Sharing the Spirit of Victory

by
Marjorie Jane and David Ivan Clowe
managed a Victory Garden during WWII
Paula Clowe, from Las Cruces, New Mexico, has contributed this photograph of her grandfather, David Ivan Clowe, and her aunt, Marjorie Jane Clowe Adams during WWII.
At the time of the photo, Marjorie was the only child remaining close to home. Her husband served in the Philippines during the war, and survived the Bataan Death March.  Her twin sister was stationed in Florida, teaching sailors to swim.  Her brothers were both serving on bombardier crews in Europe.  This meant four of the five Clowe siblings were directly involved in WWII.

Wartime rationing of food made gardening necessary for survival.  As Clowe puts it, “Citizens today don’t have any idea how involved everyone was during an all out war.”  We are fortunate that most of our citizens today have never experienced the kind of hardship that families during WWII endured.

Today, our need for “victory”gardens has less to do with the amount of food available, and more to do with the nutritional quality of the food most of us have access to.  Vegetable gardening is becoming popular again as more people struggle with health issues that are related to the nutritional quality of food that has been grown and processed in manners that damage associated microbiomes, nutrients, and enzymatic activity. Victory gardens today are about claiming victory over chronic diseases associated with contemporary lifestyles.

Today, Paula is working with Burt Huggett in her neighborhood in Las Cruces, NM, to plant an organic community vegetable garden (a 21st century Victory Garden).  Like the Victory Garden’s of WWII, Clowe’s community garden will help her community enjoy the safe and nutritious tomatoes and other produce that cannot be purchased at grocery stores.

 

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