As the pandemic illustrated, a shortage of goods leads to a surfeit of shoppers. But folks in 1941 weren’t coveting toilet paper – silk was the prize. This Aug. 5, 1941 photo was captioned thusly: “The stampede is on in the retail market Boston, Massachusetts. The women of Boston, like their sisters in all other parts of the United States, are eager for their share of the diminishing supply of silk hose brought about by the federal freezing order on silk imports. The Boston shop opened its doors an hour early to accommodate the clamoring crowd,”.(AP Photo)