Posted on 02/24/2009 4:31:17 AM PST by Kaslin
An old Spanish proverb says, "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy." I believe that value holds, in or out of a recession. And seeing as my 87-year-old mother lived through the Great Depression, I think her value (and that of those like her) will increase through these tough economic times because her insider wisdom can help us all.
Mother was about 10 years old when her eight-member family endured the thick of those recessive days in rural Wilson, Okla., which only has a population of 1,600 today. The recurring droughts across the heartland during that period dried up the job market, making it worse in the Midwest than it even was in the rest of the country. Over the years, my grandpa worked multiple jobs, from the oil fields to the cotton fields, and he was even a night watchman. The family members did what they could to contribute, but most of them were simply too young to play a major part.
In 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt took office, his administration, through the Works Project Administration, brought about the employment of millions in civil construction projects, from bridges to dams to airports to roads. My grandfather traveled about 90 miles for a day's work to help build the Lake Murray dam. But with a far smaller ratio of jobs to potential laborers, if Grandpa worked five days a month (at $1.80 a day), it was a good month.
Like most families, my mother's family didn't have running water or electricity. And Granny did her best to keep the outhouse clean, with Grandpa helping by regularly depositing lye to control the odors. (You can imagine how the hot, humid Oklahoma summers turned that outside commode into one smelly closet-sized sauna.) A "scavenger wagon" came by once a week and cleaned out the hole, which had a small chairlike contraption over it with the center punched out. (They once had a two-seater in there, which allowed for two people to enjoy each other's company and conversation. Mom told me that she always felt a little upper-class when she sat with someone else!) By the way, and I'm not trying to be crude, toilet tissue wasn't around, so they used pages from Montgomery Ward catalogs (and you wondered why the catalogs were so thick). No joke -- they preferred the non-glossy pages. I'll let you figure out why.
Got the picture? With that in mind, I turn to a recent conversation I had with my mother. I asked her, "How would you encourage the average American to weather the economic storms of today?"
Here's her advice, in her words:
--"Get back to the basics. Simplify your life. Live within your means. People have got to be willing to downsize and be OK with it. We must quit borrowing and cut spending. Be grateful for what you have, especially your health and loved ones. Be content with what you have, and remember the stuff will never make you happy. Never. Back then, we didn't have one-hundredth of what people do today, and yet we seemed happier than most today, even during the Great Depression.
--"Be humble and willing to work. Back then, any work was good work. We picked cotton, picked up cans, scrap metal, whatever it took to get by. Where's that work ethic today? If someone's not being paid $10 an hour today, they're whining and unwilling to work, even if they don't have a job. The message from yesteryear is don't be too proud to do whatever it takes to meet the financial needs of your family.
--"Be rich in love. We didn't have much. In fact, we had nothing at all, compared to people today, but we had each other. We were poor, but rich in love. We've lost the value of family and friends today, and we've got to gain it back if we're ever to get back on track. If we lose all our stuff and still have one another and our health, what have we really lost?
--"Be a part of a community. Today people are much more alone, much more isolated. We used to be close with our neighbors. If one person had a bigger or better garden or orchard, they shared the vegetables and fruits with others in need. Society has shifted from caring for one another to being dependent upon government aid and welfare. That is why so many today trust in government to deliver them. They've forgotten an America that used to rally around one another in smaller clusters, called neighborhoods and communities. We must rekindle those local communal fires and relearn the power of that age-old commandment, 'Love thy neighbor.'
--"Help someone else. We never quit helping others back then. Today too many people are consumed with their own problems and only helping themselves. 'What's in it for me?' is the question most are asking. But back then, it was, 'What can I do to help my neighbor, too?' I love Rick Warren's book 'The Purpose Driven Life,' and especially his thought, 'We were created for community, designed to be a blessing to others.' Most of all, helping others gets our minds off of our problems and puts things into better perspective.
--"Lean upon God for help and strength. We didn't just have each other to lean on, but we had God, too. We all attended church and belonged to a faith community. Church was the hub of society, the community core and rallying point. Today people turn to government the way we used to turn to churches. It's been that way ever since Herbert Hoover's alleged promise of a 'chicken in every pot' and President Roosevelt's New Deal. Too many have abandoned faith and community. We trust in money more than God. And maybe that's a reason why we're in this economic pickle."
Now that's conventional wisdom that should be shouted and posted in every corridor of government, every community across America, and every blog on the Internet.
Call me overly pragmatic, but I think a little practical wisdom and encouragement is what we all need about now. Mom always was good for that. She still is.
That may be. Here in our little section of central PA you don’t have to lock your door when you go out, and you can get a great house with a yard and two wonderful neighbors for under $20k. If it’s a foreclosure, half that. If it’s rent-to-own, figure $250-400 a month.
