Yep.
That, is the heart, of the Heartland --- Family.
Posted on 07/21/2011 12:33:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
I just read two very interesting articles on the U.S. economy, written from historical perspectives. They compelled me to share my own historical perspective. And what I want to say is more about our changing culture than our economy.
One of the articles, by Julie Crawshaw of MoneyNews.com, notes that the "Misery Index"—the combined unemployment and inflation rates—made infamous under President Jimmy Carter, has hit a 28-year high. It's also 62 percent higher than when President Obama took office.
But that's nothing compared to Mort Zuckerman's article in U.S. News & World Report. Zuckerman measures the current situation against the Great Depression. He writes:
jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off.... We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression.Zuckerman is a perceptive writer who looks at economies from a historical perspective. In my comparative politics course at Grove City College, I use his article on the Russian collapse in the 1990s, which Zuckerman showed was worse than our Great Depression.
I can't say we're teetering on that precipice, but Zuckerman's article got me thinking: Imagine if America today experienced an economic catastrophe similar to the 1930s. How would you survive?
I remember asking that question to my grandparents, Joseph and Philomena. How did they survive the Great Depression?
My grandmother, never at a loss for words, direly described how her family avoided starving. Compensation came via barter. Her father, an Italian immigrant, baked bread and cured meats in an oven in the tiny backyard, among other trades he learned in the old country. My grandmother cleaned the house and babysat and bathed the children of a family who owned a grocery store. They paid her with store products. Her family struggled through by creatively employing everyone’s unique skills.
What about my grandfather? When I asked that question as he sat silently, my grandmother raised her loud Italian voice and snapped: "Ah, he didn't suffer! Don’t even ask him!"
My grandfather, also Italian, returned the shout: "Ah, you shut up! You're a damned fool!"
Grandma: "No, you're a damned fool!"
After the typical several minutes of sustained insults, my grandfather explained that, indeed, his family didn’t suffer during the depression. They noticed no difference whatsoever, even as America came apart at the seams.
Why not? Because they were farmers. They got everything from the land, from crops and animals they raised and hunted to fish they caught. They raised every animal possible, from cattle to rabbits. They ate everything from the pig, from head to feet. There were eggs from chickens and cheese and milk from goats and cows. There were wild plants.
I was captivated as my grandfather explained his family's method of refrigeration: During the winter, they broke ice from the creek and hauled it into the barn, where it was packed in sawdust for use through the summer. They didn’t over-eat. They preserved food, and there was always enough for the family of 12.
When their clothes ripped, they sewed them. When machines broke, they fixed them. They didn't over-spend. Home repairs weren’t contracted out. Heat came from wood they gathered.
And they didn't need 1,000 acres of land to do this.
They were totally self-sufficient—and far from alone. Back then, most Americans farmed, knew how to grow things, or provided for themselves to some significant degree.
That conversation with my grandparents came to mind as I read Zuckerman's piece and considered life under another Great Depression. I realized: The vast majority of Americans today would be incapable of providing for themselves. If you live in the city with no land, you'd be in big trouble. Even most Americans, who have a yard with soil, wouldn’t know what to do.
Isn’t it ironic that with all our scandalously expensive education—far more than our grandparents' schooling—we've learned so little? We can't fix our car let alone shoot, gut, skin, and butcher a deer.
Think about it: If you lacked income for food, or if prices skyrocketed, or your money was valueless, what would you do for yourself and your family?
Americans today are a lifetime from their grandparents and great grandparents. God help us if we ever face a calamity like the one they faced—and survived.
You know something is wrong with the Government controlled currency and/or taxes when folk are able to barter but not buy and sell with currency.
The great depression was very much a goverment made and sustained disasters. Indeed one can actually watch the changes in the economy and directly tie the repeated crashes to new repressive goverment interventions coming online.
In the 1930’s the Federal goverment of the United States was at war with our economy.
My grandfather farmed as did my father. I grew up learning all those ways. My father used mostly current, at the time, farming practices but my uncle, who farmed the “home place” continued the old horse drawn old ways of doing things well into the late 50s.
I still do all the butchering for the family and grow most all of the vegetables we will eat in the next year. We make our own bacon, ham, sausage etc and still can make most of the cheeses we care to eat.
Less people, more resources then. Having been born in rural Oklahoma in 1938, I know a little about hard times. However as many medications as I take to stay alive, I would last no more the 90 days. Even if you have resources, people will not politely starve like they did before, I can practically guarantee that.
