The Great Depression

Things on the farm got very serious during the Great Depression. It was probably in about the second year of high-school when I began to realize that that a lot of farmers were in the same boat. Many "lost" their farms; my folks included. They hung on until 1936 or 37 and had to move, so they rented a place about two miles away. By that time I had married and our daughter, Mary, was a baby. We got to take Mary to the old home place once or twice before they moved.

My parents did not discuss how bad things were, so since we lived pretty simply anyway, we younger kids were unaware of what was coming. There was the time that corn was selling for ten cents a bushel. My dad had cobblers "tools"; shoe lasts of various sizes and awl for sewing. He also cut our hair. (He decided to teach me to cut hair, so he had me watch him, then he had me cut his hair, the very first one! Boy, I wonder what it looked like. But knowing him, I'm sure he told me that I did a good job.)  

People were making homemade mattresses. Neighbors traded work with one another instead of hiring help. Everyone raised gardens and canned their own food. Mom canned spare ribs and sausage in half gallon jars.

We darned the holes in socks and stockings and put patches on overalls and other kinds of clothes as well. We used Sears and Roebuck's and Montgomery Ward 's out dated catalogues for toilet paper. My, my... There were times that instead of using whole milk for cooking (for gravy or pudding and such) we used the skim milk that we separated and, as a rule, used to put with the pig slop. Reason? We needed to save as much cream as possible to sell along with the eggs to have money to buy staples such as flour and sugar. Dad always brought home a bag of raisins (he called them bugs) to pass around for a treat. Often he'd bring a sack of candy; he didn’t bring not cookies as we made our own!

We never ever went hungry or lacked for the necessities of life, but it was hard sometimes to see what other kids had and we didn’t such as “boughten" bread for sandwiches in our lunches or crackers and cheese. We had lots of peanut butter sandwiches. It was sold in little white hard cardboard tubs and was the real McCoy--no additives. We also had plenty of good ole homemade butter and jelly, apples, and hard-boiled eggs that tasted darned good when you were hungry. We did not snack between meals, but could eat a little ole cold tater and wait. All this after getting home from school and after changing into our every-day clothes. Then it was get the chores done, then supper, and then homework by lamp light in the winter.

Many years after the depression years were over, my mom told me that dad worried and tossed during those hard times.

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