It is also a very gun-friendly state. :D
I'm one of the determined ones; my neighbors already think I'm nuts because I'm the only person in this neighborhood of professionals who actually cuts and chops her own firewood; some of them don't even know how to build a fire when the power goes out, and they end up at my house huddling by the fireplace. Point is, the vast majority of people are going to be helpless. Freepers are deff in the minority.
And I would like to reiterate my warnings about suburban husbands with their first guns.
We don’t have a fireplace, but we have coats and sub-zero camping gear ;-). Hunting is just not going to be a possibility for most people, even if it were legal.
Twenty years ago, when I was toward the end of a high-risk pregnancy, we had a major ice storm. There was no electricity for five days, and no way to drive out of the neighborhood because so many trees were down across the roads. I could hike out due to my pregnancy—I was very awkward anyway, and could not risk a fall.
It was very cold because we didn’t have a fireplace or woodstove. My husband hiked out and brought supplies back with great difficulty, but I was really miserable. I swore I would never again live in a house with no independent source of heat. And I have kept my oath.
Good for you!
You are right to be pessimistic. There are a whole lot of people who don’t know the first thing about hunting for food or dressing it once they kill it - or how to grow their own vegetables, or God forbid not have a tv, computer, air conditioning, etc. Wonder how many people don’t even have a tent? So much of being prepared for the worst is plain ol common sense -
You had seperate out houses for boys and girls? You were rich!
Greenspan and others had (and still have) the idea that wage inflation was the number one economic enemy to be fought. Fortunately, the unfolding deflationary spiral is likely to take asset prices and rents (but not food nor gasoline prices) down faster and harder than wages will fall, so things should ultimately normalize a bit at a lower level.
Your mother is a wise woman. That was an excellent read.
My greatgrands (dead before I was born) had ten kids - 6 boys and 4 girls. I think two outhouses were probably a necessity, not a luxury. The farm’s been there since colonial days, so there’s a blacksmith shop, a smokehouse, a springhouse - whole nine yards. It’s all falling down now.
They're not, and that's why all the stores have huge drops right now. Even Wal-Mart was dang near empty one night last week.
Greenspan was wrong. In a free market economy, the price of labor would be regulated by supply and demand. Manipulation of markets to the benefit of a favored few is the number one economic enemy.
Artificially manipulating the supply of labor, by waiving immigration limits and by encouraging an invasion of illegal aliens to benefit corporate donors, is not free market activity.
American taxpaying citizens have been paying the price in decreased incomes, and now they are being ordered to pay again with increased taxes to prop up these suicidal corporations.
They're going to wish they'd cut up their frogs in Biology Class. I've cleaned chickens, but my HOA won't allow those. Rabbits are considered pets, so that's what I'm planning for.
We’re starting our own garden - and my parents live in the country and raise goats and cattle, so I think we’re covered should the worst happen. 3 of my boys are grown and in the military. Our last one is 16 and has been involved with 4-H and knows how to hunt and shoot for food.
I predict that if the entire economic structure comes down in ruins, and we’re cooking kudzu soup over a fire in the back yard using our fence boards, nastygrams and fine notices from the HOA will still arrive like clockwork.
“We have noticed that your privacy fence is missing nine boards on the north side and three on the west. We’re sure that only an oversight has caused you to allow this deterioration, and that you’ll have the fence repaired within fourteen days from the date of this notice. Fines of up to $20 a day will be assessed if this period expires without the requested repairs’ being made. P.S. Do not pick any more kudzu from the common areas.”
Well, that explains it. There were only 7 of us kids. My oldest brother was married and gone though when my youngest brother was born.
I have 3 sister and 3 brothers. I haven't quite figured it out yet but my sister tells me she has 4 brothers and 2 sisters.
Fireplaces now illegal in many places. Cutting wood highly regulated and costly in most national forests, and completely illegal without the proper permit even on private land in a lot of places.n
Water was free.
Wells now regulated and controlled by government. Irrigation water for farming must take second place to saving the fish of the delta.
Health insurance was unheard of and medical care unsophisticated, so there was no money slated for it: if a child got scarlet fever or dad got a heart attack, he simply died.
Health insurance mandatory in some states, and all must pay taxes for the health insurance of others, whether or not one can afford it himself.
One didn't get bills for electricity, gas, car insurance, car registration. Property taxes and income taxes were minimal.
Neighbors bartered goods for services.
All barter is now subject to income tax taxation. Lost your home and must live with relatives ? Subject to taxation . Lose your home to the bank ? Now you must pay income tax on the debt forgiven !
Truly we are slaves !
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