Comments on: Getting By During The Great Depression

By: Lauren-Mae Cook

Lauren-Mae Cook — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:52:10 +0000

Yep, this was my Grandma Gladys and her family, right down to the lard sandwiches. She still canned food until she couldn’t get around anymore. She only had an 8th grade education, yet she was a sharp woman. When we were cleaning out the house after she died in ’03 we found canned food from the early 90s. She had stashes of items that she bought on sale. She had stacks of paper products in the back room, the only thing that was wrong with that was they were by the furnace! I wish she was still alive. I would have asked her so many questions!

By: Kendra at New Life On A Homestead

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:00:59 +0000

I don’t really know what it was like in Australia then.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:16:15 +0000

does this apply to australia too? cuz i have a report on australia due in a while…

By: Kendra at New Life On A Homestead

Kendra at New Life On A Homestead — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:24:29 +0000

Hi Lynn,

So great to read your comment! Let me just encourage you to start learning to can and sew NOW. You may need those skills before you realize it, and unfortunately you don’t know if your mom will be there to teach you whenever you decide you are ready. Plus, these are skills you want to have BEFORE you NEED them. So get her to teach you now, lol!!

By: Homesteading Chic

Homesteading Chic — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 05:24:04 +0000

Wow! I’ve really enjoyed reading this post and all of the comments! Thank you! My grandparents were a young couple in the depression, but unfortunately they are no longer around to talk to about it. I didn’t see them very much when I was a kid except to stay with them a few times a year, and I guess it never dawned on my to ask them about it. My mom was born right after the war, but she grew up poor in the country so it seems like a lot of the frugal ways continued. She has talked about using a catalog for TP and such. They always had good food, though because they had room to grow food. My mom knows how to do many of the “old” things like sew, can, ect., but I wasn’t very interested in learning as a girl or teen and so I didn’t learn. I grew up middle class, but my mom was still pretty frugal. I guess though she didn’t think I would have to know these things. I turn to her a lot now days when I don’t know how to do something. I’ve already said to my husband when I get ready to learn how to can, I really want my mom there to guide me! I’m just glad she learned all of this stuff.

Lynn

By: Linda Webb

Linda Webb — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:14:14 +0000

My mama, who died 4 years ago at age 93, had very bad feet with toes crossing over others and the big toe going under them. She talked about putting cardboard in the bottoms of shoes when they got holes in them. Also told me that the reason her feet were such a mess was because she often had to wear them even though she had outgrown them and it was too cold to go to school without them. She lived on a farm and had enough food, but otherwise things were really tough. I can remember her making me a pair of shorts from a feed bag her sister had given her.

At 71, I slowing down a lot and can’t always do as much, I still have chickens and a garden. I’ve had to adapt. I had raised bed garden boxes built 15 inches high so I can sit on the edges to weed and plant.

I really have enjoyed your articles on Addie, especially about the spider webs and the skin under the egg shell. I remember my grandmother putting kerosene on wounds to sterilize them.