Posted on 02/09/2009 12:36:11 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny
Yahoo ran an interesting article this morning indicating a rise in the number of survivalist communities cropping up around the country. I have been wondering myself how much of the recent energy crisis is causing people to do things like stockpile food and water, grow their own vegetables, etc. Could it be that there are many people out there stockpiling and their increased buying has caused food prices to increase? It’s an interesting theory, but I believe increased food prices have more to do with rising fuel prices as cost-to-market costs have increased and grocers are simply passing those increases along to the consumer. A recent stroll through the camping section of Wal-Mart did give me pause - what kinds of things are prudent to have on hand in the event of a worldwide shortage of food and/or fuel? Survivalist in Training
I’ve been interested in survival stories since I was a kid, which is funny considering I grew up in a city. Maybe that’s why the idea of living off the land appealed to me. My grandfather and I frequently took camping trips along the Blue Ridge Parkway and around the Smoky Mountains. Looking back, some of the best times we had were when we stayed at campgrounds without electricity hookups, because it forced us to use what we had to get by. My grandfather was well-prepared with a camp stove and lanterns (which ran off propane), and when the sun went to bed we usually did along with it. We played cards for entertainment, and in the absence of televisions, games, etc. we shared many great conversations. Survivalist in the Neighborhood
You mean you don’t order any from...that place. What was it again? Oh yes,.... WALTON FEED? <<<
Laughing and thinking of the many cans and buckets of wheat that Montai gave to me, when she moved and am willing to admit that I have never bought wheat.
I should still have several cans in the storage shed, but am no longer able to go and check what is there, part will be out of date, but not the wheat....
I can no longer cook, too dangerous and I can’t move my arms around enough to deal with it.
LOL, who would have thought that lifting your arms would take your breath away.
My family is not survival oriented and don’t want to hear about it and there is no way that I will be here to give them the information they would need, so I am not restocking and so am using up my Walton Feed. com supplies a little at a time.
There will still be enough to hold them over and the rest they can give to the Salvation Army and Free Cycle.
I may well see the beginning, but will never see the end.
LOL, glad that your husband got the solar lights for you.
Yes, it was a good visit, mostly wasted time on getting legal papers signed and recorded.
It is all the talking that does me in, as I so rarely talk to anyone with my voice, that I forget how fast I run out of breath.
I’ll second that, CB. It’s just because we care, Granny.<<<
Thank you, I am convinced that it is the Freeper’s love and prayers, that have kept me going for 3 years, instead of the less than 6 months in the original prediction.
move half of it to the back of the house (South side) this fall - 24’ X 48’<<<
You will be amazed how much heat the sun will give you.
Be sure to either have a mass of water storage...LOL, fish tank or barrels of water to serve as passive collectors for the heat, it works, for I have used the method.
You should see how well plants do, sitting over an open tub of water, on a board, and I mean the regular potted plants, not some soil-less system.
I had placed buckets and tubs of open water on top of the barrels of water, and being me, soon put a board across them and plants on them, good for seedlings, orchids and every thing, that goes in a pot.
The attached greenhouse, even makes the evaporative coolers work better in the summer.
The first year we were here, the cooler did not do a good job.
The second year was great and the only change was adding a solar greenhouse and leaving the door open into it.
and I have one that I put the stake into a pipe so you can remove it easily and carry it. They stay charged and work great.
I even thought of putting one in the chicken house window and shine it on the feed and water area to lengthen the daylight hours (to increase egg laying) instead of the energy saver bulb I have on the timer.<<<
I was thinking of the pipe, and putting them so they light the door of the house and steps/area, so I can tell if anyone is around it at night, including neighbors dogs who eat the cat food and kill the cats.
Thought if it was well lighted, it would keep folks from nosing around.
LOL, I was planning the pipe idea, as I can then have the light up and within reach, just out the door, for when needed.
They should work in the chicken house.
Do you have a high low thermometer?
It would be interesting to test the heat given out at night, would it be enough to power a small brooder for chicks and poultry?
At the least, it would help keep them from piling up.
When I had an incubator, I used my 10 gallon fish aquariums for the newly hatched babies, LOL, so OK, I liked watching them too and a 25 watt light bulb would keep them warm at night.
Works for other pets, as in Cockatiels and parrots, that you are hand feeding.
‘See Dad - you do good things you get good things.’<<<
Your daughter is both right and Very wise.
The harsh reality is that the technology and materials do not exist to capture sub 5 micron particles and still allow sufficient air to maintain life; old age is overrated anyway.<<<
Welcome to the thread.
You are right, as I had heard that they would not do the job that folks expected them to do.
You may be right about old age being overrated, but I am sure fighting to test that one, as long as I can.
Real life is not turning out to be the fun, I planned for old age, but time passes and one does as they can.
http://www.refseek.com/search?q=survive+hard+times&start=20
http://www.binghamton.edu/calendar/newsline_webcgi/news.cgi?id=11209
April 25, 2009
Residents resilient in surviving hard times; Their trials offer lessons for all - The Press & Sun Bulletin, Binghamton, NY
By: Connie McKinney
Marian DeSantis still remembers the hungry, unemployed men who hopped off the trains, crossed over the nearby railroad tracks and knocked on her family’s East Side door during the Great Depression.
Margaret Hall couldn’t always afford to go to the movies, and her mother sewed most of her clothes, but she said she never felt deprived.
And Adam Kress, now 96, is proud to say he was never laid off - “never” - because he worked at the Endicott Johnson shoe factory, which helped a lot of families make it through the tough times.
As our nation - and individuals and families in Greater Binghamton - copes with a recession and the economic uncertainty that lies ahead, the Press & Sun-Bulletin sought out local residents who lived through the Great Depression and asked them to tell their stories about surviving the 1930s, and eventually thriving as good times returned.
