Posted on 11/18/2011 7:47:54 PM PST by blam
This Is What People Ate When They Had No Money During The Depression
Vivian Giang
Nov. 18, 2011, 12:25 PM
Image: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection
If you've ever visited anyone's house for dinner and a big, sloppy "secret family recipe" dish is flopped down in front of you, chances are high that the messy goodness could have originated from the Depression era.
Families were taught to creatively stretch out their food budgets and toast, potatoes and flour seem to be the popular, inexpensive ingredients. Expensive meat was typically eaten only once a week.
Some foods were invented during the Depression, such as spam, Ritz crackers, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Kraft macaroni and cheese, according to livinghistoryfarm.org.
We've compiled some simple, easy recipes from 90-something Clara who shares her childhood dining memories during hard times. They may help you save money during our own Recession.
Click here to see what people ate>
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I was a city girl but when we went on trips us kids would stick our heads out the car windows and moo at the cows.
I remember one time I got up early and made my Grandpa's eggs for him. He liked them between runny and medium. When he ate them he said that I had cooked them just right. This compliment made me so happy I still remember it to this day.
When we were kids we would always “visit” sugar houses in
the summer, we’d always find a bottle of whiskey and a
stack of porn mags. Of course in those days porn mags
were not allowed to show anything below the waist. We had
a great time anyways.
“moo at the cows”
I’ll admit I’ve done my fair share at mooing.
There was nothing like a cow looking at me like I’m the
stupid one, LOL
I am 59, my dad’s family grew up in the depression and they had 9 kids. Lived in Chicago on the south side when a lot of neighborhoods were prairies. They had a couple of cows and pigs, a garden, so they had food and they were near the tracks and always could make a sandwich for the hobos that came to gthe door. They made their own cheese and canned, made sauerkraut. I grew up watching my dad eat dandelion salad every spring. He only picked the new younger leaves. Washed well, tossed with a vinegar and oil dressing and sliced hardboiled egg. Dandelions are very nutritious. My dad is gone now but most springs I have a bowl in his memory.
In the late 50s I remember walking past a poultry shop in the city and seeing the blood rolling out of the place, across the sidewalk, and into the street. People would just step over it as they walked past. They didn’t need refrigeration since they would kill the chicken or turkey right there in the shop when you bought it.
Then there was that monster coal furnace in the basement. Dad and the older brothers would shovel it out of the coal bin into it and haul the ashes out. All I got to do was watch the coal man shovel it into the basement through the window. Then one day some guys came and put in one of those little gas furnaces. Before that, the smell of coal burning was thick in the air in the winter.
There were still older guys who drove a cart pulled by a horse in the street along with the cars and buses. Junk men, vegetable guys, etc. Real hobos would stop on our street and some people would give them something to eat as they walked from one railroad line to another.
Those were some interesting days as new replaced the old.
I was born in 1943. I think we got a fridge in 1947 or 1948. I know it was after my Dad came home from WWII in 1946. My grandparents had a real refrigerator before then, Mom & I lived with them while Dad was overseas. It was so small compared to now, with the freezer compartment I described.
Where I live now, electricity came in pretty late. Not sure when, but probably early 1950s. Our house didn’t have plumbing until 1967. Our old plumber told us he hadn’t even seen plumbing until he went into the Army during Korea. It actually inspired him to become a plumber.
Actually, I just counted back and I think my parents’ first fridge was at least 1949. My brother was born in 1947 and I know we still had the icebox when he was around 2.
We lived in the country, but weren’t farmers. The grandparents were Russian immigrants who lived in a large city, but they were fairly well-off for the times and in my mother’s family, my grandmother worked, too. When we lived with them, there were 3 wage earners, plus my Grandfather had a little band that played Russian music at weddings and such for extra money. My GGrandfather lived with us, too and he was the babysitter. That was the little fridge I remember: 1945—1946.
I remember the coal smell, even now.
We had one of those that never would die so we could get a new fridge. That little freezer compartment had a door and constantly had to have the ice build up chipped off. We did have an upright freezer... in the bathroom. Ugh, that bathroom was so old. One day I couldn't stand it anymore, so while everyone was at work, I peel 'n stick laminate tile and tiled the floors, the sink and counter, around the tub (that had that awful green fake tile wallboard), and as far up the wall until I ran out. It wasn't until the year after I'd graduated that they finally moved into a brand new house and bought a new fridge.
