Old school D&D players resonate to the term “Iron Rations”, but where the heck did it come from? Is it even a thing?

From Wikipedia:

“Iron Ration”

The first attempt to make an individual ration for issue to soldiers in the field was the “iron ration”, first introduced in 1907. It consisted of three 3-ounce cakes (made from a concoction of beef bouillon powder and parched and cooked wheat), three 1-ounce bars of sweetened chocolate, and packets of salt and pepper that was issued in a sealed tin packet that weighed one pound. It was designed for emergency use when the troops were unable to be supplied with food. It was later discontinued by the adoption of the “Reserve Ration” but its findings went into the development of the emergency D-ration.

Apparently iron rations were based on World War I-era rations, something Gygax and his historical-war buffs friends would have been familiar with. I’d always assumed that the D&D iron ration was like a badass trail mix, or maybe a granola bar. The actual World War I iron ration sounds solidly less delicious than that. The chocolate bar sounds OK though.

I do remember reading a few adventure books from the World War I era where action-hero types ate chocolate in order to power up. Nutritionists must have recently discovered its energy-boosting properties. One instance I remember is in the Richard Hannay books (spy adventures by John Buchan, including The 39 Steps, later made into a Hitchcock movie). Richard Hannay is ALWAYS talking about chocolate; it is part of his standard adventuring kit, very much the way iron rations would be for a D&D character.

I just did a quick search on Google Books: in the four Richard Hannay novels, chocolate is mentioned 18 times. Usually it’s part of travelling food: “I have some food in my rucksack – biscuits and ham and chocolate”, “sitting on a rock munching chocolate and biscuts”, but it’s also used as a poor man’s stimulant: “I rubbed his arms and legs and made him swallow some chocolate.”

I wonder if this means that chocolate is canonically in the D&D universe now, the way it is in the Star Wars universe?

It’s always struck me as kind of weird that a 10-foot pole was something you bought at a store. What kind of store sold it? A carpetry supplies store? An adventurer store, sold specifically for the purpose of tapping suspicious flagstones in ruins? Speaking of flagstones, could the 10′ pole possibly have been sold as a flagstaff?

The pricing of the 10′ pole has led to much mirth. The 10′ pole, unbelievably, made it as far as edition 3.5, where it sold for 2 silver pieces. A 10′ ladder sold for 5 copper pieces. The joke was always that for the price of a 10′ pole, you could buy 4 10′ ladders, remove the rungs, and end up with 2 10′ poles, which you could sell for a profit. Classic D&D economics.

The 10′ pole is also a classic disappears-while-not-in-use item, like a wizard’s familiar. My mind’s eye picture of a 10′ pole is of a guy probing the floor with a stick that is clearly 5 or 6 feet long. 10 feet is about twice as tall as a person! Someone carrying one around would really have to have it in one of their hands, meaning they couldn’t have a shield or torch in their offhand. How else would you carry it? Strap it to your back? Horizontally? You’d have to turn sideways to go through doors. Vertically? You’d have to duck or bow. It would totally prevent you from crawling through any network of twisty little tunnels, all alike.