a few blocks away the stores were smaller and more practical and the lines were intimidating ; both men and women were lined up outside a bakery , each person holding what looked like a book of ration coupons , waiting to purchase one of the very few loaves of bread that seemed to be available on the stores counter ; outside a grocery store the long line waiting for milk was made up mostly of patient old women and impatient young children , and it was obvious from the open racks of milk bottles that not even half the people in line would get any of them that day .