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Community The Veteran & Attention to Detail Maurice Poulin, 85, pieces together a small dinghy that, along with its parent ship, will go into a bottle. Hardships, Battleships Bottle Ships Story and photos by PA2 Luke Pinneo, 1st Dist. Long retired, Coast Guard veteran Maurice Poulin relaxes at a small workbench in his home in Nahant, Mass., building ships in bottles. His hands are steady for an 85-year-old man. Just outside the window, waves from Boston Bay slap the shore and a sea breeze fills the room. “The older you get, the more relaxed you want to be,” he said. But he remembers a time when life was not so peaceful. Born in 1922, he recalls growing up in hard times when nearly everything was in short supply. “The Depression formed our generation,” he said. “We had to have stamps to buy everything - gas, sugar, even butter.” The stamps were dated and included the quantity people were allowed to buy, and were required in addition to the monetary price. He said the government donated bags of food and clothes, including pants that could be identified as government-issued by the stitching. “It was easy to tell all the kids who had no dough by the line on their pants,” he said. “It was embarrassing.” Jobs were also scarce, but in 1939 he found a ticket out of his downtrodden community. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, a group that built dams and roads, worked on reforestation 16 Coast Guard — Issue 4, 2008 17 uscg.mil/mag
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16-19-SHIPS.pdf