While it took men from their homes to staff the military and forced rationing for the civilian public on everything from sugar to gasoline, the war alleviated unemployment. During the Great Depression, as many as eight million people were out of work, and another eight million lived below the poverty line. By 1941, the country had virtually no unemployment. In fact, some industries actually experienced labor shortages. Many women went to work, even in factories, to help with the war effort, making up 36 percent of the nation’s total workforce by 1945. As she had in the decades before, Regina Graeter remained at the helm of Graeter’s Ice Cream through the war. The rationing of sugar became a particular problem because ice cream couldn’t be made without it. “You couldn’t get sugar,” said Dick Graeter. “I worked in a couple of stores during the war years. You’d almost run out of product. Eventually I think they started to get black market sugar, which helped considerably,”
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