# The Great Depression



## joejeep92 (Oct 11, 2010)

This past week I visited my Grandma, who is the single best source I have on how it was back then and how they survived it. She lived in a two-room cabin in the Ozarks of Arkansas with her family up until she left home. She walked 2.5 miles to get to a one-room school house with all grades in one room in all types of weather. We can sit and talk and scheme about what would happen to us in an economic downturn or other major situation but many people have lived it. According to her, the only things they got from a store were sugar, coffee and ammo. Everything else, they made themselves. She made the comment that "green" and "recycling" are just new words for what we had to do back then. Nothing was thrown away and she made the comment that "a trash man would have starved to death back then." The point of all this is that many people have in their lives the best possible resource on living independently and sustainably, people that have actually lived it.


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## InTownForNow (Oct 16, 2008)

Thats so great that you have that resource. I wish my grandparents were alive still. My grandma had 12 kids and a deadbeat husband who left them basically destitute. They had a garden as large as my backyard ( a town lot and a half) and canned everything. I would love to pick her brain now...


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## Roadking (Oct 8, 2009)

My one grandpa spoke often of the depression...while pitching pennies in his basement... the center of which was shelves full of things; canned goods, soap, shampoo, tp...
I asked him (probably about 7 or 8 years old at the time) "why do you use the basement when the store has enough?"

Thats when I learned a lot. 

Matt


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## Sourdough (Dec 28, 2011)

Where I grew up, in backwoods Pennsylvania, the first four grades were in a "Classic" two story "Red" schoolhouse. There was one teacher on the first floor taught first and second grade. And one teacher on the second floor taught third and fourth grade. 

The "BIG" deal was that the fourth grade boys took turns burning the school trash, in the burn barrel after recess. 

From sixth grade on the boys could take their rifle or shotgun to school on the school bus, and leave it in their locker or homeroom coat closet. Then you would have the bus driver let you off on the other side of the mountain, and hunt your way home.

I don't think "Overlord" Obama would approve.......today.


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

My parents (passed now) would be in their 80's, growing up with parent born during the depression was a learning process in it's self. They always had a pantry stocked. Bought and bought when stuff was on sale even if they didnt need it. And being a bit of hoarding going on as they got older. Grandparents had a big grocery day once a month. Never ran to the store before or after that day of the month. Biggest thing that went on in my family during the depression was my grandfather had a job he was an engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad . The family members that lost everything came to live at my grandfathers 3 bedroom home in Baltimore. They had 4-5 families staying with them. Not one bad word was spoken about how hard it was or this or that person not pull his own weight. They all made it work. Each person did what he could to help the general good of all in the house. That in itself is so different than we hear today (or 2008 crash) people in my house have to be told to clean up after themselves all the time. Back to grandfather - his parent lived in PA and the train ran right by the family farm, so he would blow the horn and someone from the farm would come down to the tracks and they swapped vegetables or what ever one had more of. Pap would off load some coal and the carepackages from Balto. Seemed in those times people helped out more than today. Maybe not just seems like it to me.


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## joejeep92 (Oct 11, 2010)

She said many interesting things, and one of the others was that if the same thing happened today, no one knows how to do anything for themselves and the results would be much more dire.


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## spiritbear (Jan 6, 2016)

During the depression people jumped out of Windows because they lost their fortunes in the stock market crash. Today people would be doing the same because they couldn't update their Facebook or get online.


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## FarmboyBill (Aug 19, 2005)

Dad and mom, Both gone, Mom born in 08 and dad in 19. We walked 3 miles to a white one room school. I went to 3 of them. One named Geary, in the ghost town of Geary Kans, named after the first Gov of Kans.  The next, Cordonier, named after some of my relation, and the last, Liberty # 53. We didn't have a huge garden, maybe 30 by 100, but mom always canned hundreds of qts of vegetables a year. I know cause me and bro had to help her maintain the garden, and can it. We had a bunch of grapes till dad let a fire get away, and the smoke killed them. They had had 40 apple trees, but they was almost all gone by my time. Tho mom planted an orchard, it never really amounted to much as dad didn't keep it pruned. Mom had 1000 chickens at one time. We milked 10 to 12 cows. We had the biggest milk check on our route and the second biggest egg check. Dad never butchered anything. We killed and dressed hundreds of chickens. We went to town once a week to sell cream and eggs after the creamery had quit hauling hand milked milk. We had a 1/4 mile driveway, and I can remember using Florie and Dixie to take the iron wheeled or wood wheeled, we had both, and the cream and eggs out and up to aunt Bert and Uncle Milts, where we would leave them and take the car we had left there knowing it would rain, or had already rained, and we couldn't drive in or out. Mom would sit on the cream can. 
I was just telling my DD today, that we had a regular metal waste basket by the refrigerator. IF it got dumped once a week, was rare. More like 2 weeks most times. Mom saved plastic bags when they came out. She saved newspapers. We had a cabinet on our back portch, and she would line the top with newspapers. That's kinda how I learned to read, I would have to do that job. I drove a team and hay rack when I was around 6 or 7. Ive picked corn with dad and bro when it was dang cold in the frost of the morning, and have the sun melt off the frost and have pant legs and gloves wet, which would dry before the day was over. Mom made saurkruat in a glazed jar. I used to like it, but havnt for over 50yrs. 
My grandfolks were gone before I knew there had been a depression.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

