Posted on 11/12/2008 5:13:33 PM PST by SJackson
(Shawano County)
The only time we saw money in the 1930s was when our neighbor, a bachelor veteran of World War I, gave us a nickel for an ice cream cone. We didn't need money. We lived off the land and we kids had the woods, creek, and railroad tracks to hike along and a swimming pool in the summer.
Our mother was widowed in 1932 and received $30 a month from the county for aid to dependent children. Most men were earning only $1 a day. Many of them worked for Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration - WPA - which we jokingly called "We Poke Along."
There were five of us kids, from 6 weeks old to 6 years. Dad died of pneumonia and we left the farm to live in Ogdensburg.
One year we had capons, and another year we had a pig on our lot and a half. Mother always went deer hunting in November and got her buck. The pork and venison meatballs she canned were to die for. A big garden, three apple trees and currant bushes filled our dirt cellar with winter eating. We kids picked the wild asparagus in spring and those long juicy blackberries in August.
We burned wood for cooking and heating. A reservoir held warm water from the cistern for washing up and shampoos. Of course there was homemade bread from scratch. We all had baths in the same water in a large tub by the kitchen stove. Water from a pump went in a pail with a dipper for drinking. No need to tell us old-timers to save water.
The outhouse was a new one and Mother scrubbed it each wash day with water from the rinse tubs. The shelf held Sears Roebuck catalogs from which the soft yellow pages were long gone. Luxury came during the canning season when those soft peach wraps went to the outhouse.
We girls ironed stacks of hankies, and in those days socks were darned. Our clothes were handed down from one sibling to another. We never went more than 10 miles in our Model A to Grandpa's farm and other relatives. We had free shows outdoors in summer.
Our small town of 200 had everything we needed: two grocery stores, two garages, two taverns, a drug store, a doctor, a hardware store, a mill on the mill pond, a cheese factory, two churches, a post office and a state-graded school that took us through the sophomore year. I graduated from Little Wolf High School in Manawa. We're having our 64th reunion this year.
The old cliche "A dollar saved is a dollar earned" doesn't mean much anymore. Neither does picking up a penny lying on the street, but pennies do still make dollars. My brother used to fill his little bank with pennies he earned doing chores for neighbors. He still has that first penny.
I grew a blueberry in my backyard, but before I could pick it, something else got it. There was only the one blueberry, but it looked pretty good. Maybe next year...
Live in Texas but have had the chance to talk to Kansas old timers about the “dirty thirties”. The “Great Depression” was only a minor part of the natural disaster
My mom and dad were young parents of my two older brothers during the depression. I was always amazed at how much humor they maintained during that dark time. Dad was a farm hand and went wherever there was work so they moved frequently to follow work. Poor people always kept chickens. When they moved, dad tied the chickens’ legs together with binder twine and tossed them in the wagon. “Why, we moved so many times one year that every time I hitched up the team, those chickens would lay down and cross their legs.”
There will be more next year,watch those birds,they love blueberries.They are good eatin’ also..
Stock up,Sky
I don’t see it happening, but you’re right, I forgot the girlfriends, several girlfriends. It’s on my list whether my wife likes it or not. The deer and elk will stay away once they know they’re being hunted, so they’ll require some effort. Does the well have a manual pump? If electic, you need to think about that.
Making a list as I type ....
Leave it to the Bush GOP to push back the standard of living 75 years.
They have a generator that can power the house - deer and elk can be hunted down ... I’ve done it before. Nothing like sitting out in a dripping forest in November at dawn waiting for them to come down the trail ... then helping my dad and uncle to haul them to the trail head and onto our ATV’s ....
Yes, the emotional reaction to the election of BHO is similar to the post 9/11 reaction in many peoples minds.
Huh, are you going to me a mormon fundamentalist if the balloon goes up? I’m confused.
You need gas for the generator and the atv. Just remember, the neighbors will be out for those deer and elk too. If they’re pressured, it will be a different enviornment.
Not so much as being unable to live off the land, but unable to live without the Gubmint CHEESE!
These were the same people who elected FDR?
I'm not sure I buy claims that people (or life) really were (was) significantly better in previous eras. It's easy to look back and remember the good, but I'm just not convinced...
Most of us in the city and ‘burbs have postage stamp size lots. “
Most of US in the city know where the unarmed commi-liberals live though.
Our town has around 3,000 people and half of them retired. The woodlands cover several hundred square miles ... only the natives hunt these woods .... don’t take kindly to outsiders hunting our area ... we also have two good rivers with salmon .... smoked salmon, yum ....
I’m sure my folks will have plenty of gas on hand ... but again, it’d have to be real serious like if the power is shut down ... the company that provides power to their community is private and runs off of hydro - own generating building and serves about 10,000 customers.
Mormons maintain a food supply in the home for lengths of time that there might be some disagreement on. For the tribulation I believe. The occasional Mormon I've known and spoken to this about have been very knowledgeable about reliable, inexpensive sources of dehydrated foods and grain.
If you have salmon, you have a river if the generator/pump fail.
I was talking about the girlfriends, not the food! ;0)
As a result of my upbringing, I know how to plant a garden, put up the canning, hunt+fish. I still prefer my mother's homemade mittens, hats and scarfs to anything storebought....Mrs WBill really likes the homemade socks Mom knits her for XMas.
However if you ask me, in general, if I'll readily subsititute my current middle-class lifestyle, for working my butt off at a low-paying, 60-hour-a-week job...then come home and bust my butt in the garden, and cook+freeze a winter's worth of food, and hand-knit a bunch of socks.....I'd say "Forget it". I expect my parents - who did exactly that, would echo my sentiments.
I'd much prefer to pick and choose. BIG difference between raising a couple of tomato plants to have fresh tomatoes for a few weeks.....and putting up 100 quarts of tomatoes, so that you'll have them to eat all winter.
It's nice to have all the knowledge I need. It's nicer not to need it.
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