# Great Depression thread



## Wildman Mick (Dec 31, 2011)

List what you know personally or heard someone say about the great depression (not the one were in now "aka greater depression".


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## solardon (Mar 2, 2012)

I just watch " The Walton's" and realize that one needs to know how to hunt and grow food to survive. Food, shelter and clothing is what I learned about in 5th grade and it still applies. All this technology is distracting us from reality!!!


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## amym505 (Feb 10, 2012)

I know that my father was 14 at the start of the great depression. My grandfather owned a furniture store in Galveston, TX. They lost everything. Luckily, they had the "old family homestead" to go to in Louisiana. He talked about them eating meals off banana leaves because they did not have dishes. On his death bed he was still dreaming of drinking cold buttermilk out of a bucket while he was working the fields. It seemed that it was a pleasant memory. 

My mother was 13 at the beginning of the depression. She saved everything. Bread bags, rubberbands, twist ties, aluminum foil, wrapping paper, you name it, she threw nothing away that she felt she could use later. Unlike my father, she wanted nothing to do with farming. She didn't even want a house plant. 

Unlike many of our parents or grandparents, many of us do not have an "old family homestead" to go back to. If the economy does collapse, we may very well lose our homes.


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## thomasdangerpowers (Mar 2, 2012)

only 2% of bank deposts were lost unlike that they make it out to be,the reason we have the FDIC to insure bank deposits, so banks make reckless loans with our deposits for high interest if it doesn't work out who cares, the goverment prints the money or ads credit adding to inflation problem. 25% of the population was unemployed so the remaining 75% that had jobs experienced deflation in prices so they could buy more with their money (like todays prices to silver and gold but up in fiat money) the problem was every thing was rationed so you could only buy so much anyway. Their were many families in one house sometimes 1 family per room and people kept everything nothing went in the trash. There were several depressions in the past before the great depression they usually were mild and lasted between 6-18 months like the depression of 1920, the 1929 "great depression" was make "GREAT" by goverment intevention. and the gold confiscation illegal and wasn't a confiscation like door to door, they asked people to turn it in for $20 an ounce and you were fined and/or did jail time if you got caught. 1933 coins are NOT EXEMPT they executive order said rare or collectable coins but never specified what that meant intentionally so they could take anything they wanted. The reason we have all these old rare coins now is because people didn't turn them in to be melted down. The "new deal" was alot of goverment spending that actually wasted resources that prolonged the problem. Roosevelt is seen by Austrian Economist as one of the worst presidents in history, because of uncontolled spending, starting S.S. knowing it wouldn't work but would create a breadbasket of voters for the Democ party, think about it the slaughtered lots of cattle raise the price of meat to help farmers but is it a good idea when people can't afford to buy meat at the price before the rise, or pay farmers subsidies NOT to grow too much corn or wheat so the price doesn't fall? it seems there was a small depression arising president hoover acted to intervent in the free market and then Roosevelt continued the proccess that prolonged and make the depression worse like Bush starting the "stimulus" after the housing bubble and then with Obamas even bigger debt spending for "quantitative easing" New Deal = QE 1 & 2 thats is why we are still in a ressesion or as Austrians econ. call a inflated depression and that is why it is lasting so longand getting worse.


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## fedorthedog (Feb 28, 2012)

One little problem with the deflation theory is that wages were cut. The bank my father worked for cut wages across the board 33 percent during the depression. My understanding was unemployment was 30+ percent. Some who had cash at the beginning of the event made money because they could buy cheap. There is always two sides.


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## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

My grandma tells me stories about bundling newspapers tightly and using them like fire logs. She also talked of raising hogs and a lot of farm like activity at her home in iowa.


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## PeppiPrepper (Jun 5, 2012)

Food things:

One interesting thing I learned is my relatives on one side didn't really consider rice to be a staple! Rice was available, but they seldom ate it, and only in pudding. It wasn't like it was a deliberate thing, it simply didn't make it to the table. They relied upon other staples, especially home baked bread and potatoes. Maybe grandpa just didn't like it.

Bread and stewed tomatoes. I don't know why this was popular in some circles but I guess they took some bread, and put fresh tomatoes that were pealed and stewed on them and considered that dinner. I've heard this from rural whites and rural blacks so I don't know how this came into being eaten.

