Getting by during the Great Depression

[Big Man]

... These boys got into an awful lot of trouble, but managed to charm their way out of it ...

I can relate to that ... :whistling

 

[Warden]

Thought this BBC interview with a Wall Street Crash veteran is an interesting read

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7655472.stm

He got by by being a qualified broker by day and shoe stores salesman by night.

Harry

 

[Foofoogal]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605...umer_credit;_ylt=Auo47uwrABE8y7WIRzgYrM90fNdF

I cannot believe I missed this thread. This is probably how they got by also.

 

[Foofoogal]

My parents were depression era folks. My mother always said they lived on a farm and got by during that time growing their own food and living off the land. My fathers family was in West Texas helping start the oil well boom at the time living in tents. They nearly starved to death during the depression.

 

[barra063]

My parents both grew up during the depression. Every morsel of food was used up. Scraps of meat went thru the mincer to make shepherds pie etc, bread an dripping (lard) sandwiches, stale bread in milk for breakfast with maybe a sprinkle of sugar. In fact breakfast cereals as we know of today were not common place til after the war and items like shampoo were unheard of. Hair was washed with laundry soap. Every scrap of soap went into one of those little wire baskets and was then swished around in the washing water (no such thing as dish washing detergent. Of course people mended clothes and handed them down. When my father could not afford a tube for his bike he would stuff the tire with newspapers and keep on riding. he also had a little side line business selling homing pidgeons. His supply of pidgeons was always fully stocked up (think about it)

People would collect old blanket scraps and sew them to hessian (burlap) grain sacks and these were then their blankets. Crude furniture could be made from old packing boxes or kerosene tins and fencing wire was used to keep just about everything held together a bit longer. Most houses did not have a telephone or for that matter many appliances that required electricity. Houses still used oil or fat lamps so that only the bare necessities requiring electricity were used.

 

[tuppence]

My parents both grew up during the depression. Every morsel of food was used up. Scraps of meat went thru the mincer to make shepherds pie etc, bread an dripping (lard) sandwiches, stale bread in milk for breakfast with maybe a sprinkle of sugar. In fact breakfast cereals as we know of today were not common place til after the war and items like shampoo were unheard of. Hair was washed with laundry soap. Every scrap of soap went into one of those little wire baskets and was then swished around in the washing water (no such thing as dish washing detergent. Of course people mended clothes and handed them down. When my father could not afford a tube for his bike he would stuff the tire with newspapers and keep on riding. he also had a little side line business selling homing pidgeons. His supply of pidgeons was always fully stocked up (think about it)

People would collect old blanket scraps and sew them to hessian (burlap) grain sacks and these were then their blankets. Crude furniture could be made from old packing boxes or kerosene tins and fencing wire was used to keep just about everything held together a bit longer. Most houses did not have a telephone or for that matter many appliances that required electricity. Houses still used oil or fat lamps so that only the bare necessities requiring electricity were used.

My Mother had one of those soap swishy things for the dishes. I even remember the container of dripping in the fridge. This was the 70's.

 

[FinalVestige79]

My Ma's mother was born in '32. My great grandmother had a ranch in Coachella Valley, near Salton Sea and Indio. She would walk through the fields to school each day with the bulldog (the name escapes me now) in toe, and more than once it fought off rattlers for her. He would drop her off, and be there when she got out from school. And yeah, I'm talking about a dog. lol Then one day my the farmhouse was burnt down by a distraught laborer. And they lived in the barn, My Grand grandmother Mary, My Ma's Mother Belen, she was the youngest and all of her older sisters had already married off. Then, as most children were back then she was shipped off to other family members in other places. She spent winters in Tucson, AZ with an uncle who worked in one of the gold mines. Then to San Juan Capistrano where one of her sisters I believe it was my aunt Polly was one of the first switchboard operators in San Juan. There was a lot of "extended" family, and she never stayed in one place too long. It wasn't a good experience for her. It gave her 2 things, a severe case of hatred for her mother, and a severe hatred of flies.

 

[ladybrettashley]

Depression Cooking with Clara

I really don't know stories from my family; not the sort of things my grandparents talk about.

But i ran across this online cooking show a while back called Depression Cooking with Clara. It's interesting and sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking

 

[FinalVestige79]

I love this lady!!! I made her depression breakfast when my younger step sisters were over! Good stuff!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

My grandpa said he did a lot of fishing as a kid to catch supper (he was born in 1930. Great-grandpa drove cab, and for his in-law's trucking company and prior to 1933, ran a speakeasy.

Grandpa also talks about having to eat lard sandwiches on a regular basis.

 

[Mid-fogey]

My 80 year old dad...

...spent some time last weekend talking to my 10 year old daughter about growing up during the depression. She has the American Girl doll "Kit" that has a depression-centered storyline.

My dad was born the year the depression started and never knew anything else. He grew up in an 800 square foot, two bedroom house with his mother, father, brother, and blind grandfather. He milked his cow "Crab" and sold the milk. He also sold eggs, flowers at hotels, and chickens. He trapped rabbits and shot squirrels to get meat for his family.