DeSantis, Hall and Kress are among more than 17,000 Broome County residents age 75 and older who lived through the Depression, according to U.S. Census data.
They survived a much worse economic crisis than the one Americans are struggling with today, said Christopher Hanes, a professor of economics at Binghamton University. Most economists predict the U.S. unemployment rate could rise to 10 percent by the end of this year - still a far cry from the 1930s, when one out of every four people was unemployed.
Still, people who foraged for food in the woods, made cottage cheese out of milk that soured and scrambled to find work can teach all of us how to make our dollars stretch during tough economic times.
Here is what they had to say, and their advice.
You need to laugh
Margaret Hall grew up on Binghamton’s East Side during the 1930s. Even though her father worked as an electrician, she remembers how he scrambled for odd jobs to help pay the bills. Once, her parents successfully bid on washing all the windows at the former East Junior High School, which no longer stands. When her mother climbed down from the ladder, she accidentally stuck her foot in the water. She laughed and told the story for many years.
“Laughter is the thing that gets you through,” said Hall, 85.
Some people today run up their credit cards, buying toys, clothes and other items.
“We didn’t have all the stuff that kids have today,” she said. “We didn’t need it.”
Maybe it’s time for people to put away the plastic and make do with what they already have, she said.
“Be thankful for what you do have,” Hall said. “We have a lot more than other countries.”
Open your heart
Marian DeSantis remembers her mother’s compassion. Just a child when the stock market crashed in 1929, DeSantis never forgot the thin, pinched faces of the hungry, unemployed men who hopped off the trains and knocked on her family’s door.
Her mother greeted each of them with a sandwich and a cup of coffee or soup on cold days. Then they were gone, on to the next town in their never-ending search for food and perhaps a job.
“They were hard up,” said DeSantis, now 84. “My mother never refused (helping) any of them.”
DeSantis also remembers a widow who lived two blocks away. She was out of work, but survived by baking homemade bread. Then, she’d pull a child’s wagon packed with bread up and down the streets of her neighborhood, selling them for 5 cents a loaf.
“That was how she got her grocery money,” DeSantis said. “There was no unemployment in those days.”
DeSantis’ father had a steady job at Kroehler’s, a furniture manufacturer. But not everyone was so fortunate. At one point, her mother’s family moved in, putting 11 people in one house.
“Obviously, the dollar had to stretch a lot,” she said.
Her advice:
“Only buy what you can afford and what you can pay for,” she said. “Live within your means.”
Don’t be wasteful
Hardly anything was thrown out in Louisa Ross’ Johnson City home during the height of the Depression.
“Nothing was ever wasted,” she said. “We didn’t have much.”
Even potato and carrot peelings were enough to earn her a penny or two from the man across the street, who fed the scraps to his pigs, said Ross, an 82-year-old Binghamton resident.
Any milk that went sour in the family’s icebox was made into cottage cheese.
Sometimes, there was no money for meat so she would eat only bread and milk, she said. To supplement these meals, Ross picked berries during the summer and scoured the woods for black walnuts and edible weeds.
Like many children of the Depression, she didn’t know how difficult times were back then.
“We didn’t realize that we were that bad off,” she said. “We made the best of it.”
Back then, some people bartered for services they couldn’t pay for, she said. Her mother would bake bread for another woman. That woman would fix her mother’s hair in exchange for the freshly made bread.
Neighbors looked out for each other and often left a burlap bag full of food on the porch of an elderly man who lived nearby, she said.
Today, Ross still clips coupons and keeps a close eye on how she spends her money, and she’s troubled by people she sees packing stores and restaurants every weekend. She advised people to stay home more often, cook their own meals and play cards instead of going out to the movies.
Put away the credit cards
The Endicott Johnson shoe factory helped many Broome County residents make it through the Depression, including Adam Kress of Binghamton, now 96.
“I never was laid off. Never,” he said. “There was a lot of work here at that time.”
Sometimes, EJ cut back on workers’ hours, Kress said.
EJ and IBM, which also remained strong throughout the Depression, kept enough people working so that Broome County’s unemployment rate fluctuated between 7 and 10 percent, much lower than the 25 percent figure in other parts of the nation.
While Kress was fortunate enough to keep working during the 1930s, he saw a lot of hardship during that time. Even now, he pays for everything in cash and has never had a credit card.
He gets upset when he goes grocery shopping and watches people whip out a credit card, even if they spent only $4 or $5 on groceries, he said.
“All this adds up,” he said. “When it comes to the end of the month to pay that credit card, they can’t.”
To contact Newsline: via email / web
Newsline is a publication of the Office of Communications and Marketing.
[Shows what one can do.....]
http://www.drachen.org/personalities_Swanson.html
Kite Personalities - Stan Swanson
Born into a military family, Stan Swanson spent his elementary and high school years on the move, including a happy four years in Paris . He took an economics degree at the University of Washington in Seattle , then survived hard times in the Pacific Northwest by managing and promoting music groups. Windsocks he created as Christmas presents led him directly into kite making, and an exceptionally lifelike ten-foot albatross bird kite he designed proved an instant hit. When stores asked to handle his kites, he was launched on a career. A condor design made the catalogue of the premier mail order kite business, Into the Wind, orders rolled in, and Swanson was forced to go into production. “That kite just about killed me,” he says. Later when he sold 1,500 of his elephant kites, Swanson expanded by hiring sewing help.
Meanwhile, he made and flew showy figure kites at festivals and found himself being invited to workshops and kite celebrations as far afield as Thailand and Europe , making an international circle of kite friends and gaining a certain pleasurable fame. “And,” he says, “when you make unique kites, you can trade with anyone and build up a good collection, which I’ve done.” Three-dimensional inflatables added to his reputation. “Inflatables are spectacular in the air, don’t break because they have no spars, and are very portable—you can put one in a stuff bag. But it can be hard to get a really big one to fly. There’s the problem of sheer mass.”