About thefts:

Thefts hurt bad. For example, or perhaps for some odd reason, someone cut a section of hose and took it. This was irrigation stuff, not just some gardening item. This hurt. It limited what could be planted and irrigated. The family just had less. Someone stole your jacket. It hurt. A magazine ad for a neat airplane kit sold for a bit of money, promising a big toy airplane. Kids saved up pennies, sent it and waited _months_. When the kit arrived it had some folded construction paper, decals and instructions to make a paper airplane. Nothing much people could do about such things back then.


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## thomasdangerpowers (Mar 2, 2012)

I don't see a problem with the theory, the FED took 1/3 of the money supply out of circulation AKA 33% some think it was on purpose who really knows


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## thomasdangerpowers (Mar 2, 2012)

fedorthedog said:


> One little problem with the deflation theory is that wages were cut. The bank my father worked for cut wages across the board 33 percent during the depression. My understanding was unemployment was 30+ percent. Some who had cash at the beginning of the event made money because they could buy cheap. There is always two sides.


I don't see a problem with the theory, the FED took 1/3 of the money supply out of circulation AKA 33% that makes perfect sense. but prices still went down lower because the unempoyment was so high. so for those working it wasn't so bad. till Roosevent subsidized meat, corn and other commodities, raising prices food when people where doing bad. to help a few farmers he raised prices of food for many. one of the worse presidents in history, maybe the worst after Obama​


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## AnvilIron (Mar 1, 2012)

My mother and her cousin went to live together on their grandparent’s farm where they could work and help out. It also took a financial load off their parents who rented the girl’s rooms out for income. My father and his two brothers (young teenagers at best) hunted, fished, cut wood or whatever else they could find to do to earn money. Both of my grandmothers took in sewing and laundry as well as made most of the clothing for the rest of the family. My mother continued that practice until I was about twelve. One of my grandfathers was an auto mechanic and died of pneumonia from working on cars down in an unheated garage pit. My other grandfather worked in a milk and cheese processing plant and remained employed. 

What I’ve taken away from the many stories I’ve been told is that people did alright, but they had to be creative, flexible, hard-working and willing to undergo some hardship. Basic labor skills like wood cutting, hunting and sewing became opportunities to bring in money. Gardening was an absolute must. Every household in my family became so dependent on their gardens that they continued to keep large ones right through into the 60’s, until it became truly cheaper to buy store produce.


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## AnvilIron (Mar 1, 2012)

HighSierraSurvival said:


> Come visit our website and Have fun getting prepared for anything! Please send this on to all your friends and receive a discount. Thank all Veterans for a free West! God Bless America!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It might just be me, but plunking a self-serving commercial advertisement right in the middle of a thread seems an awful lot like high jacking&#8230; not to mention just plain rude&#8230; kind of like those annoying pop-up ads that get in your face. I've blocked all of them from my browser&#8230; can't stand pushy sales. They're the last supplier I'd patronize and so is this guy.

This is a forum for friends. Apparently some overly aggressive and under schooled marketer doesn't grasp basic curtsey in the 'Free West' (who talks like that unless they're from the East... the Middle East?).

Being one, I don't appreciate the blatant pander to Veterans either. I'd articulate my thoughts in their entirety, but I'm trying to abide by the rules of the forum and respectfully express my displeasure with cr~p like this in a constructive manner.


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## ZGF (May 25, 2012)

We have a habit in my family of scraping out the inside of the eggshell with our fingers when we've broken an egg, to get every last little bit. We realized this is a habit passed down from my Great-Grandma, who started doing it during the Depression. She had quite a few kids to provide for at that time. My grandma is a little bit bow-legged, because she didn't get proper nutrition at that very early stage of her life.

That's all I really know about it that didn't come out of a school textbook.


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

Ketchup soup! I heard stories of people ordering hot water at the diners, then dumping ketchup in it to make something like tomato soup.