Both sets of my grandparents were farmers in the 1920s. My parents were 6 and 8 when their families farms were lost and the migrant West began.

So I heard about the Great Depression a lot growing up.


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## emdeengee (Apr 20, 2010)

My parents both lived through the Great Depression in Europe. Neither was from a poor family or area until then. Dad's family was wealthy and Mom's was wealthy and then not wealthy depending on my Grandfather's extravagant behaviour. But he was so talented that he could always build back his fortune.

Both families lost an enormous amount which did affect them of course but it also affected many people and families around them. What is interesting is how my family - in two different countries - not only survived the depression but made it their duty to help others.

My Dad was the land-owner but was very busy with his education and military career so his estates were managed by his aunt and her husband. When the depression hit money was devalued to nothing but the land still stood. My Dad and his aunt and uncle had to decide what to do. They offered all the farm workers this arrangement - If they decided to stay there would be no pay or nearly no pay but they would still have work and keep their tied cottages and the estate would provide wood and all food and cover as much of their other needs (clothes, transport, medical) as they could. No workers left and no profit was made for nearly 4 years. The estate also grew and raised extra produce and animals to help feed the poor in the local villages. 

My Mom's family lost nearly all their money (devalued also) but my Grandfather kept his business going and even when they were not making much profit he kept all of his workers employed. Most had worked for him for decades and were extremely skilled workers and he thought of them as part of his family. He was able to keep his business going because it serviced the rich and there were still many rich people during the depression - in every situation there are opportunities for those who take them. He did go bankrupt at one point in the beginning but several of his clients (friends) banded together to pay his debts and buy back his equipment. It took him until after WW2 to pay everyone back.

Meanwhile my grandmother and great-grandmother were feeding those in need in their town with their own resources and by bullying a lot of other people to help. My great-grandfather was the mayor (had been for decades) and was used to getting things done.

My family suffered huge loses because of the depression but managed to keep going and to help others by keeping going. This was the second time in 20 years that my Dad's family lost nearly everything - the first time being in WW1. But as long as the land - or part of the land- was there they could rebuild. After WW2 there was nothing left so he emigrated and rebuilt his life for the third time. That is what I admire the most. Just keep going no matter what happens.


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## roadless (Sep 9, 2006)

I can't peel a potato without thinking of my grandma.
I once was reprimanded for being wasteful .....for having the peel to thick!
Yep I miss her big time.&#9825;


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

My grandparents homesteaded the land I live on now, and farmed through the depression. My dad was born in 1933, so caught the tail end as a kid. He learned enough from his parents, that he became EXTREMELY frugal, something that rubbed off on me. So my life in the late 70's and 80's, was like living in the depression to an extent. Raised everything we ate, milked cows, raised sheep, pigs, cows, turkeys, chickens, ducks. Enormous garden, huge potato patch.

I am actually drifting back towards this style of farming, and loving it! Financially it makes sense again, after a few decades of not really making financial sense. But with stagnant grain prices, but increasing meat values, it makes more sense to me to add value to my grain by putting it through animals.

I never got to meet my grandpas, they died before I was born. My dad died when I was thirteen, unfortunately before my interest piqued on all things "homesteading". So I missed out on askiing things about our farm, etc.

They were recyclers before the urbanites picked up on it. They were extremely self sufficient.

I hope to, while operating a modern farm, utilize many of their ideas to make a better living for myself.... They learned it all because of the depression....