Swanson has made a number of parafoil kites using the patterns of deceased friend, Doug Hagaman. Beautiful fliers, several have been used by the University of Colorado ’s professor Ben Balsley, as platforms for environmental study and high altitude flight.
Using a shipbuilder’s device to project a two-dimensional drawing into three dimensions , Swanson embarked on the construction of a series of whale kites, beginning with a 25-foot orca and concluding with a gargantuan 110-foot blue whale. For the latter, materials alone cost upwards of $1,000 at the time. Why make kites? Swanson says: “It’s the satisfaction of creation. That’s what I get out of it. There’s no thrill like taking a new kite out on a field, putting it up and seeing it fly.”
Adapted from an article in 1991 Kite Pin Invitational, a Drachen Foundation publication (1995)
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/kilgroe/Int.htm
Hard Times: Students Interview Survivors of the Great Depression and World War II
The decades of the 1930s and 40s are among the most critical in American history. The Wall Street crash of October 1929 acted as a catalyst, throwing the American economy into free fall. By 1932 over a quarter of the American working population were unable to find jobs. Others lost homes or savings. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal did much to mitigrate the worst of the suffering but it did not resolve the problem of jump starting the economy. Recovery would not come until the second World War. Suddenly Americans of the 1940s were faced with a new, more dangerous crisis, WAR. But while we may learn about these momentous events through books such as The Grapes of Wrath or movies such as Saving Private Ryan, we are not always aware of how these events touched the lives of everyday people. Oral interviews with survivors can help to remedy that omission. The following selections are taken from student interviews.
Students who interviewed survivors of the Great Depression and World War II found that hard times varied from place to place. The lives of farmers, who lived in tight knit communities and grew their own food, were little affected by the Depression. This was not true, however, for those farmers living in the Midwest who were driven from the land by drought and dust storms, so dense they were often referred to as black blizzards.[For further Information, see The Dustbowl] Unemployed citydwellers were often worse off.
Survival Tactics:
* People did what they had to survive the Great Depression. Clothing was made from feed sacks with thin strips of old tires cut out for elastic for the waist. [Chris B.] Mothers became resourceful in providing clothes for their children, making socks from thread for example. [Adande W.] Most kids wore overalls. If their shoes wore out, they would have to go barefoot for the rest of the year. [Emily E.]
* Food was another problem. No part of a chicken was wasted, even the feet and legs—”the little meat on the toes, we ate it all.” [Jeff D.] People bought only the essentials—flour, sugar, bread & wasted nothing. Leftover bread was made into bread pudding. [Rachel H.] In one case, relatives told of slaughtering animals, putting them on the back of a trailer, taking them door-to-door, and cutting off whatever portion the person wanted to buy.[David F.] In other cases, families ate lots of wild meat—rabbits, squirrels, and birds. [Seth B.] Butter was expensive so they used a a lard-type substance, mixed it until it was fluffy, and added yellow food colorings. [Karen B.) So was meat. Families bought fatback since it was cheaper than lean meat. [Michelle B.] Often food was given away. But only by getting there early could people obtain food such as cheese and herring. [Julio F.]
* In cities, long lines waited at soup kitchens. [Chris W.] Families often took in boarders mostly traveling salesmen who would get three meals a day and all but one of the beds in the house. The kids all had to crowd into the one remaining beds. [Jeff D]
* Those in the Midwest found the “dust to be incredible and life a struggle.” People killed cattle and burned potatoes in an effort to raise prices. [Chris W.]
Living Conditions:
* Few homes in the countryside had electricity before 1936. People still cooked on woodstoves and cooled their food in nearby streams [Shaun W.] Homes were heated by fireplaces and wood stoves. Washing clothes was solved by heating water in a cast iron pot and scrubbing them clean with a scrub board. The cast iron pot doubled as a bath tub. [Dena W.] Water from the well doubled as refrigerated space during the summer. [Chris B.] Cardrboard came in handy for worn out soles and for cutting off the drafts in the house. Tin tubs doubled as bathtubs and for making molasses. [Jennifer C.]
* Food was plentiful if you lived on a farm. Farm families enjoyed a variety of fruits and homegrown vegetables —corn, beans, cabbage, apples, pears and peaches, all of which were canned for later use. [Nadia W.] A typical farm breakfast might consist of creamed corn, fried potatoes, biscuits, butter and molasses. [Jerry D.]
* Typical prices included 15 cents for a pound of potatoes, ten cents for bread, and 5 cents for a pound of bananas [Heather L.] You could buy Oh LaLa for twenty cents. [Megan F.] You could buy a 1928 Model A Ford—on credit—for $450 and fill it up with gas for 15 cents. [Kevin L.] Two years later, in 1930, a new Ford cost $550 and gas 20 cents. [David F.]
* But even that was too much for some. Farmers who had purchased fertilizer for their cotton crops and expected to get 25 cents a pound found that the price had dropped to 5 cents, leaving them stuck with the bill for the fertilizer. [Emily E.] In 1928 one family had purchased a 47 acre farm but when the price of cotton dropped were forced to borrow money from a neighbor to keep the farm. [Jon B.]
* Despite the Depression, schooling was important. Many children attended rural two-room schoolhouses. Grades 1-3 were in one room, 4-7 in other. Boys had to pump water into a drum so that the lunch ladies would have running water in the lunch room. Toliets were outside. [Summer W.] High schools usually ended at the 11th grade. [Will T.]
* Large families, particularly farming families, were the norm, ranging anywhere from eight [Karen. B.] to nine [Nadia W.] to ten [Emily E.] to eleven [Bob B.]