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## shadownmss (Nov 13, 2012)

My Grandfather rode the rails looking for work during the Great Depression. I remember him telling me he finally found some work and had been there for several months. He told me that he got a letter from my Grandmother one day telling him that if he intended on marrying her he had better get back home because she was not going to wait forever. They were married 53 years before my Grandmother passed away. Grandma told stories about how she did piece work as a seamstress, pretty much the only food that they had was what they grew and canned. I always thought it was odd as a kid that Grandma would wash and reuse aluminum foil and plastic baggies......They were fairly well off later in life, Grandpa never got a loan for anything, he would get a new car once every 10 years or so and always pay cash.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

shadownmss said:


> My Grandfather rode the rails looking for work during the Great Depression..


Jimmie Rodgers 'Waiting for a Train' is a great tribute to all the guys who travelled the country looking for work to survive-


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

thomasdangerpowers said:


> only 2% of bank deposts were lost unlike that they make it out to be,the reason we have the FDIC to insure bank deposits, so banks make reckless loans with our deposits for high interest if it doesn't work out who cares, the goverment prints the money or ads credit adding to inflation problem. 25% of the population was unemployed so the remaining 75% that had jobs experienced deflation in prices so they could buy more with their money (like todays prices to silver and gold but up in fiat money) the problem was every thing was rationed so you could only buy so much anyway. Their were many families in one house sometimes 1 family per room and people kept everything nothing went in the trash. There were several depressions in the past before the great depression they usually were mild and lasted between 6-18 months like the depression of 1920, the 1929 "great depression" was make "GREAT" by goverment intevention. and the gold confiscation illegal and wasn't a confiscation like door to door, they asked people to turn it in for $20 an ounce and you were fined and/or did jail time if you got caught. 1933 coins are NOT EXEMPT they executive order said rare or collectable coins but never specified what that meant intentionally so they could take anything they wanted. The reason we have all these old rare coins now is because people didn't turn them in to be melted down. The "new deal" was alot of goverment spending that actually wasted resources that prolonged the problem. Roosevelt is seen by Austrian Economist as one of the worst presidents in history, because of uncontolled spending, starting S.S. knowing it wouldn't work but would create a breadbasket of voters for the Democ party, think about it the slaughtered lots of cattle raise the price of meat to help farmers but is it a good idea when people can't afford to buy meat at the price before the rise, or pay farmers subsidies NOT to grow too much corn or wheat so the price doesn't fall? it seems there was a small depression arising president hoover acted to intervent in the free market and then Roosevelt continued the proccess that prolonged and make the depression worse like Bush starting the "stimulus" after the housing bubble and then with Obamas even bigger debt spending for "quantitative easing" New Deal = QE 1 & 2 thats is why we are still in a ressesion or as Austrians econ. call a inflated depression and that is why it is lasting so longand getting worse.


Wow if then doesnt mirror whats happening right now then I dont know what does. Seems pretty much like Obama is going the same route for all intents and purposes although his agenda might be a little different.

I just remember my grand parents talking about how hard things were and how scarce food was or at least their ability to afford it. Had it not been for the garden and a 22 rifle and a few boxes of shells they said they werent sure they could have made it. Said they ate a lot of soup, beans, cornbread and rabbit or squirrel dumplings on a good day if grandpa could scrounge up one.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

During the great-depression people as a whole were different. Crime rates were very low.There was a lot of self reliance, shared suffering. People in generally played by the rules .Our family were, farmers they did not have much but they could get by. You could see the lessons learn in how my father in law did things and saw the world. Wish I had learned more from him.
Not the case now. Now it is all about Me and if I don't have my stuff I am taking it from someone else . Your not going to see that change.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Smitty901 said:


> During the great-depression people as a whole were different. Crime rates were very low.There was a lot of self reliance, shared suffering. People in generally played by the rules .Our family were, farmers they did not have much but they could get by. You could see the lessons learn in how my father in law did things and saw the world. Wish I had learned more from him.
> Not the case now. Now it is all about Me and if I don't have my stuff I am taking it from someone else . Your not going to see that change.


That is the truth of it.


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## jc-hunter (Nov 13, 2012)

One of the main differences of then and now is that , then the majority were God fearing Christians. That is why the crime rate was lower. When the next depression comes, the crime rate will be astronomical due to the lack of Christian beliefs nowadays. Sad , but true.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

amym505 said:


> on his death bed he was still dreaming of drinking cold buttermilk out of a bucket while he was working the fields. It seemed that it was a pleasant memory.
> 
> My mother was 13 at the beginning of the depression. She saved everything. Bread bags, rubberbands, twist ties, aluminum foil, wrapping paper, you name it, she threw nothing away that she felt she could use later. Unlike my father, she wanted nothing to do with farming. She didn't even want a house plant.


buttermilk was a great treat back then and a quick source of energy.
When i was 10 (early 50's), on my grandfathers farm, i use to drink a quart at a time while working the chickens.
We mostly ate chickens due to the fact there were 5 thousand of them for egg production.

