DALLAS -- One North Texas man's dumpster find serves as a good reminder that gas woes aren't just a present problem. In the '40s, gas wasn't only pricey, it was also rationed.

"Everyday I feel like coming into this dumpster," said Rito Gomez. "There ain't no telling what treasure I could find. It could be a big load of scarp iron or a small load of history."

Rewind to the 1940s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died; and a princess at the time, Queen Elizabeth II married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It was a time when Americans lived by the motto, "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

Gomez found remnants from that time period during his daily dumpster dive. Gomez dug out boxes of newspapers from the '30s and '40s. He also recovered old letters and war rationing cards for gas and food.

"It basically landed in my lap over here," he said.

His discoveries were belongings of a woman named Lura Miller, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Her struggles, which were documented in the letters found in the dumpster, parallel many of those today. A Christmas letter from 1943 to a loved one fighting overseas in World Was II described the time "as one without big gifts or toys."

It was also a time where many couldn't afford to travel for the holidays because of rationing and high gas prices.

Bob McKnight, with the Celina Heritage Museum, said at the time, people like Miller struggled for sugar, tires and most of all gas.

"It was tough," he said.

It didn't get any easier for years.

"All of its history, it has to do with Celina," he said of Gomez's discovery.

But Gomez said he would like to uncover one last piece of the puzzle, who the soldier is behind the letters.

"Not knowing if he made it home, that one thing I think about everyday," he said.

E-mail sslater@wfaa.com