While living under stay-in-place rules, my weekly trip to the grocery store brought back memories of World War II on the homefront. Let’s see if there are lessons learned, then, that may usefully be applied to the coronavirus pandemic.

Back then, my mother would arm me with the family’s ration coupons and a $5 bill and send me on my bicycle to make the rounds of all the grocery stores in Wilmington, North Carolina, where we were living at the time. “If you see a line, get in it,” was her instruction. I remember successfully bringing home a beef roast on one expedition. Canned milk on another. I also recall standing in line for what seemed like an eternity only to find a large stack of Kotex hygiene products waiting on a counter. I didn’t know what it was, but I could tell it wasn’t edible.