[grabby]

I think it will be nice to have a thread where I canread and collect hard time stories from people that have lived the depression, or some needy times like WWII. I heard a lot of stories from my father and mother and they really helped me improve my attitude, and get me prepared for whats coming, anyway here is a nice one I found to start this thread off:

EATING POSSUM


A while back I heard a man speak just a few words in a near whisper, and convey how awful the of the Thirties was.
It happened as eight or ten of us, stood around congratulating one another on ending another work-week. Talk turned somehow to exotic game, and for a time we discussed the odd things people will or will not eat, things we ourselves had or had not consumed.
Rattlesnake and groundhog, raccoon and snapping turtle,
crawfish and I don't know what all were talked about at length. Then somebody mentioned possum. We agreed possum was a whole different deal. One youngster in his twenties flat got worked up on the subject. "I'd never put a piece of possum in my mouth," he insisted. "Not for no amount of money.
Do you know what them things eat? Anything dead is what, and I mean anything." The kid talked on and on about how he would never, ever eat possum, not even the one somebody recalled their granddad raising from a baby on the same slops the hogs got.
One old-timer in his seventies listened to the rest of us, not saying much, though he laughed at our jokes. He looked like a man who'd worked hard all his life, locked into brute labor by a lack of education. He waited till the kid hushed, and then intoned, "Son, let me tell you something. If you were hungry enough you'd eat a possum. And be happy to have it."
Something in that man's dignified voice made it clear he'd weathered monstrous hard times he wouldn't waste breath complaining about. And somewhere or other, some time or other, he'd been awfully thankful to have a chunk of possum to chew on.
I wish I knew his name, but I don't. I don't even recall ever seeing him again. But he gave me a couple of things to think about. I'm still thinking about them.
I think about whether or not my generation --or my son's-- could survive what that old man did. And if we did survive, would we still be able to laugh like he did?
And I think about how naturally eloquent the generation can be, folks who went through unbelievably hard times without flinching or complaining, without breaking. We ought to listen
to them more. They're quickly leaving us, you know. Not all that long ago, on any warm afternoon, we could have gone to one of the courthouse "liar's benches" and heard first hand accounts of World War I.
Those old warriors are gone now, almost every one. Soon the children of the will follow, taking all their stories with them.
Next time you have a few idle minutes with someone who's passed a seventieth birthday, ask what it was like back in the thirties. See what kind of tales they have yet to tell.


--

Stories, poetry, "Notes From the Top of the Hill,"
and some funny stuff.
Listen to MP3 "notes" at

[grabby]

A migrant mother with 7 children in the great depression.


By the way. ..

United States Federal Reserve
Monetarists including Milton Friedman and Ben Bernanke stress the negative role of the United States Federal Reserve System. It cut the money supply by one-third from 1929 to 1932. With significantly less money to go around, businessmen could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This was not because they did not want to (as the Keynesian model said), but because banks could not lend them the money they needed. This interpretation blames the government and calls for a much more careful Federal Reserve policy.
wikipedia.

[grabby]

The Great Depression hit Germany hard. The impact of the Wall Street Crash forced the United States to halt the Dawes Plan which had been financing the reconstruction of the German economy. This led to the collapse of large sectors of German business and industry, and massive unemployment. The Weimar government did not increase government spending to deal with Germany's growing crisis, as they were afraid that a high-spending policy could lead to a return of the hyperinflation that had affected Germany in the years after World War I. Their failure to deal with the crisis caused the public to lose confidence in them, which played a significant role in the election of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Mussolini and Hitler followed an autarky economic policy, which, composed with the militarist and nationalistic characteristics of the fascist and Nazi ideology, led to World War II. On a purely economic level, the work needed to build the military power necessary for its expansionist goals was believed by many to be a relative success, although it was treading a path of autodestruction. However consumer goods suffered shortages and non-military production did not increase enough to compensate for the massive debt that the Nazi government built up. If they had not been defeated in World War Two they would probably have had to default which would have destroyed the economy. The Great Depression played a significant role in the election of Hitler, and is therefore generally held to have been an indirect cause of World War II.

[grabby]

"My parents said that they would be back for me. They said they were going to look for work and they would be back soon. I was six weeks old when they left. They never came back."