Not wanting to rain on you here, but, twist ties did not exist in the 30's.
Aluminum foil was too expensive for consumer products. 
Its primary use was with wax paper to form tubular capacitors for radio equipment.

We use to go to the bakery on sunday morning and get our bread for the week, unwrapped, we put it in a flower sack which was like a cotton pillow case.
When home, it went into the big breadbox. 
There were thick crust black and brown breads that kept very well because of the heavy crust. They were big, like the size of a half of a basketball.


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## TXannie (Dec 9, 2012)

both my parents and my grandparents lived through the great depression. My mother's family were migrant farmers in west TX. Our depression lasted until WW2, due to the drought I guess. No dust bowl, but no crops. My grandparents and 6 children ended up living on the banks of Colorado river, along with families who lost farms and other migrant workers. Being near San Saba, San Angelo, and Abilene once a week a group would bring out flour, coffee, and grease. They talked about many days only thing they had to eat was Red Eye Gravy (made from used coffee grounds and grease) to the day she died my mother loved to eat it. But my grandmother had one great advantage for food, she was brought up living the Native American ways. She is the one who showed and taught me about cooking cactus, even getting water from the red pears when bloomed, wild plants safe to eat, etc... At one time all but my grandfather came down with typhoid fever. There was a doctor who would make the rounds of camp sites, my mother told me she heard him tell my grandfather that while my grandmother may live, not to count on any of the kids to make it. But they all did. None would have survived if people in nearby towns had not been generous to share what little they had with the homeless along the river. Old flour sacks (cloth back then) were hand sewn into clothes. My grandparents had been saving pennies in a bank almost had enough to buy their own little piece of land when the banks closed. My grandfather and two uncles died still working other peoples land for very little pay and old shacks to live in. (my uncles died in this decade living like that and never learning to read or write. 
I don't want to cause any argument about Roosevelt, but when he began the workers corp my grandfather joined. He got room and board so all money was sent to grandmother. That finally got them into a tiny rooming house and enough food to survive. They all believed if not for that they would not have made it out of depression alive. 
My fathers story is a bit different. My great grandparents, grandparents, father and one uncle lived on family farm of over 360 acres in central TX. But the drought hit them also. I have a pic of my g-grandparents standing out in front of house I grew up in and not a blade of grass, weed, nor tree in sight. They came very close to losing farm during depression from being behind in taxes. the farm located near a large army base saved them. My grandmother took in sewing for civilians as well as patches on army uniforms, ironing, and doing some cleaning for people in town. My grandfather did odd jobs (painting, building, etc..) paying largest percentage toward tax debt, left little over for food. Beans, cornbread and occasionally on holidays potatoes. My grandmother would go around asking for the cloth flour sacks, unused bits of fabric from sewing to make clothes. The good news is our land has a couple of water springs on it, so at least clean water was not a problem. Again, my grandfather joined the Work corp, sent money home saved farm (my youngest uncle born after depression) still owns, and gave my grandmother and g-grandparents some relief for better food. 
It seems some post (and I may be very wrong) leads to believe depression only lasted for small part of the 30's, but for farmers in many areas it lasted into the 40's. And while the few who were fortunate to have things to share were kind to do it, it was not until the work corp that many more people pulled out of homelessness/hunger/ and possible death. 
I grew up with my grandparents, great uncles/aunts, and uncles and aunts. As the only little one around I listened to them all gather and talk about the old days. From our areas crime was not much of an issue, petty thief mostly (people hungry stilling food). Also, very few had guns, and some of them like my paternal grandfathers was so old it probably would have blown up in his face if used. Those who did have guns (all I heard of were shot guns) no one could afford ammo. My maternal grandfather and 3 uncles never owned guns, even in later years. But they were great with knives. 
I am sure I am totally off topic and digressed too far into past, I apologize.


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