My Grandma bought a fur coat in the 30's that cost her a Schoolteachers months salary.
My Grandpa's family thought she was too high maintenance for him.

I met a couple of gentlemen from Marcola, OR back in the 80's who had both come to Oregon on the rails during the depression. They said that finding a job was never hard, but actually getting paid was very difficult. As others have said, they often worked for room and board. They said that the room for was easier to come by than the board. On fella said he was nearly starving at one time, and a neighbor said that the salmon were in in the McKenzie River, get a pitchfork and a lantern and walk the banks after dark looking for one. He did that and soon speared a big salmon. He walked up to the highway and headed back to Walterville. A car soon stopped and offered him a ride. In the conversation that followed he told the driver that he hadn't had a decent meal in a week, and praise the Lord for the fish! He dropped him off at the farm he worked at and drove off. His boss then rushed out of the house and demanded to know why the game warden had brought him home.

Here's a bunch of them.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloes...ses-started-during-the-great-depression/

There were many thousands more, including my paternal grandfather, who came over from Sicily in 1906 as a 16 year old kid, by himself after his father told him he had no money to pay him for picking hazelnuts. He had almost no money when he got here. He kept the people in Piqua, Ohio alive and fed during the depression He was owed over $60,000.00 by folks he gave credit for groceries at his store and forgave them their debts. He is still revered in Piqua and nearby areas and in Italy, where he kept his family members and friends alive in Brullo and Santangello Brullo after WWII. In a time when very few people went to college, all 12 of his children, including the girls, went to college and most went to graduate school too. People who work hard enough and smart enough, with a little luck can always make money.

Keith

What a grim period in our history. Granted, they are fiction, but I have always assumed that they were pretty accurate in their depiction of life. Two historical novels by John Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Rather depressing, but two of the best novels I've ever read.

Jack

You do understand that Steinbeck was a card carrying Commie, don't you?

I liked Irene Hunt's "No Promises in the Wind", that was set in 1932. Her "Across 5 April's", which was set just before and just after the Civil War was good too.

Keith

The Great Depression caused by government loose fiscal policy and worsened by a decade by government interventionist policy. Ultimately it took a world war, more than half caused by the depression, to pull the US out of it. Even then it left half the world in ruins and all but the US bankrupt.

And were printing money today like it grows on trees.

Its true that what our parents and grandparents went through is on a completely different realm from the world we live in today. My grandparents were in occupied France during WWII, lost a son during the war, got caught by the Germans and eventually escaped to Switzerland before making it to the US, legally I will add. My uncle lived through the Great Depression here in the US he told me when walking home from school he often had to site on the curb because the stomach pains were so great that he couldn't continue walking. He would look for scrap metal and such to sell to help earn some money.

Most of our generation has no idea what true hardship is and we should all be thankful for those who lived through it and fought for our freedom and lifestyle. As the saying goes, All gave some and some gave all.

my granddad came over from Sweden as an indentured servant after two years they owed the famer more than when they started out, he said that they were nearly starve to death working from morning to dust with only one meal a day, so he and his brother took off and head to Escanaba, where there was family from Sweden , the farmer sent the law after them, so they went to London and got enough money to come back and pay off the farmer and they got citizen ship just before the depression hit . grandpa had more done on the chicken coup than the house so he block off part of the chicken coup and that's where they lived my oldest uncle was born in 1925 grand mom loss two girls and then had 2nd uncle 1931 and then my dad in 1933 , and in 1935 grand ma died giving birth to another daughter both died. oldest uncle went into ww2 in 41 server two tour in Korea and two tours in Vietnam, my dad and other uncle did what they could to get money for food. and when they were old enough, they join the service, can you image living in a 12by 14 shed with chicken right next to you dad said he never had a bath till he was 12 , at that point the state told granddad he had to remarry, or the state was taking the boys, so he orders a bride from sear& roebuck catalog, they had to be tough!!!

No warrior, I wasn't aware of that. Nonetheless, I still like his works, especially Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. Although my political leanings are decidedly conservative, I also like some of the writings of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, and I assume they, too, were probably communist/socialist.

I can recall my Aunt telling me how my Uncle who had been laid off by the railroad trapped and sold a mink and a few black muskrats so the kids would be able to have Christmas. I think the year was 1933 or '34. Sold them to Jim Ellis over in Middletown, NY

Good article Keith. thanks

You're welcome Danny. A crisis always provides opportunity for smart people willing to work hard. Hard times make better people than easy ones too.

Keith

Great Thread

My Grandad told me that during the depression if someone found a ground hog hole that there appeared to be one living in, they would sit near the hole all day if necessary and shoot if for the meat and make shoestrings out of the leather.

Our dad was born in 1913 and our mom n 1921 so yes both were young during the depression. Dad was 1 of 6 on a farm and mom 1 of 3 and they moved off their farm right before the crash. Yes times were tough and I have heard all the stories. They married in 1946 after dad came home from 6 years in the army of which 3 and half years were in the South Pacific. For the most part it was our mom who raised us much like they did in the depression. Dad's alcoholism worsened and he left the 7 of us when I was 12. Pretty austere growing up. Grateful for coming in contact with good people that let me live with them and doing well in school. Education leveled the playing field for me as there were no other assets to use for leverage.

Bryce

I wish a responsible person would do that on my family's farm. Them groundhogs dig holes all over the farm. Every once in awhile we kill one.

If legal in your area, 220s work great on groundhog holes.

Keith

First off, thank you for this excellent thread. When I was young, my grandpa and two great uncles used to tell us younger guys stories of living during the depression. The most memorable was about a pen that they built and hid behind a hay stack. During off season they would take out their dogs and gunny sacks, the dogs would bay the skunk till they got there, they said the trick was to get the skunk running with its tail up, run up behind it and grab by tail and put in sack to take home and put it in the pen. Back then, they had a lot of rabbits, so they fed the skunks rabbits until winter. Skunk furs were worth more than a working man could make in a week or month, I can’t remember the exact details. They also said it was important to not let the skunk touch its front feet to its back feet. Once, one of my uncles received a dose in the eye. Said it was most painful thing he had ever felt. They have been gone for over 20 yrs. How I would like to hear some of those stories from them again. So one time out running taps before work I lined a skunk out in a wheat field running with his tail up, I decided to try it.. Well at the last second I chickened out, but I did run right over the top of him. and I kept running…

I wish i could have known my grandpa better, he had a atroke when i was about 8 or 9. Didn't find out one of my great uncles hopt a freight car to end up in Oregon from Oklahoma back then. He never said a word till he was in his 80s.

I know gpa broke his arm trying to pee off the back of a mule when they were hauling a load of fence posts from Oklahoma to somewhere in Texas when he was a kid during that time frame.

I've heard what it was like and during ww2 and anyone my age other then a few on here wouldn't have a chance if we had to live through it ourselves. After the last few years I've stepped up being self sufficient and preparing to get by if needed in rough times that maybe coming.