How Americans Helped Each Other During the Great Depression

Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression ^ | February 2009 | Errol Lincoln Uys

[Vendek]

In October 1929, Oklahoman Edgar Bledsoe believed a newsboy's cry of "Stock Market Collapse" referred to a disaster at an Ardmore cattle auction barn. By 1932, Bledsoe had been riding the rails for two years picking cotton and doing menial work that rarely provided a living for the 18-year-old and two cousins.

That summer the trio rode a freight to Comanche, Oklahoma heading back to his cousins' home on a drilled-out oil field. They had to walk the last 13 miles through the woods.

"We ran across a log cabin deep in the blackjack oaks. It had a well in the backyard with a rope and a pulley. A man who must have been close to ninety years came out of the cabin. We asked if we could have a bucket of water," Bledsoe recalled.

"'When did you boys last eat?' the man asked.

"When we told him, he told his wife to bring us food.

"She set out a gallon crock that was half full of milk, a pone of cornbread and a bucket of sorghum molasses. The milk was beginning to turn sour -- 'blinky' we called it -- and the molasses was full of tiny ants. We were hungry beyond being picky and we lit on the food. I still remember we couldn't fault the old lady's cornbread."...Read more

[ClearCase_guy]

I can't see how it will play out, but I imagine that (given our current Culture), the roaming bands of thieves will be seen as the "poor, entitled masses" and the communities that respect property rights, and which are prepared to defend their property, will be seems as the "oppressive robber barons".

Good Guys and Bad Guys will be reversed (at least in my opinion). There will be warlords who are quite prepared to see that the Bad Guys get what's coming to them.

[RWB Patriot]

I meant they would become bandits if the government falls. If it doesn’t, they won’t have to; Obama will use either the military or his goon squads to “spread the wealth around”.

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m not sure I’m ready to distinguish between “warlords” and “Obama’s government”.

[reformedliberal]

My parents were city folk. They always told the story about the darkest day: It was 1937, they were newlyweds. He was 23 and she was 20. My mother was out of work and my father’s factory was on strike. They had 36 cents between them. The went to a movie, split a bag of popcorn and had a penny left for a paper. Mom got a job out of the paper and Dad’s factory went back to work the next day.

My mother had one outfit she could wear to work selling children’s shoes. She washed it out by hand every night and ironed it in the morning. Dad routinely put cardboard in his shoes and they were resoled regularly. He probably replaced them every 2-3 years during that time.

There was some envy of the farm people, because, as my mother said:”At least they had food.”

I have posted over the past months about the downturn in my little business. My last order was nearly a month ago and I am perhaps 50% down Y/Y from last February. Today I got a small order from a shop in upstate NY. Tomorrow, my supplier will get an order. As slow as its been in fits and starts since last April, when I did the bookkeeping for the taxes, I was surprised to see that I was only down about 20% and my husband’s business was down less than 1%. I think the increases in property taxes, food and the Spring/Summer gas prices, plus the cold winter and high utility bills made it seem worse than it was.

The small order from an area I know is hard hit raised my spirits. Something I wouldn’t have thought much of a year ago is now a sign of hope.

[BonRad]

ping

[penelopesire]

“People who up to now have kept immaculately cut and trimmed yards had best start thinking in terms of planting a few edible things on those fancy lawns”

Yep..instead of ‘Victory Gardens’(like they did back then)..We can call them ‘Surrender Gardens’...LOL

[gidget7]

My Dad used to tell us stories, I could sit and listen for hours. He was an infant when it all started.

[penelopesire]

We might have to start well armed ‘Conservative Communes’...can you imagine?

LOL..

[hoosiermama]

My grand parent lost every thing at the beginning of the depression and grandpa died soon after leaving my uneducated grandmother with seven children to raise..... They would take two gunny sacks to the train car parked near by in one they would place any pieces of coal they found. In the other they would collect the wheat from the grain cars....We still make “fermity” for breakfast. It's from the crusade, when the pouch of wheat on the crusader wore on his side fermented a bit....They would add berries or milk to it to eat.

To make; Soak a cup full of wheat over night in water. The next morning make a light milk gravy with milk and flour, add the soft wheat and a little sweetener, sugar, honey, molasses etc.
Very filling and nutritional.

[festus]

The penny auctions were another way they helped each other.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Bump Dat...