- Mar 5, 2018
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- Country
- United States
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Just curious if anyone here can remember living through the great depression days. I am too young myself to have experienced it, but have heard many many stories from my family members as I was raised sitting at the feet of elderly people who experienced things that kept my attention and you could just feel yourself right smack dab in the middle of those stories, walking right along with them as they walked places.
I still remember grandma churning butter and often warning Grandpa that I was in the room and to "watch" how he told some of those stories. lol
My family fared pretty well considering they had the farm and all. [at least compared to those who had nothing] They were strong well weathered people who worked hard and stayed to mostly to themselves. They had seven boys and two girls. The boys were all hard workers and 6 of them went to the military. My Dad was drafted into the Marines and done three tours through vietnam before coming home with malaria and almost dead. But granny patched him and got him fed and back at it. When I finally came along, They had fared well enough through the depression and through the other boys coming home from various military deployments during which my Grandfather also took a job as a forest ranger, so he made plenty to keep it all afloat.
The only socialization our family had was pretty much church on Sundays and afterward the men went to smoke while the women set up dinner and us kids played tag and so on.
It was a simple life and one that many would have considered to be the worse form of poverty, But we were very rich in ways that money couldn't buy.
I remember carrying watermelons to the spring to chill and then after finishing hauling hay, We would take a jug of sweat tea down to the spring where us kids would swim and that water was blue cold but those melons were delicious cooled off in there.
I learned a lot by this precious family that is mostly gone now, Their memories live on through me as I garden and hunt and do the things I was raised doing, I try to hang on to what is left of our old lifestyle out of fear of forgetting what real values are.
The most valuable lessons I were taught were God first in everything. [except some of Grandpa's stories of course]
Prayer in the morning
We ate meals together after our hats were removed and grace was first said.
We said yes Sir and yes Mam to our elders and we all knew that we were each special in God's eyes and each others as well.
We prayed at night and then slept with the doors unlocked and the windows open without a thought of any harm coming to us.
I often fell asleep to the sound of whippoorwills singing their songs and crickets and frogs often chiming in.
I miss the years I spent with the people who worried about the years I was growing up in. They used to tell me, Scotty It is going to be hard, always be prepared because evil will be rampant and that I would see unbelievable things before my time came.
I realize now that they were smart people as well.
Our gun rack hung by the front door and I remember staring at those guns and anxiously waiting to get to use one, Not for harm to a person, but for the guys to take me hunting and get a deer, so I could feel the pride of having provided meat for my family, like my dad and uncles and grandpa did.
I went hunting with the guys many times before the day came that I got to carry my own gun and I learned firsthand gun safety and what guns were really used for.
They were used to provide food! They were simply a tool that provided meat for our family and grandma and momma would always can and freeze the meat we cut up and brought into the house.
Some of my fondest memories are of us guys working up the many deer we had harvested and the ladies going back and forth doing their wifely duties and us all joking and having fun, Knowing in the back of our minds that is a big ice storm or snow or something was to come, We had meat put back and could survive.
We would do the same thing with garden veggies, We would all set under the shade trees and snap beans and shuck corn and drink coffee and laugh at the crazy events we had been involved in or heard tell of. Us kids must of snapped 20,000 beans a summer lol.
I will stop here but I hope some others here have fond memories of the special people that survived these great events and held on to their faith and morals. Thank you for reading.
I still remember grandma churning butter and often warning Grandpa that I was in the room and to "watch" how he told some of those stories. lol
My family fared pretty well considering they had the farm and all. [at least compared to those who had nothing] They were strong well weathered people who worked hard and stayed to mostly to themselves. They had seven boys and two girls. The boys were all hard workers and 6 of them went to the military. My Dad was drafted into the Marines and done three tours through vietnam before coming home with malaria and almost dead. But granny patched him and got him fed and back at it. When I finally came along, They had fared well enough through the depression and through the other boys coming home from various military deployments during which my Grandfather also took a job as a forest ranger, so he made plenty to keep it all afloat.
The only socialization our family had was pretty much church on Sundays and afterward the men went to smoke while the women set up dinner and us kids played tag and so on.
It was a simple life and one that many would have considered to be the worse form of poverty, But we were very rich in ways that money couldn't buy.
I remember carrying watermelons to the spring to chill and then after finishing hauling hay, We would take a jug of sweat tea down to the spring where us kids would swim and that water was blue cold but those melons were delicious cooled off in there.
I learned a lot by this precious family that is mostly gone now, Their memories live on through me as I garden and hunt and do the things I was raised doing, I try to hang on to what is left of our old lifestyle out of fear of forgetting what real values are.
The most valuable lessons I were taught were God first in everything. [except some of Grandpa's stories of course]
Prayer in the morning
We ate meals together after our hats were removed and grace was first said.
We said yes Sir and yes Mam to our elders and we all knew that we were each special in God's eyes and each others as well.
We prayed at night and then slept with the doors unlocked and the windows open without a thought of any harm coming to us.
I often fell asleep to the sound of whippoorwills singing their songs and crickets and frogs often chiming in.
I miss the years I spent with the people who worried about the years I was growing up in. They used to tell me, Scotty It is going to be hard, always be prepared because evil will be rampant and that I would see unbelievable things before my time came.
I realize now that they were smart people as well.
Our gun rack hung by the front door and I remember staring at those guns and anxiously waiting to get to use one, Not for harm to a person, but for the guys to take me hunting and get a deer, so I could feel the pride of having provided meat for my family, like my dad and uncles and grandpa did.
I went hunting with the guys many times before the day came that I got to carry my own gun and I learned firsthand gun safety and what guns were really used for.
They were used to provide food! They were simply a tool that provided meat for our family and grandma and momma would always can and freeze the meat we cut up and brought into the house.
Some of my fondest memories are of us guys working up the many deer we had harvested and the ladies going back and forth doing their wifely duties and us all joking and having fun, Knowing in the back of our minds that is a big ice storm or snow or something was to come, We had meat put back and could survive.
We would do the same thing with garden veggies, We would all set under the shade trees and snap beans and shuck corn and drink coffee and laugh at the crazy events we had been involved in or heard tell of. Us kids must of snapped 20,000 beans a summer lol.
I will stop here but I hope some others here have fond memories of the special people that survived these great events and held on to their faith and morals. Thank you for reading.
