This section of the script desribes every-day life for people living in the Secret City of Los Alamos.

Mail: Everyone’s address in Los Alamos was a post office box in Santa Fe. There were several different box numbers but most of the scientists’ addresses were P.O. Box 1663. Because of that there are some strange things that happened. If you were born here during the war, your birth certificate said that you were born in Box 1663! It was the same if you got married up here then – you were married in P.O. Box 1663. Lots of people shopped by catalog here because there was only one store during the war. Once Sears Roebuck became very upset because they had over 100 requests for their catalog, all to be sent to the same post office box. They couldn’t understand why one person needed all those catalogs – they didn’t know that it was a whole town sharing one post office box!

Ration coupons. Because it was wartime certain things were very hard to get. For instance, there weren’t many new cars because the metal and rubber were being used to build planes and war machinery and because the factories had switched from making things like cars to making tanks and planes. People were discouraged from buying lots of new clothes because the cloth was needed for uniforms. Canned food could easily be sent to soldiers overseas so people here at home were only allowed to buy a certain amount each month. If you could buy only a certain amount of something that item was rationed. Everyone was given ration coupons for certain items like canned food, sugar, and gasoline. These coupons allowed you to buy an allowed amount each month but no more. Even if you had money to buy with you had to have a coupon.

Army town. Los Alamos was an Army town. The Army planned it and was in charge of it. Oppenheimer, remember, ran the town with General Groves. Oppenheimer was in charge of the science and General Groves made decisions about money and how the town was run. General Groves did not live here but there were Colonels under him who did live here and ran things. Some of the Army personnel were scientists also and they worked right along with the civilian scientists. There were also Military Police here who helped run the town and other Army personnel including WACs (Women’s Army Corps). Not everyone was allowed to have his family with him. Nearly all of the scientists did bring their families but only a few of the military could have their families here. The soldiers and single men and women lived in barracks dormitories or tiny houses or in trailers. Married scientists lived in houses, often duplexes or triplexes.

In the beginning the Army tore down most of the Ranch School buildings and put up their own. They needed different sorts of buildings than barns and sheds and garages. They needed many many houses and lots of laboratory buildings. The first ones built here were fairly well-built though they weren’t very attractive. As time went on and more and more people came here to help in the building of the bomb, everything was done in a tremendous hurry. Buildings were sort of thrown up and were very ugly and flimsy, not meant to last for very long. There just wasn’t time for doing a good job. The most important thing was the job of developing the bomb and people often worked very late into the night.

Let’s look at photos of some familiar places – and some you may not recognize.

• Ashley Pond. Nearly all of the Lab buildings were around the Pond during the war. There was no nice grassy area and later on the Pond was fenced in. Someone who grew up here during the war told me that it was many years before they even knew there was a pond in Los Alamos because it was always hidden behind the Lab buildings!
• Trinity Drive. The overpasses went between buildings so that people could go easily from one Lab building to another.
• Central School. This was the only school and all the grades were in the same building. It was located just below where the Farmer’s Market is now – you can still see the stairs and foundations where the par course is now. It was torn down in the 1960s. There are several teachers still living or working here in Los Alamos who taught in that school during the war – Mrs. Nereson, for example. The Army had a hard time getting teachers to come here because they couldn’t really tell them anything about the town!
• Hospital. This was just about where the Farmer’s Market is now. The doctors were Army doctors as were some of the nurses. Because it was a one-story building people would often visit with patients by talking through the open window.
• Commissary. This was the grocery store. Because it was an Army town it was called the commissary, just as it is on Army posts today. There was no other grocery store so you had no choice about where you bought your food.
• Theatre. There were two theatres in town but they were not like what we think of as theatres. They were more like huge gyms. They were used to show movies, but they were also used to play basketball and other sports in, to hold dances in, as churches on Sundays, for plays, etcetera. They were really all-purpose gathering places. One was larger than the other – it was called Theatre #2. It was located about where Metzger's is now.

You can see that this wasn’t really a very attractive town during the war. After the war the government tore down or moved away most of the buildings – they hadn’t been built to last anyway.

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