World War II Woman

The little red dot

I’m sorry, folks, I made a mistake yesterday. I quickly learned that many people have no clue as to what I was talking about when I mentioned white oleomargarine with the little red dot. So let me try to explain.

During World War II, among the many items rationed was butter. Oleomargarine, or oleo as your grandmother might call it, was not rationed and it was much cheaper than butter. Therefore many families resorted to oleo, or margarine as it is known today. The dictionary defines margarine as a fatty solid butter substitute of hydrogenated vegetable oil, emulsifiers, and other ingredients. It was white and looked like lard - not very tempting. But if it could be made yellow, then maybe you would think you were using butter. Hence the little red dot.

In my mind the margarine came in a white block inside a plastic like wrapping. Inside the wrapping was also a little red capsule, which when broken, could be kneaded into the margarine. The trick was to keep kneading until the entire package was a uniform yellow, and then try to shape it all back into the same block you had started with. Naturally, this task was frequently assigned to the children in the family.

Other people seem to remember the margarine being sold separately with the capsule attached to the outside. Instead of kneading the package, the margarine was placed into a bowl and beaten until it became entirely yellow. Additionally, some people remember squeezing the margarine through their fingers as they watched the white turn to yellow. If you were a child, this could be great fun.

Many of us believed that margarine came into use during World War II, but I learned from one of the women in my book, We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II, that her family used it during World War I. I tried to convince her that she meant World War II, but she was insistent. So I ceased arguing with her and came home to my computer. I learned that margarine was introduced to the public in 1874, thus beginning the dairy industry’s 80 year long attempt to keep yellow margarine from being a serious competitor to butter.

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