The house had electricity, but not running water, nor did they have a well. They went with washtubs down to a friend's house for water.

It was a tough upbringing, but he says: "it would have been worse if we'd been poor."

 

[Canadian]

My great grandfather, a WWI vet was a schoolteacher and college educated. When the salary for teachers went out the window, he became a trapper. He died before I was born, but my dad learned a lot from him. He could speak Cree (he was white), kill with a knife and Winchester carbine and survive sleeping in the snow.

He had an interesting story about sleeping on the trail one night. He woke up to find cougar prints leading up to his fry pan.

Allegedly, the first year he was a trapper, he made 4 thousand dollars. Coming from a large family, he was almost solely responsible for their success. His son, my grandfather went on to become a ranch owner, a factory owner and an army Colonel, all because of his good example.

I remember to this day, that if times get tough, sometimes you have to change viewpoints. I was working in an office job before the latest recession, and got laid off, so now I work in the family owned factory as a department head. It's not particularly hard work, but it's my great grandfather I think of when I remember the lazy days working for the government.

Thomas

 

[davestlouis]

My dad's father operated a service station, and they were comfortable. My dad's mother died around 1935, and my grandfather put all the kids in an orphanage for several years, until he found a new wife. He apparently visited on Sundays, but the kids lived at the orphanage. My dad talks fondly of eating onion sandwiches, with ketchup...mashed potato sandwiches too.

 

[tom78]

How I got my surname…

A story on how my Great Great Grandfather visited America…and came back a changed man!

During the gold rush years, my Welsh Great Great Grandfather was a Sailor. He sailed on cargo ships. On arriving in the US , he and his friend had heard about this amazing gold rush. They flipped a coin on whether to stay as sailors or to take their chances as prospectors. The idea of getting rich on gold was too much for them….so they jumped Ship.

Apparently they walked for weeks, sleeping in pig sheds and stealing food….all the typical clichés of life as a foreign hobo.

Just typical of our families luck, by the time they got to where they were going…there was no gold!

So back they went to the port, to catch a ship back to Wales…But, hold on, they were now know as two sailors who had jumped ship…. So he changed his name from Pugh to Pugh-Jones…and came back to Wales.

Wish I knew the finer details of this story..

My great-great-great uncle (that's the easiest way to describe the family tree) was a US Senator from Pennsylvania, having emigrated from the South Wales valleys in the late 1800s and become a union organiser, then Secretary of Labor. And the family had very mixed views: proud of his success, disquiet that he was a Republican! South Wales is a strong Labour area, as you know.

:Look up the Davis-Bacon Act if you're interested: he was the Davis. Another Welsh emigrant with a different story!

My Grandparents in Wales were quite well supported: although people lost their jobs at the steelworks and pits, they had healthcare, support pay and help from the Tredegar Working-men's Medical Aid Society, into which they'd paid when they were working, and which provided them with full healthcare, including a GP and hospital treatment when needed.

fftopic: It was the model for our fantastic, socialist (whoo hoo!) National Health Service, from which my wife has returned this week after having major neurosurgery in one of the finest hospitals in the world. :eusa_clap And not a penny paid up front: all covered by our taxes.

 

[Cherry_Bombb]

I asked my great grandmother (who is still alive BTW) how she had styled her hair when she was a young woman. She had 11 brothers and sisters growing up- she was the oldest- and I figured in a house that size she must have been doing her own hair. She has some gorgeous pictures of herself.

She looked at me and laughed. She was married in 1934 to my great grandfather. He was 24 and she was 17. He was already an accomplished carpenter and had made it to the level of foreman at this great old wood working factory we had in town until the mid 90's.

She said to me that she NEVER did her own hair. That is one luxury she always afforded herself- even to this day. One of the shops that was across the street from her house was a beauty parlor and every other day she would have her hair washed, set and styled for her. She never learned how to do it herself. My great grandfather was making $11 a week- and apparently in our hometown that was a heck of a lot of money! Bread and milk delivered for 5 cents a day. That included her butter. Eggs for 10 cents a week. The butcher shop down the street had meat for 5- 20 cents a pound. They went to the theatre every friday night and once a week they would go out to eat. My great uncle and grandmother were born within the next 3 years. Oh- did I mention they bought their house and a cottage on a lake? On a salary of $11 a week.

But every summer from the time they had married until their children were in high school, they would host inner city kids mostly from Boston. They would teach them how to ride bikes, swim, Papa would take them to work w/ him and they would earn spare change picking up scraps in the yard. It gave them a childhood that they wouldn't otherwise have. It also helped alleviate some of the financial burden their parents were having.

 

[Mr Zablosky]

My grandparents were born in '15 and lived into their 80s. Every single photo of my grandfather has him holding something dead that he just killed. I understand money was short and hunting fed them but how did they afford those pictures?

Up to their deaths they would argue about what happened to them during the depression and who had it harder. My grandfather would say, "The depression didn't last forever but it lasted a hell of a long time."