My Grandpa lost a farm then, and was a sharecropper thereafter until he died .They were never hungry but but it did impact them in lots of ways as there was no money .They lived in south central Ky. so no "dirty thirties " there .They were farming and as most had plenty of milk, meat and vegetables .I am sure you folks have seen the depression era pictures on the net and they sure do make you thank God for our present cushy lifestyle . Grandpa was a bird dog man and sold quail to a hotel and eatery. A friend of his that hunted with him told me that he would often kill 5 on the rise if the birds flushed close to the dog ,he shot a humpback remington (model 11 )and was a english setter fan .My cousin who was a city dweller hunted with him once and shot 2 birds that were on my Grandpas side and he really sternly told him "those were my birds you shot " to educate my cousin ! Thanks be to God for our country and rich soil and the ability to feed many mouths .Any stories you care to tell ? Tally Ho smith

Like Rush used to say.”Our parents and grandparents went through the Great Depression and WWII. They knew hardship and pain. We have been though nothing so we invited Restless Leg Syndrome”.

Great Story, I never got to hunt with my Grandpa's

My grandfather made a living playing saxophone in a jazz band in the thirties . Places like Chicago, and Seattle . He could pick up $5 bucks a night and free booze !

My dad rode the trains all over the USA. He said shortly before he died in 1998 that those had been the best days of his life. He never knew where his next meal was coming from, or which fork in the road he might next take. But he had true freedom.

He was written up for a small segment in a Readers Digest book about the depression.

My friend Ralph, who was a Korean War Veteran, used to tell me lots of stories about his childhood during the Depression and a little after. His father committed suicide, though I kind of suspect Ralph's mom shot him. She did later shoot Ralph's uncle, his dad's brother. Ralph was dirt poor. At around age 8, Ralph ran with a group of kids, who rolled drunks in Dayton. Ohio. Ralph was the stick man. If the drunk, who they were robbing, started to wake up, Ralph's job was to club him on the head to knock him unconscious. They would look for drunks and vagrants under wagons and in and under rail cars and take their money and anything they had of value. Ralph would give what he stole to his mom, so she could buy food for him, her and his younger brother.

Ralph would also catch and sell pigeons he caught under bridges and in buildings for 25 to 50 cents each, which was a lot of money back then.

When Ralph got a little older, he got a car and a gun. He would drive out of town and look for animals to kill to eat. He said if you saw any sort of animal, he and other people would stop, shoot it wherever it was and take it home and eat it. He used to skin his catches before taking them to his mother. One time, Ralph left an unskinned opossum in the sink, because he had to go to work. His mom had never seen one before and was grossed out by it, because it looked like a rat to her. She told Ralph she never wanted him to bring an opossum home again. Ralph did bring more opossums home to eat, because it was often all he could kill, but he always skinned them first, so that his mom would not know what it was.

Ralph was a hard old man. Once he got mad at himself for doing something stupid and hit himself in the head hard enough to knock himself out. Another time he thought he saw someone he hated at the end of his driveway and ran down with a stick to club them to death and realized it was someone else, right before he hit them. In his old neighborhood, if someone stole from their neighbors or had relations with a child or another man's wife, they would "burn them out". People who did more minor infractions would get beaten by a group of men with sticks.

While in Korea, Ralph along with another GI were separated and without food for a few days at a landing strip. There was a Korean, who had been burned. Ralph was so hungry the Korean smelled good enough to eat....

Ralph stayed in the Airforce after the Korean War. He was originally stationed in Washington State. Ralph would slip off into the mountains and kill black bear and deer. He had 6 small, full body, mounted black bears in his house. He had a huge amount of firearms, several full auto. He had a 50 caliber, belt fed machine gun.

Ralph designed and was instrumental in getting the Korean War Memorial built at the Airforce Museum at WPAFB.

He often talked about killing himself by shooting himself in the head. One time, I pulled into Ralph's driveway and smelled something beyond horrible. I went towards the smell expecting to find Ralph dead and found a pile of 40 some dead raccoons Ralph had killed. Minutes later Ralph's neighbor showed up, also expecting to find Ralph dead. Ralph asked me to help move the coons. The leg pulled most of the way off, from the first coon I tried to move and I told him he was on his own. Ralph grabbed one and it exploded. We burnt them in the spot.

A few years ago, Ralph finally did take his life. None of us that knew him were surprised.

Ralph was overall a good person. Like all of us he had some flaws. As an adult Ralph was very honest. He would always say exactly what he felt. He never stole a dime after childhood. He had an eighth grade education and genius IQ. He was very knowledgeable on animals and in particular pigeons. He could dig, shape and build with stone, like a beaver could with wood. I kind of loved that old man. He was like a grandfather.

