Bastrop During World War II

Bastrop changed dramatically during World War II, due totally to the opening of Camp Swift. Overnight, five thousand soldiers and civilian employees moved into Camp Swift and Bastrop went from a small town of 1,000 inhabitants to a metropolis of 50,000. People crowded into apartments, trailer camps, rented rooms, and tents. Some townspeople even rented out sheds and barns.
Growth in the population caused a tremendous growth in the economy of the town. The Coca-Cola company jumped from a four-man business to a 70-man industry in just a few months. In 1943, the city built four movie theaters, a bowling alley, a swimming pool, and a skating rink to accommodate the visiting troops. Bastrop got its first city sewer system and a new bus station.
Women in Bastrop suddenly had a more important role than ever before. They were working along side the men in businesses as well as in the military. This photo shows five women of the day.
Everyone had to watch what they bought at the stores because of the rationing. In the photo to the right, a young boy presents his ration book in order to buy some vegetable juice.
People had to stand in long lines in order to purchase certain rationed foods, as shown in this picture below.
People used the cloth from flour sacks to make dresses to wear, used honey for their tea instead of sugar, and tried to reuse everything.
In the photograph below, children are shown collecting scrap lumber, metal, and old tires to be recycled for the war effort. Whole towns cooperated in trying to reuse everything possible, from cloth to worn-out pots and pans.
Signs quoting the motto of recycling were present everywhere. "Get in the scrap. America's war industries need metals, paper, old rags, rubber. Get it back in war production."
The mail was monitored very closely. They used slogans like "Loose lips sink ships" to remind people that German spies might be listening or reading their mail. The poster to the right was one of many war posters found everywhere reminding people to watch what they said.
A phone call from Bastrop to Austin took one hour just to get through. A call to New York City took eight hours.
In 1945 when the war ended, the military began shipping the soldiers out to their homes. As quickly as Camp Swift had come, it left. Only a few of the German prisoners of war stayed, because they loved Bastrop so much. Bastrop returned to its old size again.