JerichoHill
Bedrock of Knowledge
This is a post from one of our affiliates about an interview the blogger had with an 84 year old grandmother about the Great Depression in the US.
1. No one ever ate out......
2. Food...Depression Cookbooks to make the most of the food.....
3. 1 pound of round steak - .15 cents, 1 pound of sugar - .10 Day old break .05 and people did not have money for that at times.
4. Made their own lunchmeat from scratch..Pickle load, salami from the leftovers from the butcher shop where her father worked.
5. Made a lot of their own food and canned a great deal from the garden.
6. At her grandmothers house (five rooms total with bedroom in living room) with two families living in that house and a total of seven people.
7. This was typical in the section of the city where they lived.
8. Worked any job...$1 a day was solid wage.
9. Grandfather fished the river for dinner and grandmother baked every load of bread they ever ate.
10. The pantry was off limits...funny how things change now it is the playstation...
11. All utilities were shut off except the water (no electric) as they used coal oil lamps (.05 a can) to avoid the costs...No money....Just a water bill as they did this for five year, yes FIVE YEARS
12. Heat was a cookstove with coal or wood....Winter time provided heat and this was used for cooking. The other stove was a kerosene stove for baking except in winter.
13. For .25 you could buy enough bacon for an entire week to cook the food - boiled bean. Soup many a time was boiled beans, bacon and onion with cornbread and that was all for dinner.
14. Entertainment happen at church.
15. Cardboard in shoes to make them go longer. Grandfather repaired shoes for extra money with tacks and leftover scraps. Nothing was wasted or discarded.
16. Gardens everywhere in the yard..Chickens in the backyard for eggs. When winter came they canned the chickens (like the veggies). A complete cycle.
17. "Quote - We were hungry many times"
18. "My cousins walked in the winter-time in their old clothes a good mile to eat once a day since they did not have any food in the house"
19. Reused the envelops and refolded them to reuse the paper. Clever....
20. Nothing was wasted - bread wrappers were lunch bags/sandwich bag. Things were packaged differently and was durable. Burlap bags from beans were turned into insulation over the windows, curtains, fish carry bag, coal bags, tote bag, shopping bags, rugs in the wintertime, etc.
21. Recycled everything...If you had a 'mess of corn' they put the corncobs in the shed and used it to start fires in the stove. This save .05 a month of kindle wood.
22. Many things came in crates and they stores would be used from the trash pile and used as wood for the stove.
23. Also, the children would pick up coal from the railroad tracks that dropped from the cars and bring it home.
24. The family was on relief and got a bag of flour, oatmeal dried applies, oil, cheese and other staples to survive and whatever was surplus. This was a 'godsend'...
25. The better cook you where the more you extend the food and be better off.
26. Doctor and medical care was provided at a clinic in the city. Most medicine was made at home. If you had the 'runs' as baby they would take a piece of chalk and make power(chalk was from school) and take and apple and scrap it and mix with water....
27. A lot of cod liver oil for everything...
28. The visiting nurse came to the house to help care for the people in times of need. Home health care.
29. Hand me downs....much of the clothing came from the 'clothing room' at church were you could get items.
30. Not much was wasted..When a man person in the neighborhood the women wore his clothes to keep warm that winter as she did not have anything else.
31. Steetcar walk....No cars at the high school..not one. Most people walked around town, rode a bike or tool the streetcar. Oil was .10 a quart and the gas-station was in the neighbors back yard as a part time job. Mr. Cohen..a very religious man and respected owned the oil station.
32. Cousins lived with us to help watch the kids and her family had 10 children and the father was sick and they were starving to death - really starving. All kids were farmed out to the family - extended until the family recovered ten year later. Ten Years....Hard to believe.
33. As time went by, things got worse for all during the height of the depression.
34. We made quilts at grandmothers (one was at the worlds fair in Chicago) to sell for extra money. You thought of ways to make money and make due and make a living to keep feeding the family.
The biggest thought during the depression was the hunger with young children and poor kids at the holiday without food or clothes to keep warm. The newspaper had a giveaway for children and your church or school gave you a ticket (welfare) and a party happen at the theater. NO TOYS...food, candy, jacket and other items to keep alive or stay warm.
"My father gave so much away and it was like a third world country like on the TV today. Close your eyes and just imagine what it was like. You had to be resourceful to survive and were did not have educations yet we could think and figure things out and survive." "Anyone who lives like you (meaning me as her child) was like a MILLIONAIRE in the depression. You can not imagine it but it is true. It was a hard time and kids worked to make sure..sweat shops.."