Keith

My kinfolk in TN., which very few are left, grew up during the depression. I used to love to sit and listen to their stories. Some I am sure were just made up stuff but many were real. Funny thing is they almost all said at one time or another, "we were poor anyway, didn't really matter to us what was going on". Took awhile for that to sink into to me, but it speaks volumes once you really think about it.
Those folks did whatever it took to survive. Cut timber, raised gardens, fished, hunted, trapped, worked for anyone doing anything needed done. Some for .25-.50 cents a week. They would eat about anything. They traded whatever they raised or grew with others for different stuff. Like eggs for milk, or or a hunk of pig for flour or sugar or what ever they could get for it.
Those folks all lived long lives to. Most made into their 90's with some topping 100 years. My great grandma passed away on her 103rd b-day.

The other side of my family came over here from France in early 1900's. To escape WW1. They came to the east coast and migrated west on a wagon train. They also rode a river boat and a train for part of the journey. I have been told that is how the ended up in this part of Illinois. They were all share croppers. The entire region just north of where I currently live was all migrant share croppers. Each family had their special work to do for the entire community. My grand dad was a corn farmer. His brother raised beans and wheat, another brother raised cattle. Every two years the entire community moved to the next farm. So as not to burn the ground up by raising the same crop year after year. The only ones that stayed put were the cattle men and pig farmers. everyone had chickens so they didn't matter. There were some goat ranchers and sheep too, though none of my family had them. My grand father was killed making one of the 2 year moves by being hit by a drunk driver while he driving a team of horses pulling a wagon of furniture. My dad was only 5-6 yo when it happened. His oldest brother, my uncle Sol, took over grandpas job of plowing for everyone at the ripe old age of 12. Not with a tractor mind ya, but with a team of horses. He was even there at the wreck and helped hold down a horse while two fellas pulled a piece of lumber out of its rib cage.

I wish I had taken the time to listen more closely to what all these fine folks had to say. I really wish I had written it all down. I truly believe whenever an old timer from that period passes the world loses encyclopedias of common sense and knowledge.

From my dad's autobiography, chapter 33:

My dad in 1933:

My grandfather called then Jakie bums, I believe that came from the whiskey they drank called Old jake.

My stepdad lived thru the depression,a decorated bomber pilot in ww2 on to make his fortune.

From what i have been told rural people did better than town people in a lot of cases. During the dust bowl gardens didnt produce and cattle starved. People too. Were some real bad years. It allowed the U.S. to transition into socialism. Seems odd only a few years after the federal reserve was allowed to have the reins of our economy, we jumped into WWI. Then had a depression. All giving more authority to the bank and central government.

My dad used to say, during the depression you couldn’t buy a job if you had the money, he said they worked for room and board, told me he worked all summer for room and board and In the fall they bought him a pair of shoes to wear to school, later he worked for a farmer all summer and the farmer bought him a .30-.30 rifle, he said he was the richest kid in town, told me he shot it til the barrel wore out.

My parents both went through the great depression. My oldest sister was born in 32. Dad was born in 01 and mom in 08. Spent their time together on a farm, and raised us five kids. Every waking moment of my early life, I was told to turn off the light, don’t waste things, clean up your plate, and a thousand other little things, all stemming from the depression. Dad lived to 94 and mom 97, and lived that life till the day they died. It was imbedded in their soul! The pansy's now days in these citys won’t make it a week, having to live the way our parents did back in those days. Very few these days have a work ethic, or the will to survive! Wife and I were at her daughters for a birthday, a few years back. Us guys were out back, and the wimmen inside. I came in, just in time to overhear her daughters friends talking, “yeah,Lee is a dinosaur, but when the SHTF, I’m headed to his house”. I squelched that right now, I told them they wouldn’t be sitting on their fat butts, living the easy life off of me! they hadn’t heard me slip in!

The Great Depression was an orchestrated wealth transfer.
Just as the '08 Housing Crisis, Scamdemic, etc are. Watch how wealth changes hands during every crisis: the rich get richer, while the poor and middle class get raked over the coals. Until every American understands this, we'll continue to be stripped of our assests during every one of these manufactured crisis.

It was raining former rich men from the skyscrapers in many US cities. Not all the rich did well and some poor men got rich from the opportunities created by the depression. Those who are smart, who can adapt, do well during a crisis.

Keith

I was raised that way too Lee. I tell my son the same thing. We dont waste food,theres many people starving in other countries who would love to have what we have. He doesnt remember the philippines much .

Money doesn't disappear. It just changes hands. The people jumping out of office windows were not wealthy. They were speculating on stock margins. The money went into the hands of a few. Kieth, name some poor men who got rich because of the collapse.

This is a great book, it also on Audio. Very useful for these times.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Depression-Diary-Benjamin-Roth-ebook/dp/B002TJLEVE

Both my parents were raised on farms during the depression. No money but always had food on the table and a roof over their head. You can't eat asphalt.

They was selling muskrats as marsh rabbits in the restaurants during that time.