Wow! I guess if there isn't a nearby city, you're on your own.
“Coke” is the generic for all carbonated beverages. "Pecan" is pronounced "puh-con" rather than "pee-can" which is the empty coffee can one takes on long car trips.
Cracklings
Lay out the chicken skins on a sprayed jelly roll pan or a baking pan (not an edgeless cookie sheet because of the grease that renders out). Sprinkle on whatever seasonings you like. Bake at 400. After about 10 minutes keep checking them. Some pieces crisp up faster than others so take those out and leave in the others. Drain them on a rack or paper towels.
You’re right. Bumper to bumper non-moving 5 o’clock traffic will be a piece of cake compared to the first days of HTF. During hurricane evacuations, people get stuck on freeways so long they run out of gas and there is always that crazy guy who causes a wreck or goes all road rage. And that’s with days of advance warnings. Even if they did have a rural place to head to, many city folk won’t be able to get there and, as you said, most would be clueless if they did get there.
Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
New York is where I’d rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.
...The chores.
...The stores.
...Fresh air.
...Times Square.
You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.
Try them toasted in the oven. Or toasted with a piece of cheese.
My granparents bought the farm back in the early 30s and it already had a house on it complete with indoor plumbing and electricity. The story was that when the bathroom was put in that people would come from all over just to see it. That was the beginning of the rural electric cooperative out there.
Thanx.
I wonder if I would have a fire hazard if I used the self-clean option after doing this?
God, but I hated to have to defrost the old freezer compartments. They were small, but that ice built up hard.
Likely, it also depends on the topography. This is hill country, with mostly sharp ridges and a lot of high water table in the valleys.
In our old farm house, they laid out a 16x16 slab in 1967 for a *modern* kitchen. 5’x8’ was designated for the bathroom. The tub was directly on the dirt. The West wall of the kitchen held all the appliances, including a washer and dryer put in in the early 70’s, I think (we purchased in 1974). They walled in an area in the Northwest corner for the hot water heater. The pipes in that entire area regularly froze in the winter. There was no evidence of electricity or any piping in the old barn or milk house, although the stanchions & gutters were still there, so I think they just used evaporative chillers. A friend in his late 40s, tells how they just wrapped the milk cans in wet burlap and set them in the shaded milk house. It had a concrete floor and a cupola, but to this day, it gets very damp in there in the humidity of summer. It is cooler than anything else around, except the wet cellar, though.
They had gravity flow from cisterns and a ram pump in the river, back then, for water to the house through a spigot in the cellar and I think a hand pump on the kitchen sink. Today, neither would be approved by DNR or the sanitarian. The old septic system put in 1967 was a gravity type and those have all been condemned over the past 20 years.
We are about 50 miles from La Crosse, WI, which now has about 51k people, but had many less back then. Next nearest city is 90 miles or so and it is 250 miles from either the Twin Cities or Milwaukee. It took money to put in electric and plumbing, even when it became available and this has always been the first or second poorest county in WI. Our farm once had 34 acres tillable, out of over 80, but 20 acres of those fields are only reachable via horse-drawn plow. They are too steep for a large tractor.
But, they raised 6 kids on those acres and 23 dairy cows. It was a hard life.
Right on. Although, I grew up saying peecahn. Not that we have any up here.
Most of our population is Norwegian stock. I have never heard of wild greens being regularly gathered in the past, although some older folks talk about eating dandelions and young nettles and milkweed flower buds in the Spring, plus baby ferns, still curled, although few use the term *fiddleheads*. Up here everything is *pop*.
I love the way vocabulary changes in different areas. When I moved to Milwaukee in the 60’s, it took me awhile to figure out that *bubbler* was a water fountain.
Right on. Although, I grew up saying peecahn. Not that we have any up here.
Most of our population is Norwegian stock. I have never heard of wild greens being regularly gathered in the past, although some older folks talk about eating dandelions and young nettles and milkweed flower buds in the Spring, plus baby ferns, still curled, although few use the term *fiddleheads*. Up here everything is *pop*.
I love the way vocabulary changes in different areas. When I moved to Milwaukee in the 60’s, it took me awhile to figure out that *bubbler* was a water fountain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.