 civilian life in a small town
The promised land of post war wonders is just around the corner. [Attempted humor: Prudent (or provident) civilians never left home without a bucket. Air raids were frequent and queuing up passers-by could expect some hands out if a supply depot was hit. Bubbly liquids in certain cases.]
|  postal service
war time postal service in a small village. Not quite up to UPS standards. > Kurt Zentner, Illustrated History of the Second World War, München, 1963
|  direct trade, not with me
Direct trade, not with me. Honest farmer refuses an attractive proposition. Could also be that he was just out of eggs. Underhand version, self incriminatory, where do you want me to put it. The pigsties are already laid out with Persian rugs. Some stalking-horse element. Not sure if I would give full points.
|  marche-noir
The somewhat more stylized equivalent.
|  the world's dumbest criminals
The world's dumbest criminals. Candy bars, somewhat unclear how you can dispose of the evidence in a hurry. Also unclear how the verdict was reached. Suspect a complicated algorithmic operation. One year of penal servitude per pilfered candy bar. Mercy before justice. Capital punishment was narrowly avoided. Petty crime stories remained a newspaper staple throughout the period of magic expansion and contraction.
TEACHING PAGANISM TO THE INFIDELS
Not directly black market related. Paula Herbst, a WWII army intelligence adviser on leaflets, observes a certain amount of decoupling between low level materialism and high politics (my phrasing). A somewhat autobiographical report appeared in the New American Review, no longer sure which number, #20-30 bracket. Main subject, the state of mind of the home maker. Probably best to simply ignore certain remarks on low conjugal morality. Approximately: Would have shrugged it off, not given to Ophelia like excesses of senti...
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