Baudouin I of Belgium

Getting around

Moving livestock by train across Spain

Transhumant shepherds moved thousands of sheep by train between Babia and Cáceres, a 430-kilometer journey that took two days by rail, whereas moving them on foot would take much longer.

At the table

Creative substitutions for scarce food

Ordinary families survived by using culinary imagination to simulate scarce items, such as making omelets without eggs using bread and onions.

What people wore

Frugal clothing maintenance habits

People often wore clothing until it was heavily mended; it was not considered shameful to wear a pant with a patch or a sweater with mended elbows. For special occasions, some men would still wear the black jacket and striped trousers they had first worn at their wedding twenty years earlier.

Music

Radio listening became immensely popular

By 1939, radio listening became a widespread habit in Belgium, with the number of radio sets soaring to over 1.15 million.

Daily life

Memorable Survival Tactics and Tools

To save money and ensure winter food supplies, families bought potatoes in bulk, sometimes 1000 kg at once, which were stored in specially prepared cellar bins lined with straw. To carry heavy water buckets from public pumps, people used a 'reep', a modified bicycle wheel without spokes that helped balance the weight and kept the buckets away from their legs.