1. No one ever ate out......
2. Food...Depression Cookbooks to make the most of the food.....
3. 1 pound of round steak - .15 cents, 1 pound of sugar - .10 Day old break .05 and people did not have money for that at times.
4. Made their own lunchmeat from scratch..Pickle load, salami from the leftovers from the butcher shop where her father worked.
5. Made a lot of their own food and canned a great deal from the garden.
6. At her grandmothers house (five rooms total with bedroom in living room) with two families living in that house and a total of seven people.
7. This was typical in the section of the city where they lived.
8. Worked any job...$1 a day was solid wage.
9. Grandfather fished the river for dinner and grandmother baked every load of bread they ever ate.
10. The pantry was off limits...funny how things change now it is the playstation...
11. All utilities were shut off except the water (no electric) as they used coal oil lamps (.05 a can) to avoid the costs...No money....Just a water bill as they did this for five year, yes FIVE YEARS
12. Heat was a cookstove with coal or wood....Winter time provided heat and this was used for cooking. The other stove was a kerosene stove for baking except in winter.
13. For .25 you could buy enough bacon for an entire week to cook the food - boiled bean. Soup many a time was boiled beans, bacon and onion with cornbread and that was all for dinner.
14. Entertainment happen at church.
15. Cardboard in shoes to make them go longer. Grandfather repaired shoes for extra money with tacks and leftover scraps. Nothing was wasted or discarded.
16. Gardens everywhere in the yard..Chickens in the backyard for eggs. When winter came they canned the chickens (like the veggies). A complete cycle.
17. "Quote - We were hungry many times"
18. "My cousins walked in the winter-time in their old clothes a good mile to eat once a day since they did not have any food in the house"
19. Reused the envelops and refolded them to reuse the paper. Clever....
20. Nothing was wasted - bread wrappers were lunch bags/sandwich bag. Things were packaged differently and was durable. Burlap bags from beans were turned into insulation over the windows, curtains, fish carry bag, coal bags, tote bag, shopping bags, rugs in the wintertime, etc.
21. Recycled everything...If you had a 'mess of corn' they put the corncobs in the shed and used it to start fires in the stove. This save .05 a month of kindle wood.
22. Many things came in crates and they stores would be used from the trash pile and used as wood for the stove.
23. Also, the children would pick up coal from the railroad tracks that dropped from the cars and bring it home.
24. The family was on relief and got a bag of flour, oatmeal dried applies, oil, cheese and other staples to survive and whatever was surplus. This was a 'godsend'...
25. The better cook you where the more you extend the food and be better off.
26. Doctor and medical care was provided at a clinic in the city. Most medicine was made at home. If you had the 'runs' as baby they would take a piece of chalk and make power(chalk was from school) and take and apple and scrap it and mix with water....
27. A lot of cod liver oil for everything...
28. The visiting nurse came to the house to help care for the people in times of need. Home health care.
29. Hand me downs....much of the clothing came from the 'clothing room' at church were you could get items.
30. Not much was wasted..When a man person in the neighborhood the women wore his clothes to keep warm that winter as she did not have anything else.
31. Steetcar walk....No cars at the high school..not one. Most people walked around town, rode a bike or tool the streetcar. Oil was .10 a quart and the gas-station was in the neighbors back yard as a part time job. Mr. Cohen..a very religious man and respected owned the oil station.
32. Cousins lived with us to help watch the kids and her family had 10 children and the father was sick and they were starving to death - really starving. All kids were farmed out to the family - extended until the family recovered ten year later. Ten Years....Hard to believe.
33. As time went by, things got worse for all during the height of the depression.
34. We made quilts at grandmothers (one was at the worlds fair in Chicago) to sell for extra money. You thought of ways to make money and make due and make a living to keep feeding the family.
The biggest thought during the depression was the hunger with young children and poor kids at the holiday without food or clothes to keep warm. The newspaper had a giveaway for children and your church or school gave you a ticket (welfare) and a party happen at the theater. NO TOYS...food, candy, jacket and other items to keep alive or stay warm.
"My father gave so much away and it was like a third world country like on the TV today. Close your eyes and just imagine what it was like. You had to be resourceful to survive and were did not have educations yet we could think and figure things out and survive." "Anyone who lives like you (meaning me as her child) was like a MILLIONAIRE in the depression. You can not imagine it but it is true. It was a hard time and kids worked to make sure..sweat shops.."