"In the third grade, my teacher announced a spelling bee. I was very excited because if you won, you received a prize of twenty-five cents. This was a lot of money. I studied very hard and was nervous, but I did win. My mother took my twenty-five cents to buy food."


Factors that lead to the Great Depression

Speculations in the 1920s caused many people to by stocks with loaned money and they used these stocks as collateral for buying more stocks. Broker's loans went from under $5 million in mid 1928 to $850 million in September of 1929. The stock market boom was very unsteady, because it was based on borrowed money and false optimism. When investors lost confidence, the stock marcket collapsed, taking them along with it.

[NTBKtrader]

Carmen Carter Remembers Turkey Farming
In 1929 Orlo and I had been married two years and had a year old son, Douglas. We were just nicely getting started in the turkey raising business on his parents' farm near Bridgeton. We had about a thousand young turkeys that spring and we bought feed on credit during the growing season and paid for it when we sold the turkeys at Thanksgiving time.

But that year was different. The newspapers were full of news about bank closing, businesses failing, and people out of work. There was just no money and we could not sell the turkeys. So we were in debt with no way out.

But when we read about the bread lines and soup kitchens in the cities, we felt we were lucky because we raised our own food. Our house was rent free, just keep it in repair. Our fuel, which was wood, was free for the cutting. Then our second child, Iris, was born and our biggest expense was doctor bills. However, this too was solved when our doctor agreed to take turkeys and garden produce for pay.

About that time my husband and a friend started operating a crate and box factory near Maple Island. After expenses they were each making about a dollar a day. Food was cheap. Coffee was 19 cents a pound, butter 20 cents, bacon the same, with a five pound bag of sugar or flour about 25 cents.

Gasoline was five gallons for a dollar so for recreation we would get into our 1926 Overland Whippet and go for long rides. We also had an Atwater Kent radio we could listen to when we could buy batteries for it.

I had always liked to write poetry so I decided to submit some to Grit, a weekly newspaper. I was delighted when they accepted them and paid me $2 each for them. That money bought a large bag of groceries at that time. I continued to write for Grit for several years.

Orlo finally got a job as a mechanic at a garage in Grant. He earned $15 a week and for us the Depression was over. But it taught us to really appreciate what we had.

[Pops]

Nice story grabby, well told.

I used to love to listen to my folks tell of their childhoods, I could never get enough. In my early teens I took many pages of notes about those stories, family history, etc. Unfortunately I lost them somewhere along the way.

What I didn’t lose and I think many of my generation never thought of, was that the generations before knew a thing or two about a thing or two. Lots of times around here there is the typical 17 year olds rant about how dumb and selfish the previous generation was.
---

I was at a picnic for the fourth at the nearby riverbottom where one of the neighbors has corn. I saw some pretty big turtles in a pool and ask what kind they were; someone said "Turtles", and everyone laughed at my expense.

One little old lady said the rule of thumb was if a snapper was too big to get in a five gallon bucket it was too big too eat. She said she knew from experience; she had had to drink a lot of beer to get that thing down.

I guess the moral is to marinate yourself and not the turtle.

[foodnotlawns]

<QUOTE>Mussolini and Hitler followed an autarky economic policy, which, composed with the militarist and nationalistic characteristics of the fascist and Nazi ideology, led to World War II.</QUOTE>

That's quite true! The Jews declared War on Germany because in 1933, as one of his first acts in office, Hitler Germany got out of the Jewish International Banking System and instead started bartering goods.

Jewish bankers want both people and countries to be in debt to them all the time. "Autarky" means you don't depend on some international banking and trading system, you make your own stuff, and when you trade, you don't borrow in order to do so.

Here's the link about Jews declaring "Holy War" on Germany in 1933.

http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/script ... ecwar.html

[Laughs_Last]

Jewish bankers want both people and countries to be in debt to them all the time.

Those Jews! They're always after me Lucky Charms!

[KhanCEO]

This is the reason why "Hard Times" happen:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ey+masters

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ey+masters

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ey+masters

[DesertBear2]

Those Jews! They're always after me Lucky Charms!

And watch out! Those jews like to kidnap and eat little children...after they seduce your wife.