Jobs:
* Unemployment reached new heights during the Great Depression. Many workers faced shorter hours, then layoffs. One father, who had lost his job as a coal mine, moved his family to New York where he and his wife found work in a shoe factory. His children also worked, cleaning house and picking strawberries for a neighbor. One day the neighbor made pancakes. The children thought the pancakes were for them but she opened the door and threw them to her dogs. As soon as she left, the children pushed the dogs out of the way and “swallowed the pancakes like air.” Another daughter mopped and cleaned at a bakery. Often the leftovers that she brought home was all the family had to eat. [Roya Q.]
* People took what jobs they could to survive. One man used to drive around trying to find construction work. Jobs lasted anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks and paid 40 cents an hour, leaving him, he wryly remarked, at “the bottom of the (social) ladder.” [Stephen W.] Others found they needed two jobs just to get by. One farmer supplemented his income by working in a coronor’s office. [Bethany Ke.] . One man after losing his job on the railroad became a barber and an auctioneer. [Jeremy G.]
* Even if you were able to hold on to a job or were a farmer, everyone knew people in the community out of work. Near Shelby, North Carolina, the local cotton mill cut jobs; [Chris R.] in Murfreesboro, the local basket factory closed along with several other businesses; [Jason S.] in Cherryville, the mill slowed down and then closed temporarily. [Ryan Q.] Even owning your own business—a lumber mill for example, did not guarantee your livelihood as one man found who also worked as a land appraiser. [Bethany Kl.]
* Some did relatively well even during the Depression. One man who sold paint and brushes throughout New England was able to send his son to the University of Alabama. Tuition was $60 a semester. [Glynne B.] Another who had begun by priming tobacco from sun up to sun down landed a job at a Joint Stock Land Bank, a farm lending institution. In one of those “it coulda been me” stories, he had an opportunity to buy land for $12 an acre where North Hills Mall now stands. But like many in the cash-starved depression years, he had no spare cash for investment. [Kevin L.] Although one man saw his salary cut in half after 1929 and moved to a managerial job in a hardware store for even less money, he received hardware supplies as part of his salary of a $100 per month. [Jon B.] After selling honey to pay for his college expenses at the University of Richmond, a minister was able to earn $2000 a year by serving two churches. one service in the morning and the other in the evening.
* In reality, people were grateful for working at all. A brick mason found he could only pay his workers 35 cents an hour but added, they were “glad to get it.” After the Depression, neighbors admitted that they had seen him throw scraps to the dogs but were too proud to ask for help. [Susan B.] One Lebanese family in New Bern, who sold newspapers and owned a gift and toy store, included two grandmothers neither of whom spoke English. [Will T.] One mother sold iron cords door-to-door. She also cut the hair of a man who paid her in fruit from the grocery store where he worked. Her husband too found work in a grocery store after he was laid off from the shipyard. The family kept warm with wood stoves but tired of building fires as a way of life. [Rhett D.]
Losses
* The loss of jobs meant hardships for the whole family. A coal miner, forced to give up his job because of illness, found work as a carpenter and handyman to help his family get through “skinny times.” [Deann L.] One small boy grew up with the children of tenants but as times got bad and the tenant family fell behind in their rent, his father rented the land to someone else. His father said that while it was “cold-hearted to send this family out into the cruel world,” he had to do what was best for his own family.[Zach M.] It was difficult for children to understand why their father started to work more and spend less time at home. He was angry because he couldn’t feed his family and would eventually have to send the children away to relatives in Virginia after the bank had foreclosed on his land.[Mye’sha J.]
* Others lost their farms or homes. In Georgia, a family moved from house to house after they had lost their land. The children attended four different gammar schools before the father could get his feet back on the ground. [Wade S.] After losing their farm to bankruptcy, one family found it took several jobs to survive —the mother ran a restaurant and hotel, the father worked as a butcher on the railroad. One time it got so bad, that the city cut off their water, forcing them to go to the gas station for water. [Bethany Kes.] After they lost a lot of land in 1929, only by moving to a smaller house and depending on friends was the family about to get through the depression. [Tres S.]
* The banking crisis affected Americans from all walks of life. When the bank closed and the family lost everything, one family had no choice but to pack all of their belongings into one small box, borrow a car, and move to Knoxville to live with relatives. [David M.] When the bank closed in Prophetstown, Illinois, a family that had owned two large farms and a controlling interest in one of the local banks lost everything. [Grey B.] While some lost only small amounts, others lost so much that they would never again trust banks. [John R.] When people were lining up to withdraw their money from the only bank in Roxobel, North Carolina, one man was able to borrow enough to keep it open. [Adam B.]
* Families and churches were critical in helping people get through loss. Families took in relatives that had lost their land. [Shaun W.] When her uncle lost his job, her parents moved downstairs so that her uncle and his family could move upstairs. [Rachel H.] Another remembered that her uncle asked women friends to come over for dinner he played the viola, they cooked. [Megan F.] In short, if families did not stick together during the depression, they had no chance to survive. [Kethan P.]
* Many children, particularly farm children, were forced to leave school early. One who left when he was fifteen, ever returned and always regretted it. [John R.] In some cases, boys left as early as the fourth grade to help out on the family farm. [Michelle B.] Others simply could not afford the seven cents it cost to ride a street car to school, although it helped when the school started selling a book of tickets half price. [Rachel H.] Others were not so lucky. Unable to afford bus fare, one student dropped out during the tenth grade. [Paul F.] Sometimes children were forced to quit school when their fathers lost their jobs. [Brian B.]
