere and lots of community- building.
“Each person doing a little bit made a big difference,” Droll, 97, told a group of elementary school students from Free Horizon Montessori School. The fourth- through sixth-graders are part of the Colorado State University Extension Junior Master Gardener program in Jefferson County.
“People grew vegetables, or raised chickens if they could, so they didn’t have to go to the store, which saved gasoline,” she said. “If someone didn’t grow something, someone else would, and people would trade off.”
The kids in this new program, which started last year, learn about gardening and sustainable lifestyles from master gardeners such as Droll.
This Junior Master Gardener program, the second — and the largest — in the state, trains a class of kids for a year, then the following year, the students build a community garden at their own school.
“The goal is to educate kids about vegetables, but also to create change within the family dynamic, so the entire family all of a sudden embraces new types of food, and new ways you can grow food at home,” said Rusty Collins, Jefferson County extension director.
The children sat, rapt Tuesday afternoon, as Droll shared details of a distant life style.
Cookbooks had recipes with no butter or sugar, because those ingredients were rationed. Instead, people used honey as a sweetener, often from their own bees, or Karo syrup.
Gas was rationed. Most people were allowed only three to four gallons a week, and “you really couldn’t jazz around on that,” she said. Instead, everyone carpooled, four to six people per car.
In 1942, when she was 29, Droll was a young mother whose husband was at war. She worked in Long Beach, Calif., as a riveter on bombers and transport planes.
She and the other women worked eight hour days, six days a week. After 6 p.m., they’d pick up their children from child care and head home.
“Then we’d cook for them, bathe them, and everything else,” she said. “We had one day off to do everything else around the house.”
The government began to promote victory gardens, she said, “but most of us weren’t good at them.”
They were just too tired.
Still, she remembers how those gardens burgeoned everywhere. “In empty lots, on rooftops in the city, even ballparks,” she said. “Strips of grass between houses, people would plow them up and plant corn. Window gardens. Barrels and tubs.”
She looked out at the next generation of gardeners, each of whom she’d welcomed with a hug.
“Planting is very important,” she said. “People who like to garden are real people, down-to-earth. The main thing is that you get to grow food.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
