I had a bright idea for the blog, or so I thought. With the news being on 24-7 Recession alert, and some even throwing out the word "depression," I thought we could all use some real perspective on how hard things really got in this country during the great depression, and how comparatively cushy we have it now. "Hey," I thought. "Grandma and Grandpa lived through the depression. They'll probably have some great stories that I could post on the blog." So I sent out an email asking for them to pony up.
Grandma's response was... what would you call it.... a ray of sunshine:
You ask us to write our memories of the Great Depression. I really don't have any. I was born in 1931 so I was too young to know what was going on. I don't remember hearing my parents talk about it. We lived on a farm out in the country and raised some of our meat, had chickens for eggs, cows for milk and butter, and a garden for vegetables. I'm sure it was rough in a lot of ways but I don't know more.
Grandpa knows quite a bit about it. His parents lived on the highway, a two lane highway and they had people coming by a lot, wanting food or a place to stay. Grandpa's mother never wanted to turn anyone away. One time she heard some say, "We'd better eat all we can. We don't know when we will get more." They sold watermelons for fifteen to twenty cents each and grandpa (6 years old) told the people that they had some for a nickel each. They bought them for a nickel and grandpa's brother and cousin were really angry that a little brother did that. A nickel could buy some food though. Grandpa and his siblings would walk along the highway and look for pop lids. They would pull out the cork part and see what the prize was. Often they found one that would say they could get a free bottle of pop. Grandpa had a pet chicken and it ran across the highway and got killed. Grandpa cried but nothing went to waste, so his mother cooked it and grandpa took some for his lunch at school. Grandpa had four siblings at that time and it was difficult for his dad to make it, so grandpa started working in the field picking cotton when he was about six or so. The banks went under. Some people killed themselves.
Love you,
Grandma
2 comments:
Not at all making fun of the topic, but it did make me laugh before I could catch myself that mom ended the dialog with some people killed themselves and then it jumped to "Love, Grandma"....
What mom wrote just shows you that we have become accustomed to so much. I would think I was totally in poverty if all I had was the milk my cow gave, the eggs my chicken gave, the vegetables I had to grow (in growing season) in my garden, and had to eat my pet chicken...and what would I feed my vegan vegetarian family members when they came for a winter visit?
One thing mom did forget to mention was that her and Auntie used to stomp their own grapes for the wine they made....that could be the reason she didn't notice they had it rough.....
I don't remember stomping grapes but I do remember trying to smoke a grape vine once when Auntie and I were kids. We didn't have store bought toys, so we improvised and some things we didn't try twice.
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