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## FarmboyBill (Aug 19, 2005)

I remember building fence with dad, and I cut a piece of bailing wire to go around a post and the barbed wire. Dad said, If your granddad could see how big a piece you cut hed kick your glass.
Dad said that the Mo River was alive at night with people in Kans making wine cause, along the river and back for 20 miles LOTS of people had vineyards. They would take canoes and other boats and paddle across the river to awaiting Missourians who would buy it to resell. I had a little off relation whose dad and he did that, I knew him a bit and he never went anywhere that there wasn't wine in his pk. His boy, I knew well, couldn't kick the habit, lost his farm, and worked for the guy who bought it. One habit I kicked, AND DANG GLAD I DID


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

My grandmother was born in rural Ky. in 1911. When she was around 3 yrs old, her daddy died and several other family members too because they got typhoid in their well. Her mother was a widow with 3 little girls by around age 20. So things were hard even before the Depression came along. 

I always noticed that she didn't waste anything. Packages used to come wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. She saved the paper and twine to use again. Clothes that were outgrown were given away. Clothes that were worn out got re-used as rags, cut into strips for tying up garden plants, cotton fabric would be cut into quilt pieces, strips for "rag curls" in your hair, you name it. Newspapers were saved for recycling, tin cans were rinsed, labels removed, and flattened for recycling. She did this long before "Earth Day" came along! Grocery bags were the brown paper bags then. They were flattened, folded and saved. I remember using that paper to make patterns for homemade doll clothes and other purposes. She would wet the thin piece of soap when a bar was about gone, and bond it onto the new bar of soap so it wasn't wasted. For awhile she was washing and saving the styrofoam trays that meat came in, but couldn't find a good use for them so started throwing them away. She saved margarine tubs and other plastic food containers for storing leftovers. Her and her friends shared seeds and cuttings of plants, I doubt if she ever bought a plant or seeds. She took very good care of her things. Her handbags, good shoes and coats could last for years. 

I still have her laundry sprinkler. It was an aluminum sprinkler head you inserted into a glass pop bottle filled with water to sprinkle the clothes for ironing. Her cork had gotten a little worn, so there is a strip of cloth wrapped around it to make a tighter fit. I recognize the faded pink cloth, it was one of her "house dresses". It's not the prettiest thing in the china cabinet but it means a lot to me!


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## BlackFeather (Jun 17, 2014)

My father was born in 16 and my mother was born in 21. They grew up during the great depression, and it was a way of life to them. I was raised the same way. Not wasting was a big deal and I still have that ingrained in me. I despise wasting food. I even am careful about turning lights off or turning the electric stove down to use the minimum amount of electricity to cook things. I had a friend over and was teaching him to can tomatoes, and he wasted so much water to wash the tomatoes it irritated me. 

We always had a wood burning stove, when I had to buy one recently I made sure to get one I could cook on if I had to. My father always believed another depression was going to come again and we should be prepared. As the news looks today, I think another one is almost here.


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## joejeep92 (Oct 11, 2010)

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if I saw one within my lifetime. I see people buying things that they think will save them in such an event. I think it is skills that will get you through long after the things are eaten, shot, worn out, lost, or stolen.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

joejeep92 said:


> Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if I saw one within my lifetime. I see people buying things that they think will save them in such an event. I think it is skills that will get you through long after the things are eaten, shot, worn out, lost, or stolen.


Skills will save you long term. Most "things" I have bought are to help in the short term so I can keep my family safe and fed while society does what it's going to do. If I don't have to waste time and effort protecting a garden the first year then those "things" were worth it.


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## joejeep92 (Oct 11, 2010)

I'm not arguing against things per se and being prepared. I have accumulated my fair share. However, I am arguing against those things being your only option for subsistence.


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## Shine (Feb 19, 2011)

You see, people do not need federal reserve notes to survive. I have no real fear of the federal reserve note scam crashing. While I have situated myself currently in a large metroplex community, If the SHTF now, I am aware of how to operate and I have a couple of outs. The thing is, that while I have spoken of the hardships ahead to my soon to be adult children, it is them that will suffer, the technology that they have wrapped themselves in will be unavailable should we reach this point.

I would endeavor to show them the simple things - both are good young men, good enough for me to recognize that they are truly gifts and that it is a great honor for me to be their father, but, long ago I traveled a path similar to that which is about to present itself to all..

Living life is a gift, it is something that we can do without holding our hands out, we must be of that caliber to do so though. The good Lord has gifted me with these boys and with a sound mind with the ability to operate outside of the box.