Recreation
* Having fun cost a lot less then than it does now. Swimming was a favorite activity. Boys went swimming in rivers or “muddles,” made Johnny Walkers (stilts), jumped rope, or played horseshoes. [Shaun W.] Since they couldn’t afford swimming suits, boys and girls swam nude but in separate swimming holes. They drank pepsi, ate moon pies for lunch and listened to the Lone Ranger, Amos and Andy, and Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy on the radio. [Jeff D.] Boys sometimes dammed up the creek and went skinny dipping with the local girls. They drank “dope” or coke, and listened to boxing on the radio. [Wade S.] The only fun one person could remember was riding an old mule barebacked, eating a candy bar andr drinking a coke. [Jason S.]
* Activities acceptable to adults included apple peelings and picnics; on the other hand, drinking and sitting in cars were not acceptable. [Bethany Kl.] Young people tended to congregate at each other’s homes for entertainment. They pushed back the furniture, someone would play the piano, another the saxaphone, and the rest would dance. [Rachel H.] Others would go to the YMCA to jitterbug or go sledding in the winter. [Jeremy G.]
* Playing games was big. Monopoly was just out. [Daniel K.] In Buffalo, New York, one family played board games, went to movies, and listened to Burns and Allen [Brian B.] but one Missouri woman would not see a movie until she was fourteen. [Summer L.] But to many, the best times were simply sitting around the fireplace, popping corn, and listening to Amos and Andy. [Susan B.]
* Christmas was often bleak. One little girl will never forget the $6 store bought doll that her whole family chipped in to buy. [Karen B.] One young boy always received horehound candy and one special toy—usually skates that he would wear out by the end of spring and be ready for another pair the next Christmas. [Jeff D.] But many depression children usually did not receive gifts and had to be satisfied with an apple or orange. [Kate Y.]
Strikes
* The 1930s were a period of labor unrest, strikes, and formation of a new national organization committed to industrial unionism, the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organization). Many were afraid that even talking about unionizing would cost factory workers their jobs. [DeAnn L.] Others stated that they were so happy to have a job that no one felt that they could afford to strike. [Jason S.] Often coal mine operators offered incentives in an effort to keep unions out by giving workers “tons of benefits” and better working conditions. But any miner that joined a strike could lose his job. [Roya Q.]
* Efforts to organize unions often resulted in violence. In Marion, North Carolina, a bunch of “damn Yankees” came down to help unionize the South. Trouble started when representatives of the tried to keep local workers from entering the factory. A shootout resulted and several people were killed. After that the unions kept away from Marion. [Jeff D.] One of North Carolina’s best known strikes took place at the Firestone-Loray Textile mill in Gastonia in 1929. Strikers were trying to organize a union, shots rang out, and the Gastonia police chief, D. A. Alderholt was killed. [Heather L.]
African-Americans and the Depression
* Already poor for the most part, African-Americans were hit particularly hard by the depression. Share farmers (croppers) buying groceries on credit were not allowed to see a record of their grocery tab. This led to the belief that the grocery store owner was cheating them to keep them working on the farm. They often ate rancid food given to poor blacks by whites. Department stores would not allow blacks to try on clothes unless they purchased the item, otherwise the store maintained that it cold not sell the clothes. Nor were they allowed to return items after purchase. [Adande W.]
* Raleigh like other places in the South was segregated. During live performances at the Grand Theater, blacks sat in the back while whites sat in the bottom toward the front. Even in Raleigh there were black homes with no running water, refrigerators, or indoor plumbing. Such organizations as Masonic Lodges aided black communities. One man planned his visits to coincide with meals. In that way, he often ended up with four meals. [Marcia H.]
* One young girl remembers white kids on busses spitting on her as she walked to school. [Daniel S.] One nine year old whose father had died and whose mother kept the family afloat by working as a housekeeper part of the time and tended hogs the other, vividly remembers his mother saying, “just because times were hard, wasn’t reason to abandon others in need.” To this family, the church was a rallying point for “poor folk.” [Derek A.] In one family, the father farmed and the mother worked for a white woman “as hateful as wet cat.” She often had to work on holidays such as Christmas for half pay. The family would eventually lose his land, reinforcing the father’s convinction that the banks took black lands first. [Mye’sha J.]
Hoover and Roosevelt
* By 1932—”the cruelest year,” many Americans were blaming Hoover personally for the Great Depression. Hoovervilles—cardboard shacks—began to appear all across America. Hoover carts were automobiles pulled by mules or in some cases, two wheeled vehicles pulled by a horse.[Dena W.] As one women remarked, Hoover promised to put people back on their feet—he did, “he put them to walking.” [Summer W.]
* FDR, on the other hand, gave Americans hope. Many listened to his fireside chats [Marshall G.], reassured by that they had “nothing to fear but fear itself.” [DeAnn L.] Even hidebound Republicans could not help but credit Roosevelt for the many noticable improvements in their communities, new schools and roads for example. [John R.]
New Deal
* Many benefitted from the jobs created by New Deal programs such as the WPA (Works Progress Administration). One man found a job working for the local school system keeping the grounds in order. [Dena W.] The WPA and other New Deal relief efforts were not meant to provide permanent jobs, instead they provided temporary employment, at what were in many cases, makeshift jobs. One man and his son worked with the WPA for fifty one days and then was off for two months. [Chris W.] While constructing roads and parks, WPA hired local people, paying a farmer with his team of horses and wagon $2.50 a day. [Michelle B.] One woman was paid regularly by NYA (National Youth Authority] for turning in her assignments. [Daniel K.] One man rode his bicycle to Louisberg where the WPA paid him to sweep the streets. [Melissa F.] WPA also put unemployed writers, artists, and actors to work. One Marion NC man managed to get hold a a piece of WPA depression art, a Granger tobacco box. It was his prized possession. [Jeff D.]
