The Gratiot County Herald in its August 31, 1944 issue printed directions for gathering and preserving milkweed pods. It noted that “when the Japanese captured the East Indies, our supply [of material normally used for life preservers] was cut off. Milkweed floss is the best material sufficiently water proof and buoyant to use in life vests.” The goal that year was for Gratiot County schools to gather at least 400 bushels of milkweed pods. That amount would fill 200 life jackets.
The need for milkweed floss continued beyond the war’s end. Joyce Beard became a teacher at the Allen School, north of Ithaca, in 1946. Her husband Duane had served in the navy during WWII. That fall, her students gathered so many pods that sacks of them filled the unused outhouse. (The school had recently installed indoor toilets, so the outhouses became storage sheds.) However, one day Joyce tried to swing the outhouse door inward to open but found it impossible. All the pods had burst, packing the shed so tightly that she needed extra help just to open the door!