I do not understand how someone that has capabilities would sit down and not use those capabilities. I have worked the land and it was only then that the fruits of the garden tasted best. Buying vegetables from even a farm store does not seem to provide the same satisfaction.

I apologize, but with the current state of our nation, I think that the only thing that might be a good thing is a total reset. I cannot offer any ideas regarding what this reset might entail but it is needed. There are too many opinionated people with no skin in the game that are setting the rules.

My Creator set me here and compelled me to operate within His boundaries and I sincerely believe that should people adhere to those teachings that there would be much less strife and hardship.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

My maternal grandparents never owned a car truck or tractor ;farmed with horses ;milked a couple cows ,gardened, raised a couple small patches of tabbaco to pay taxes ,they took farm stuff like butter ,eggs ,produce to the store to trade for cloth, coffee, salt,ammo, and lamp oil .my old uncles often told stories of "traders who would bring things like thread ,spices , tools tradeing for chickens, turkeys, pigs ,or hides . they had lived like this for generations bringing these skills and lifestile from Europe and mixed with the native Indians they roughed it through the depression days fairly well just not much hard cash with the coal mines ,came rail road,electric, better roads,off farm jobs,and better schools .my mom came late and last to a family of 13 in 1932 lots of my cousins were older than her .and talked of my grandmother being a seamstress who could look at the page of a sears catalog and make a dress for them I remember one of my older aunts had her spinning wheel .my uncle told of how after the depression when the power lines came in and they got lights, having plenty of cash working for a dollar a day a few days a week and being able to buy his own farm .. much like the Amish of today they had most everything they needed home made, saved seed, raised thier replacement livestock .he and some older neighbors thought that the modern times jobs and money corrupted their way of life and divided there once tight knit community, I think it did in a way their thinking of off farm jobs and cars as just breaking your back to give your butt a ride was right ,having to rush and fight to get to a job even if it was snowing or raining, just to stop on the way home ,and buy often inferior tin canned goods for supper ; now with the coal mine shutting down , sewing and auto factorys gone to mexico , leaveing the near gohst towns crumbling factory buildings maybe high speed life is just a flash in the pan. that will burn out just as fast as it came with something simple as a beemite ,or bird /pig flu, or broken oil refinery . hope not but lets plant our garden and milk the cow, and not have to worry to much if it does ,


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

arnie said:


> My maternal grandparents never owned a car truck or tractor ;farmed with horses ;milked a couple cows ,gardened, raised a couple small patches of tabbaco to pay taxes ,they took farm stuff like butter ,eggs ,produce to the store to trade for cloth, coffee, salt,ammo, and lamp oil .my *old uncles often told stories of "traders who would bring things like thread ,spices , tools tradeing for chickens, turkeys, pigs ,or hides .* they had lived like this for generations bringing these skills and lifestile from Europe and mixed with the native Indians they roughed it through the depression days fairly well just not much hard cash with the coal mines ,came rail road,electric, better roads,off farm jobs,and better schools .my mom came late and last to a family of 13 in 1932 lots of my cousins were older than her .and talked of my grandmother being a seamstress who could look at the page of a sears catalog and make a dress for them I remember one of my older aunts had her spinning wheel .my uncle told of how after the depression when the power lines came in and they got lights, having plenty of cash working for a dollar a day a few days a week and being able to buy his own farm .. much like the Amish of today they had most everything they needed home made, saved seed, raised thier replacement livestock .he and some older neighbors thought that the modern times jobs and money corrupted their way of life and divided there once tight knit community, I think it did in a way their thinking of off farm jobs and cars as just breaking your back to give your butt a ride was right ,having to rush and fight to get to a job even if it was snowing or raining, just to stop on the way home ,and buy often inferior tin canned goods for supper ; now with the coal mine shutting down , sewing and auto factorys gone to mexico , leaveing the near gohst towns crumbling factory buildings maybe high speed life is just a flash in the pan. that will burn out just as fast as it came with something simple as a beemite ,or bird /pig flu, or broken oil refinery . hope not but lets plant our garden and milk the cow, and not have to worry to much if it does ,


My Grandmother called them "tinkers". They traded goods and fixed things.


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## Wanda (Dec 19, 2002)

terri9630 said:


> My Grandmother called them "tinkers". They traded goods and fixed things.




I always used the term ''hucksters'' for the mobile traders. Tinkers was used for the ones that did repairs.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

What a nice thread.

I often think fondly of the depression era people who influenced my life. I thank god for them. 

