Spring came to Berkeley 75 years ago in late March 1942, and there were the usual ads in the Berkeley Daily Gazette announcing sales and special offerings at local plant nurseries and garden stores. In that war year, however, there were two differences in the tenor of the ads from previous years.

First, many nurseries included a “Victory Garden” focus in their advertisements. On March 27, 1942, the paper featured an ad from Maxwell Hardware emphasizing “Bumper Crops from Victory Gardens When you use the Right Seed,” while Bennett’s Gardens at 2780 Shattuck advertised “For Victory Gardens” seedlings of peppers cabbage, kale, rhubarb, and tomato, most for 25 cents a dozen.

Second, there were several highly poignant ads for nurseries having special sales. These were businesses owned by Japanese American families who knew they would face forced removal from Berkeley in the near future.

Fujii Nursery at 1534 Oregon St. advertised “Don’t Buy until you see Fuji’s Special Bargain Prices,” including five-foot cherry saplings for 75 cents. “Selling Out Entire Stock: Now is the Time To Get Your Garden Supplies for Less,” advertised the N. Kawabata Nursery on Foothill Boulevard in Oakland.

Perhaps the most moving ad (pictured with this article) was from “Miniature Gardens” at 1724 Carleton St. in Berkeley, run by C. Takahashi. Next to a picture of an older man (presumably the owner) tending a bonsai, the ad announced “Sacrifice Evacuation Sale of the Famous 1940 Treasure Island miniature gardens and Dwarf Trees. Your choice of 2000 while they last.”

Win with tin

Berkeley was scheduled to have a “Win With Tin Day” on Sunday, April 12, the Gazette reported March 28. “Housewives will be urged throughout the coming two weeks to save every tin can coming into their homes for this first mammoth drive.” Elsewhere in the papers that week there was an ad from Hills Brothers Coffee, a San Francisco manufacturer, advising consumers on plans to package ground coffee in containers other than tin cans.

On April 1, the paper reported “from now on — under government order — purchasers of shaving cream or toothpaste must turn in a used tin, tin-coated or tin-alloy tube of any sort of each new tube bought.”

“Already aiding the war effort through sales of defense stamps and furnishing auxiliary first aid stations, as well as first aid supply suggestions to householders, local druggists will hold the collected used tubes pending further Government orders.”

On April 2, the paper carried an estimate that Berkeley alone could generate 840 tons of used tin cans a year for recycling. The “tin” cans were actually primarily steel, which would be “shipped to copper companies and used in the precipitation of copper. The proportion of pure tin, 1.2 percent, when used again, will tin coat new cans for household use.”

Tire rationing was also serious business in Berkeley in 1942. The Gazette printed the names of seven lucky locals who had been given tickets to purchase single replacement tires in the third week of March that year. They included four doctors, a priest, and a school bus driver.

Berkeley was adjusting air raid sirens so the whole city could hear them, the paper reported April 3. Two new sirens were planned at Cragmont School and the Deaf School at Warring and Parker.

Car wreck

“Four persons miraculously escaped severe injury when their car was overturned in a triple crash at Channing Way and Milvia Street” at April 2 1942. “Gasoline burns” and broken bones were the result. Fortunately the accident was at the corner of the block where Berkeley General Hospital (later, Herrick) stood.