* Not everyone approved of these New Deal programs. Derisively referred to as “we poke along,” [Chris R.] or “We piddle around” [Jonna B.], many thought such programs were not very helpful in getting the country out of the depression. Many Americans were also suspicious of government handouts or could not understand why so many people need assistance. [Bethany Kl.]
* One man left home for the first time to work with the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). He, like other young men 18-25, were sent to CCC camps generally operated by the Department of War. They lived in barracks holding fifty men each. The first couple of months he worked building new roads. When the weather got bad, he was sent to the mountains to clean up the forests because fires had destroyed a lot of trees. He cut down damaged ones and planted new ones. [Nadia W.] In another case, one man remembers the CCC coming to town like an army with their barracks, trucks, uniforms, building roads and bridges, clearing the forest, and most importantly, giving the local high school girls something to get excited about. [Ralph E.] A sand dune built outside his beach home is a constant reminder of the work done by the CCC. [Will C.] Many got an early lesson in protecting the environment while working with the CCC. [Heather L.]
Helping Hands
* Most people, even during the darkest days of the Great Depression, were willing to lend a hand to help their neighbors or strangers. After all, as most Americans realized that while they were having a rough time, so was everyone else. Parents tried to hid the hard times from their children. Even if they never made the struggle obvious, it was there. [Kate Y.]
* Houses where people could find a meal were often marked with an arrow [Grey B.] or in the case of one Raleigh woman, with a cross in her yard. [Michelle B.] Families often found hoboes at their back door offering to work for food. To them, these men were not bums but honest people that had been hit hard by the depression. In fact, one family member maintained, the term hobo comes from the “ho” or work such as-hoeing the garden and “boe” from boys. [Rachel H.]
* One mother packed two lunches, one for a girl in her daughter’s class who could not afford to bring her own. Her father offered his medical services in exchange for a carton of eggs or some non-monetary means of payment. The family donated clothes and delivered food to the poor. [Will C.] In Reidsville, women worked together to sew clothes for the needest families. [Jennifer C.]
Lasting Impact
* The Great Depression made a profound impact on those who had lived through it. Many had a greater appreciation of what it was like to be without a job or money. They would be careful with money for the rest of their lives, doing without if they thought they couldn’t afford it. [Kate Y.] One woman bitterly remembers how she was taken out of school, and made to work endless hours for little money. She still thinks about how hungry she was most of the time and how she resented having to wear something that said “flour” or “sugar” on it. She remembers standing in a bread line, afraid that they would run out of food by the time she got there. She truly feels herself to be a “child of the depression.” [Roya Q.] A few have attempted to put the Depression behind them, not wanting to remember how rough her family’s life was then. [Summer L.] It is even more difficult to convey to others what it was like during “hard times,”— “you had to live it to believe it.” [Kevin L.]
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/kilgroe/GtDep.htm
Surviving the Great Depression
Bread Lines
The gaity of the 1920s faded into the gloom of the Great Depression. Beginning with the 1929 Stock Market crash, the Great Depression would linger on through the 1930s. By 1932 a quarter of the civilian labor force was unemployed, banks were failing, families were dispossessed, and in the land of plenty, Americans were going hungry. Bread lines began to form in American cities by 1930. Capitalism itself was on trial.
Causes of the Great Depression or What happened to prosperity?
# Underlying Structural Weaknesses of the Economy Over-dependency on industries such as the automobile, consumer buying, and construction to sustain prosperity.
# Maldistribution of income-too much to those on the top of the income scale, too little to those on the bottom.
# Lack of purchasing power by farmers, workers, and after 1930, an increasingly large number of the middle class.
# A weak banking and credit system.
# Unstable international economy—the German reparations, Allied debts, American bankers’ loans—High Tariffs.
Wall Street Crash
Speculation on the stock market and buying on margin contributed to the 1929 Stock Market crash. Not only did the crash shatter business confidence, it also acted as a catalyst exposing the structural weaknesses of the economy. [For a discussion of the crash, see ]
Glad to hear it all worked out. I was wondering where everybody went. I hadn’t got any pings for a while.
Another way of testing the seal besides pushing on the button, is to push up on the edge of the lid with your thumb.
Anything with a good seal shouldn’t just pop open with just thumb pressure.
I know 1 1/4 inches seems like a lot of head space, but if it’s more the contents seem to ooze out some from boiling and that will likely ruin the seal since food particles could get caught between the rim of the jar and the lid.
I expect pressure canned meat to look and be flaky. I think it just comes with the territory. As long as you did it for the recommended cooking time, I think you’ll be OK. I think they plan the cooking times to balance cooking it enough to be safe and not too much to ruin the quality of the food.
But, hey, you’ve got food. When food is scarce, no one worries about quality so much.
>>>It would be interesting to test the heat given out at night, would it be enough to power a small brooder for chicks and poultry?<<<
The LED lights produce very little heat. They are very efficient in producing light - without wasted energy for heat.
When the chips are down, and you really need to raise some chicks, the ‘Old Fashioned’ way is still the best... Let that broody hen do the work. She is better at it than we will ever be... (Just give her the opportunity and the space where she can do it without other chickens bothering her)
You do?
Why, I never do that.
/ducking lightning bolt....
http://www.prlog.org/10184375-the-3-secrets-to-surviving-hard-times.html
The 3 Secrets to Surviving Hard Times
Hard times adds pressure to our love relationships, fear that we can’t provide for our families, and grave concern for what might happen next. The following are the 3 secrets to surviving hard times.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Feb 17, 2009 – People are out of work and struggling to survive. Businesses are failing or being purchased for less than their true value. People who once had a lot of wealth in the stock market are now desperate to just hold on to what they have left. Those who are employed or that have profitable businesses know that there is no guarantee it will be that way tomorrow. All of this adds pressure to our love relationships, fear that we can’t provide for our families, and grave concern for what might happen next. The following are the secrets to surviving hard times.