I use the envelope system to manage my finances because of them. Another thing they showed by living was that saving small regular amounts of money is a powerful tool for fighting poverty. 

Reuse tin cans and jars. Make rags from old clothes. Clean windows and counters with vinegar. Plant a garden. Plant a fruit tree (There is still a pear tree on my block that was planted in the depression). Mend clothes. Do! Do! Do! Get off your butt and help yourself and others even if it is in the smallest way and you will all get out of the hole eventually.....that was their spirit. And, also, be grateful for what you have because it is all really a blessing. There were some old timers who were really bitter from the depression but many were very happy because they truly were grateful.

Good people. I miss them.


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## Midgard (Jan 23, 2015)

My mom did can but never told me why? It always seemed like so much work for such a small return. We were never told about the Great Depression or WWII. I am trying to encourage my daughter to at least have enough on-hand to survive a two week power outage. I am worried about how we will survive. I hope she is at least worried about how she will be comfortable.

Ed


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

My parents were depression children, and I hate to throw away food. I got that from them. I can usually turn it into something edible: last night as a side dish I re-heated some fried rice, but first I chopped up and added that half an onion that was leftover from an earlier meal! (All good fried rice has some onion in it anyways). As a last resort it usually becomes critter food.

Midgard, you are right about canning being work: that is why I bought a dehydrator when I was no longer young and energetic. It really is easier! Potatos were on sale for 15 cents a pound before Thanksgiving and so I dehydrated 15 pounds of them to use this winter. I gave about a quart of them to my daughter when she came down for Christmas!

I am grateful to NOT live in a Depression! I used to wonder what the trick was to make meals out of pennies, but after watching "Clara's Kitchen" and reading between the lines I know now that the women did not necessary try to make a "meal" as we think of it: if they had food they cooked it. And, the kid were not allowed to complain. One common meal for Clara when she was younger was "pasta and peas". That meant her Mom boiled noodles and dumped a can of peas in then, liquid and all. And that was the meal!

Oh, if her Mom had the fixins' she cooked better meals, like making scrambled eggs with bell peppers for the kid's sandwiches, but it sounds like if it was necessary she just cooked something and put it on the table.

I have "Clara's Kitchen" on my kindle: now I want go and read it again!


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Terri said:


> My parents were depression children, and I hate to throw away food. I got that from them. I can usually turn it into something edible: last night as a side dish I re-heated some fried rice, but first I chopped up and added that half an onion that was leftover from an earlier meal! (All good fried rice has some onion in it anyways). As a last resort it usually becomes critter food.
> 
> Midgard, you are right about canning being work: that is why I bought a dehydrator when I was no longer young and energetic. It really is easier! Potatos were on sale for 15 cents a pound before Thanksgiving and so I dehydrated 15 pounds of them to use this winter. I gave about a quart of them to my daughter when she came down for Christmas!
> 
> ...



I have her book in Paper back. I loved watching her videos. My Grandmother (who has also passed now) would sometimes watch them with me and say "Oh, I remember doing that!". She said she got a good laugh one day when I was picking dandelions out of the yard because they used to pick them on the way home from where ever they'd been to have with dinner.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Did you like the dandelions? I tried them decades ago and they were awful! Though I hear that they are milder if you try them with an oil based dressing.

Oil does take away from the bitterness, but that just means that you are not tasting the dandelions.


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## sdnapier (Aug 13, 2010)

MO_cows said:


> I still have her laundry sprinkler. It was an aluminum sprinkler head you inserted into a glass pop bottle filled with water to sprinkle the clothes for ironing. Her cork had gotten a little worn, so there is a strip of cloth wrapped around it to make a tighter fit. I recognize the faded pink cloth, it was one of her "house dresses". It's not the prettiest thing in the china cabinet but it means a lot to me!


You are so lucky to have that. I'd put it in the china cabinet and show it off too!


