You are so correct. When Americans really have no access to food, and sometimes resort to eating the stalks of what were vegetable plants, and chewing leather to try to ward off hunger pains—then I might accept the idea of a depression.
Mom did not speak of it often and most regretted not being able to provide a roll or scrap to the passing desperate men riding the rails. It was an emotional scar that shaped her life.
Not to mentioned the suffering they endured during WWII. The Greatest Generation, indeed.