1. Take Action on the Things You Control
Don’t let your ego keep you broke. Be prepared to take lesser paying jobs or multiple jobs to fill the income gap until you can find the position you ultimately desire. Your value as a person has nothing to do with your earning potential. So, don’t feel like less of a person because you have to take an undesirable position temporarily until things get better.
Budget big time. You must understand how much you are spending and what you are spending it on. Whether you currently have an income or not, you either need cash right now or should be saving cash in the event things change for you in the future. Spend on needs. Postpone wants. Buy sale items and find coupons in circulars, on line and in the newspaper. A daily cup of your favorite coffee at $3 or more per day can equal more than $90 in a typical month. That could be food for your family for a week or more. Where else can you reallocate funds? You won’t know until you track it.
Make job searching your full time job. If you are out of work or think you will be soon, make finding another job a temporary career. Your resume must be current, clear, and free of typos. Every day, send out 20 resumes or apply for 20 jobs. Use the internet, the newspapers, walk into businesses, network with friends, and track down old employers. Follow up on every lead and don’t give up. In this market, there will be many no’s, but 1 yes can make all the difference. Remember that you are looking for your 1 yes. Dress sharply for interviews and send thank you letters or emails. Take all feedback seriously. If you are told that you were not successful in getting a position, ask them “who do you know that is also hiring for similar positions?”
Bring your “A Game” to everything you do at your current job or business. Think of new ways to save or make money for your employers and customers. Become the person that identifies and solves problems. Providing the most value may be the difference between you and someone else being laid off at the next decision point.
Help others. In addition to just being the right thing to do, helping another may turn into an opportunity for yourself as well. Help with your skills, knowledge, or finances if you can right now. Assisting others also helps you remain optimistic about your situation.
Remain optimistic. Your attitude affects your judgment, and how you do what you do. A negative mindset can cause you to say or do something to negatively impact opportunities, family, or your motivation. More than anything else, remain optimistic for your current situation and your future.
2. Understand What You Influence
You influence job decisions, but don’t control them. You can be the most qualified person when applying and interviewing for a job and still not get it. Therefore, you influence your standing in a potential employers mind, but they make the ultimate decision. Put your energy into making the best presentation possible. That’s where you have the most influence. However, you have no control over the results.
Your attitude will influence how you and your loved ones view your situation. An attitude of optimism and gratitude will allow others to remain motivated to improve the situation. Optimism keeps a positive outlook. Gratitude allows you to focus on what is going well rather than on what is going wrong. Likewise, an attitude of hopelessness will influence you and your loved ones. When one feels hopeless, they often resort to inaction. People may stop assisting in your search or offering to help you. You can best influence others by remaining positive. Continue to search for ways to improve your situation and others will be more inclined to help you.
Your customers do business with you based on their confidence in you. While you don’t directly control their opinions, there is influence that you can exert. Find out what problems your customers have, and then offer services to solve them. Be polite, respectful, and go above and beyond. Understand what your customers find most important, and then make that your priority as well.
Local, state, and federal politicians represent their constituents. That’s you. While they will vote on policies based on what they think their constituents want, their ultimate decision lies with them. You do not control the decisions your politicians make on your behalf. However, you can influence them. Everyone seems to have a point of view related to the Economic Stimulus Package and the funds set aside to assist banks with lending. Write and call your government representatives. Tell them your story and how you are ideas. Join groups that help to create a louder voice for your representatives to listen to. Then remember to vote in the next elections based on the their performance.
3. Don’t Waste Time With Things You Don’t Control or Influence
The Economic Stimulus Package may provide some relief to you in the coming months and years. However, you don’t control how and when money and jobs will come to your region or your areas of expertise. Instead of focusing on how this bill may or may not impact you, stick to the plan. Engage in action that will help your family rather than pondering when you will feel the results of government action.
The media is doing a great job of covering the current state of the economy from every possible angle. They include stories of desperation and hardship at the personal, business, and local government levels. The story continues to state that things will get worst before it gets better. We all know this story now. It may be time to turn off the news or at least watch much less of it now. You don’t control the content of the media. The current content seems to be taking an increasing negative slant. This is exactly what you don’t need right now. Determine for yourself if watching and reading the news is helping or hurting your efforts at survival. If it is hurting, then stop.
There are people in your life that want to commiserate about how bad things are rather than discussing options to make things better. They may have reached the stage of hopelessness, and don’t want to be convinced otherwise. They are at the point where you can’t influence their way of thinking. Also, you may be in danger of being negatively impacted by them. You may need to alter what you discuss or how often you speak to them to keep your attitude as optimistic and solutions-focused as possible. Your best influence of them may be to improve your situation first and then show them with proof how they can do the same.
You do not control results. You only control what you do in response to them. Don’t dwell on the results you receive. Instead, find the lessons to learn within the results to tweak your action plan going forward. Dwelling on results, good or bad, is inactivity due to pre-occupation.
# # #
James LeGrand is the publisher of www.SpiritualIndividual.com, a free weekly newsletter that presents solutions to life’s issues through the lens of self-help, wisdom, philosophy and spirituality. He is the author of an Amazon.com best seller in Religion and Spirituality titled “Evolve!”, and an Expert Author with www.EzineArticles.com. James LeGrand is also a life coach, a Fortune 500 Vice President, and a Sifu in Shaolin Kungfu, which has been known for centuries as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment.