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

My parents were older when I was born (dad 50, mom 40) so generationally it was like being raised by grandparents; my father was on his way to the front with a machine gun detachment when the *WWI* armistice was signed. My mother's family was from Ky east of Louisville and I recall living for a time in one of the family small town houses, fenced but untended large garden area, barn, outhouse, water from big metal hand pump accessing cistern, heat water on stove and pour into freestanding bathtub. One summer we were staying there on a summer visit when I was a bit older as a preteen and I commented on the garden area with Mom saying "That garden kept some family members alive during the Depression years." Dad at one point tried to make it as a farmer, putting our money into maybe a 100-ac property (around Lebanon, I think) but after a year had to admit financial defeat and move us back to basic suburbia in Florida. Mom was good at sewing, had patterns making her own dresses, putting up jams and jellies and so on, but Dad really had no skills to imprint on me like hunting, fix-it, car repairs, etc. Mainly it was a pattern of frugality that I can tell carries over, shopping sales, couponing, cooking tough meat cuts in a pressure cooker, watching utility bills, etc. DW's late stepfather was something of a "Jack Mormon" and kept a moderate pantry of food preps plus was decent as an electrician and woodworker, at least we have a bunch of tools salvaged from their house recently, but not the direct skills for effective use.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

The thought occurred to me while reading through this thread that poor people might be way better off than rich people when things go bad.

Poor people are used to having to make do with what they have and cannot buy their way out of needing something. They have to be resourceful. They have to reuse things. They have to fix things. They have to grow things. Rich people, though they can do any of those things, usually don't, and because they don't, never acquire the skills to do those things.

My parents were poor growing up, too. And it is still interesting to see their habits in practice. They still do not have a trash service. They have a few trash cans where they put metal cans for recycling and glass jars for recycling, plus a small box for things like used flashlight batteries that also gets recycled every year or two. Everything that burns goes in the woodstove. Everything they can reuse finds a home somewhere in the basement or the shed.

It was kinda funny... my mom was cleaning out one of the closets and came across an old, threadbare set of bed sheets. She told my dad to throw them out, they were just too far gone to every use again. Years later, when they were doing some painting, she remarked that it would be nice to have those old sheets to use for a drop cloth. My dad goes out to the shed in the back yard and pulls out that set of sheets. 

There's a mindset. 

And we're gonna have quite the job when it comes time to have to clean out that estate... They're both still hangin' in there. Pop will be 92 in about 6 weeks. Still driving, too. And mom's not far behind. Hope they both live to see 100+!


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Terri said:


> Did you like the dandelions? I tried them decades ago and they were awful! Though I hear that they are milder if you try them with an oil based dressing.
> 
> Oil does take away from the bitterness, but that just means that you are not tasting the dandelions.


I was picking them to blow the "fluff" because it was fun. I was 7 or 8 yrs old.


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## ejagno (Jan 2, 2008)

People that are accustomed to living below poverty level do have the skills and mindset to "survive" because it's all they know. The depression years down south were never realized as severely as in the northern areas because farming, large families in small quarters and lower wages were a way of life here. It still exists today. My home would sell for 1/2 million dollars in California whereas I paid $32,000 to have it built and now it's valued at $130,000 here. It doesn't make it lessor quality, just location on the map.

Here in the south we are blessed with virtual year round gardening as well as a lot of lakes, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico which provided ample seafood. Rice crops as well as sugar cane crops were everywhere. Stretching meals to feed the maximum amount of people using the least ingredients or the cheaper cuts of meats is exactly where our delicious Cajun cooking derived from. It amazes me how those same "trash" cuts of meat are now being sold as premium delicacies' now. 

I have the same ironing coca cola ironing water bottle as mentioned above with the metal sprinkler head on it. I've spent the past 6 months moving my 83 year old father in law in with us which meant cleaning out his home and this has been a real treat because he saves everything.

I hope more people continue to listen to those who have live it. There is a wealth of knowledge.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Terri said:


> Did you like the dandelions? I tried them decades ago and they were awful! Though I hear that they are milder if you try them with an oil based dressing.
> 
> Oil does take away from the bitterness, but that just means that you are not tasting the dandelions.


Some people love that bitter taste. Many of my Italian acquaintances love bitter flavors. They love dandelion and broccoli rob that has gone bitter.

With dandelions you have to pick the greens before the plant flowers. if you see a flower stem shooting out or stems with flowers on them already then they will be bitter. Crack the leaf spine on a flowering dandelion plant and white milky liquid comes out. That is the bitter substance. Some people cook them in two or three changes of water.

The flowers are my favorite part. I fritter them.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

My grandparents lived through the depression. They ate catsup sandwiches. They raised my mother on catsup sandwiches. My mother in turn raised me on catsup sandwiches. I do not want to eat a catsup sandwich ever again. 

Fancy food for my grandparents during the depression was fried baloney. Fried baloney is not that bad. 

I still eat chicken and turkey a 'la king which was a way of making something decent with left over meat, toast, and a can of cream of mushroom soup.


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