No matter how fortified you are there will be little way to keep the hordes at bay, even well armed castles eventually fall. The good part is they will leave the well defense till last simply because there is lower hanging fruit, but eventual they will come for you.
The world I was born into doesn’t exist any longer.
Or use the reusable Tattler lids.
FDA said walnuts are a drug today, and yet the worker bees just continue as before.
I can just see them two having a meeting with some govt flunkie sent out to try & get a lot of info from them for the govt to “Help” them & they show him around the swamp only he gets lost & the alligators get a free meal. (8^>)
I had the same problem but found out that by putting shade cloth over them I still am getting tomatoes even. I put all my plants in buried pots where they are either under shade cloth or in natural shade from a tree for at least half the day. After I did that they are all doing normal again.
Yep, there are a lot of them here too. Very gentle breed. The long horns look a bit intimidating but they are not.
We will put back Angus cattle I suppose. We could have kept a few head, have one pasture with springs and it is sub irrigated on 1/2 the plot. We could have even watered a little of the pasture but the winter is where the problem is. Unless we get general rains before mid-November it is doubtful there will be any wheat pasture this winter. It could happen, but it might not too.
I have had some thoughts about buying a select few head of very young heifers to give us something to start over with.
The problem is very wide spread geographically.
The manner in which it died (i.e. chased or instant kill) will definitely affect the way it tastes.
Before I started school (more than 55 yrs ago), I stayed with them all summer and fall. They lived in a house in “town” and drove out to the farm morning and evening to milk the cows, feed the chickens and hogs.
The house in town had no running water, but they did have a cistern close to the back porch for laundry and baths. We hauled drinking water from the neighbors well in metal buckets, and used a dipper to fill our glasses.
The houses almost all had outhouses, and the main street was gravel. Most of the houses had chickens and gardens in the back yard. In fact, a certain amount of such produce was guaranteed by city ordinance. This was all in the 1950’s. In the 1960’s my aunt got running water and an indoor bathroom, which we used on Saturday nights to get ready for church on Sunday.
The laundry continued to be done on a wringer washer. In fact, the local laundromat was a building containing a whole bunch of wringer washers and tubs. The yard was full of clothes lines. Granny and I spent every Monday morning washing clothes and hanging them on the line.
Then we sat under the shade with some Iced Tea and talked with the owners until the clothes were dry. So I expect a lot of small town people did have gardens, and did raise their own produce during the Great Depression, because they were still doing it in the 1950's.
As to the current period, Hubby and I have forgotten exactly how to do a lot of the old-time things we grew up seeing, but a couple of years ago, we starting buying some books about how to do these things. In our backyard(we live in a subdivision), we started to use our garden patch again, and added 2 more garden areas, and some raised beds. Last year my first ever canning project on my own (without Granny )was to can pickles and relishes.
We have paid off our 20 acres out side of town, so we have a place to keep cows, hogs, and chickens should we need to. If all goes well, and we don't need it, we can always sell it. It should be a good inflation hedge. It is already more than doubled in value, even in this down market.
I think we will survive. The huge metropolitan areas with high rise apartments will have the biggest challenges, but a 4 x 8 foot bed will provide produce for one person with some left over to put up for the winter. With 750 sq feet, you could produce a balanced diet for the year, for one person, using intensive methods(at least that is what I have read).
So we are spending our time testing our skills and relearning things we used to know, becoming more self-sufficient along the way, and eating healthier food to boot.
For what its worth, even elite soldiers get eaten. The army (green berets I think it was..) lost a guy down there to an alligator once. Another time several Rangers due to hypothermia (cold water), 2-3 died. I think this was in FL.
Bump
I put in a bunch of fruit trees - I figure it’ll give me something to trade if things get really bad. That is if those who aren’t prepared to do anything beyond steal from those who planned don’t steal everything.
The manner in which it died (i.e. chased or instant kill) will definitely affect the way it tastes. ..................................................
That be a fact. I also prefer 2 year old or younger for the freezer, let others shoot the monster if they want something to chew on, and chew on, ........
I never heard much at all about what they went through, part of not complaining or dwelling on the past, but that sounds very familiar. I think it may have been my father who spoke of getting some fresh fruit for Christmas and thinking how special that was.
“We should take the pain now to remove the onus from our children and grandchildren. If we truly cared, as a nation, about our children, we would bite the bullet, default and let the chips fall where they may. I daresay that we as a people would be better for it.”
Amen. Unfortunately, I also agree that it’s unlikely.
bttt
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