When we think about the Great Depression from the 1930s, we think of the images of pathetic apple vendors on New York City streets, or people lining up for soup kitchens, or families fleeing dust storms billowing over prairie landscapes, or other grim scenes. We hear stories of hardship handed down by our grandparents. We remember the sad cases of people losing everything they owned when the stock market crashed.
What we don’t hear very often are people who (mostly) escaped the hardship and deprivation of the 30s altogether... because they were independent farmers in parts of the country not hit by drought.
Reader Sidetracksusie left this comment on my Why Be Normal? post which was so fascinating I didn’t want it buried. She wrote:
*An old rancher in Wyoming shared with me that he was not aware there was ever a depression:
* I have heard the same from many also.
More @ Rural Revolution
I also know that the inhabitants of the Appalachians answered with the same answer.
ReplyDeleteThanks and I am sure.
DeleteMy dear Mother, 98 yrs. young, said they weren't affected, either. 8 kids in her farm family.
ReplyDeleteGive her a kiss and a hug for me!
DeleteMy dad and his siblings used to joke about tying a ham bone over the table on a wire after the pork ran out. They said they'd dip biscuits in red eye gravy, smell the ham bone and pretend they were eating ham. I don't know if they were joking about it or if it was the truth but I'm sure it wasn't far from true. However, they did survive and in
ReplyDeletepretty good shape.
A gentleman in his 90's who died a few years back had done very well in life. I knew him from the neighborhood and he knew me but I was aware that he didn't know the connection between us. I knew that my father had been one of his friends half a century before. One day, not long before he died, I approached him and explained who I was, who my people were. He smiled broadly. He said "your granddaddy was a fine man". He said, "during the depression I walked the road hungry and your grandfather would invite me in and feed me." That was especially important to me as my grandfather died 4 years before I was born and obviously I never knew him.
CH
Wonderful stories. Thanks and write them down.
DeleteGood post.
ReplyDeleteI dont think for one moment they will let us alone post or during collapse.
self sufficiency, independence, and lack of bootlicking worship are not tolerated now.
I thinkthe patience and tolerance of the American people for boot on our necks running out.
self sufficiency, independence, and lack of bootlicking worship are not tolerated now.
DeleteI thinkthe patience and tolerance of the American people for boot on our necks running out.
Well said.
Caught again in lies about poverty:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/17/no-half-of-all-schoolchildren-are-not-in-poverty/
Yes, I believe I posted something on that the other day. One mentioned that it was cheaper to give them all free lunches than to keep track of each one.
Delete