[posted as an interesting use/thought, LOL, I had not thought of using honey and essential oils as a healer, Laugh, but do use the each alone....granny]
Veterinarian Creates All-Purpose, Honey-Based Remedy to Promote Fast Healing in Horses
For the Treatment of Sunburn, Dermatitis, Allergic Reactions, Hot Spots, Thrush, Saddle Sores, Cuts and Abrasions, Skin Infections, Catastrophic Wounds
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 01, 2009 – After years of searching for the perfect product for the kinds of injuries and skin afflictions she saw every day in her equine practice, Cheryl L. Detamore, DVM, created MeliHeal All-Purpose Healing Salve™, an all-natural, honey-based remedy, to encourage fast healing.
With a unique blend of honey—an ancient remedy for the treatment of infected wounds—and natural healing ingredients, MeliHeal helps prevent infection, repair damaged tissue and encourage skin growth. It has proven an effective treatment for a wide range of equine ailments—from skin infections and allergic reactions to catastrophic wounds and soft-tissue injuries.
“As a veterinarian to the horse industry for years, I’ve seen every kind of cut, abrasion and open wound there is,” Dr. Detamore says. “Oftentimes, these injuries are challenging to treat—bandages won’t stick, sutures are impossible, and most topical products just won’t adhere to the wound.
“That’s why I developed MeliHeal. With a soothing combination of honey and essential oils, MeliHeal’s anti-microbial properties encourage fast healing, even in the most severe cases. And its composition allows it to readily adhere to the wound site, forming a protective barrier to prevent infection.”
MeliHeal’s unique combination of ingredients promotes healing by encouraging the growth of healthy cells and the re-growth of proper tissue—not brittle scar tissue or “proud flesh,” which is inflexible and difficult to combat once established.
MeliHeal is made up of three primary ingredients—natural lanolin, honey and a proprietary blend of essential oils, or plant extracts. The lanolin softens tissue, keeping it supple and moist to promote healthy healing, and is important for the re-growth of hair. Honey is a natural anti-bacterial that facilitates healing. The essential oils, a natural insect repellant, are anti-microbial, increase circulation to the wound, help draw out fluids, reduce swelling and are an excellent source of vitamin E, which is vital in promoting tissue re-growth. And the aromatic effects of MeliHeal are very soothing to the animal.
For more information and customer testimonials, visit www.meliheal.com.
About the MeliHeal Inventor
Cheryl L. Detamore, DVM, has practiced equine medicine for over 10 years, including a stint specializing in Thoroughbred horses in the heart of Kentucky’s horse country. A graduate of the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Detamore now practices in Virginia and West Virginia. She has written about equine health for Western Horseman magazine.
# # #
MeliHeal is an all-natural, honey-based healing salve formulated by a veterinarian to encourage fast healing.
# # #
Issued By : MeliHeal All-Purpose Healing Salve
Contact Email : Click to email (Partial email - @yahoo.com)
City/Town : Martinsburg
State/Province : West Virginia
Zip : 26812
Country : United States
Categories : Pets, Agriculture, Health
Tags : horse, healing, natural, honey, salve, ointment, essential oils
Last Updated : Jun 01, 2009
Shortcut : www.prlog.org/10247972
Learn How To Build a Solar Panel, a Home Wind Turbine and a DIY Solar Water Heater
Discover some informative tips on how to build a solar panel, a home wind turbine or a DIY solar water heater at a very low cost.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – May 30, 2009 – GreenEarth4Energy.com provides informative tips on how to build a solar panel, a home wind turbine or a DIY solar water heater at a very low cost. With these amazing knowledge, you can actually reduce 80% or even 100% of your electric bill. However, is it true? Can people really achieve that goal? Well let me share this with you.
The Contents of the site includes:
• How To Build a Solar Panel, a Home Wind Turbine or a Solar Hot Water Heater
• Benefits of Home Wind Turbines, Home Solar Power Systems and DIY Solar Water Heater
• How does the Solar And Wind Power Work
• Videos on How To Build Your Own Solar Panel or Home Wind Turbine
• Electricity Saving Tips
• How to Save the Earth with Wind and Solar Power
Apart from learning how to build a Solar or wind system for less than $200, you can actually get a $600 battery free. Not just all, by installing such energy saving systems, you can even reduce costs by 90%.
The results vary from person to person, because everyone uses a different amount of fuel or consumption of electricity at their home. But it is sure that you will get back your investment after installing a solar or wind system within a few days. Energy prices in the global world are rising up and we need such alternate energy to generate savings which will secure for the future.
Many scientists and experts are exploring further to seek alternative fuels that will reduce greenhouse effect caused by the fossil fuel gases. Now is your chance to come forward and do your part and help the environment.
Quickly, let me mention the returns on investing on installation kits. A windmill kit will cost you around $100, which is really nothing when compared to the average energy bill that you get every month. This windmill will be generating you the power or electricity for at least the next 3 to 5 years, possibly saving you lots of dollars in your energy bill. Also, the solar panels can be easily constructed with a budget around $150, which is very cheap compared to those professional installs. Also, even if you have a professionally installed device, then you may have to wait for years before you get back the money.
If you are interested to learn more about how to build your very own home solar power systems, home wind turbines or DIY solar water heater, visit us at:
http://www.greenearth4energy.com
http://www.earthenergyguide.com
[videos at link]
# # #
Andy O Silliven is an engineer and author in the fields of electrical engineering. He enjoys writing about the topic and keeping up with current events and research in the area of renewable energy sources. http://www.greenearth4energy.com
# # #
Issued By : Andy O’Silliven
Contact Email : Click to email (Partial email - @gmail.com)
City/Town : West Palm Beach
State/Province : Florida
Zip : 31414
Country : United States
Categories : Home, Energy, Environment
Tags : solar panel, solar power systems, solar panel systems, solar panels, diy solar water heater, home wind turbine
Last Updated : May 30, 2009
Shortcut : www.prlog.org/10246964
Check your county regulations before proceeding. Someone in our county did this and is being sued, it is illegal to produce one’s own power, no kidding! I live in NC.
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