The Great Depression and your family

Which one? 1929 or 2008?

My grandmother and my great grandparents lived through it. They had to move from Montana to the upper Peninsula of Michigan for a job for my great grandfather. He worked for the railroad. They were so poor at the time my grandmother said. He then contracted MS and then they moved again. They opened a small grocery store in Detroit and lived above the store. My great grandmother had to take care of the store, her ailing husband, and my grandmother. Poor woman! I think my grandmother was traumatized by growing up poor. She used to tell me she was embarrassed to live above a grocery store. She tried to hide it from her classmates. In the end she married well and was able to be a housewife and not worry about money so much.

1929

My dad was so poor he used to wash elephants for five cents. His mom made a week's worth of delicious bean soup with a bone for flavor for eight cents. He had an empty spool of thread for his toy. His family kept having their furniture repossessed due to non-payment. He trudged a mile(s) uphill in deep snow, and liked it.

My dad was the sweetest man ever (born in 1918). My mom's dad was fairly wealthy at the time and lost a lot of money in the depression but had enough the family was OK. That family was Scots Irish and proud of being cheap, so I grew up being very frugal, and it has served me well.

My mother used to save garbage ties and plastic bags from loaves of bread. Also any kind of plastic container. Like a margarine tub to save leftovers in. Also kept jelly jars and reused them as drinking glasses. My sister and I could never leave the table with food left on the plate. We had to clean the plate! My mother learned these frugal things from her parents. I still do some of them. My roommate thinks I’m nuts!

My dad graduated from an engineering college in 1930. He was only one of three to land a job. He said no one who graduated in 1931 got a job.

He was forced to retire in the early 70s when he turned 65. Inflation was through the roof and my brother and I were still in high school. He paid for our college and my niece and nephew's college.

My mom was 17 years younger than my dad. She said she didn't know they were poor because everyone else was poor too.

They left my brother and I a sizable inheritance due to their frugality. I plan to use part of it to pay for my great niece's college.

My grandparents were all born in the late 20s so Depression and war were all they knew until they reached adulthood. That's quite an astounding thought for a person of my generation, who had a spoiled, upper-middle class childhood and knew nothing of hardship.

My father was born a few months before Black Tuesday. My grandparents were in their first year of marriage. They didn't talk about the Depression. I picked up a few things from my father over the years. My grandmother, father and his little brother went to live on my grandmother's family farm in Louisiana. My grandfather went on the road, supposedly as a salesman, sending money home when he could. He was hustling pool, I don't know whether it was full time; but his stepfather had owned a pool hall. He grew up playing pool. My grandmother's family wasn't rich, but her father had been a local politician and her brother was a dentist. Everyone got through. My grandmother was a talented gardener, but I never saw her grow any food except for having one pear treat. Apparently the years of gardening and canning during the Depression wore her out. She had flower beds all over their yard. My grandparents were both thrifty and generous, always looking for ways to slip us money. I think the years of hard times made them understand the desire for treats and little extras.

My great grandfather on my dads side was comfortable middle class with real estate holdings, but lost it all during the depression - my mothers side was not really affected at all - they were coal miners in south east Pennsylvania, and demand for coal wasn't affected by the depression- my paternal grandparents were good at reuse/recycling---

My Grandfather was turning 40 in 1930, and he planned to retire and live off his rentals. By 1932 he was flat broke. My Mother talked about how he filled the whole back seat of the car with Christmas presents in 1929. In 1932 she got an orange.

My grandparents grew up poor in Ireland (though they never really complained about it, just talked about things matter of factly), so I think living through the Depression in America after they moved here wasn't as bad. They all had employment and helped their families back home.

My grandparents used an apple crate as a crib for my dad. They had 9 kids, so times must have been tough!

I think things were a bit harder for my other grandparents, who were born here. My grandmother must have started working in one of the New England factories at a young age, whereas my grandparents from Ireland must have had helped on the family farms. I imagine it was a lot better to work on a family farm than work for a factory boss.

IDK, I'm going to have to ask my parents some things... now you've got me wondering OP.

Actually wait, I'm not sure how old my other grandmother was when the Depression came... yeah, I need to consult the parents.

R5, same here and I am frugal as well although now I save and rewash ziplock bags. Always turning off lights when I leave the room. Feel compelled to finish whatever is on my plate ("The children in China are starving" or as my father so graciously put it, "Eat it and be glad you got it") My mother's family were farmers and so was everyone else around them; I don't think the Depression made that much of a difference. Everyone was already poor.

[quote]My dad was so poor he used to wash elephants

Not a sentence I've heard before, nor one I'm likely to hear again.

R2 - above a grocery store! Hah! Try having a mother who baked pies! Those stinking pies! And all that chicken and waffles! You can’t inagine the shame...

[quote]My dad was so poor he used to wash elephants for five cents.

I would wash elephants for nothing. I love elephants.

My maternal grandmother said she and her older brother would go around the neighborhood with a little wagon and look for sticks they could sell as kindling. She also grew up eating ...I think it was butter sandwiches? Just bread, lettuce and butter. Or maybe it was mayo? Or a single slice of cheese? Something like that. I think she was too young to be seriously adversely affected by the Great Depression.

I know that my grandfather on my mother's side emigrated from the United States back to Scotland with his family at the height of the Depression. My great-Grandfather had a very low opinion of the country of his birth and when he was offered a job working in Scotland, he jumped at the chance. Best decision he ever made.

Eldergay here! My dad is 95. He was born and grew up in the Ukraine. Not so much the Great Depression - as Stalin’s Russification of Ukraine - and his enforced famines - where they basically forced the farmers to send their harvest to other parts of the Soviet Union - while their own starved. Literally millions died. My father’s father was taken away in the middle of the night - and the family was told he’d been sent to a work camp in Siberia. Out of memory - after repeated enquires after him the family was told he died of cancer in the late fifties - only in the nineties - a family friend doing research discovered he’d been shot and buried in a mass grave fifty or sixty kilometres from their village/town a day or two after he was taken.

Things got very bad where they were and there were rumours of canibalism taking place in their village and others nearby. A relative had warned my grandmother what to expect - and so she’d buried grain in some crates in the woods. She’d go out in the middle of the night - dig them up - get some grain - bury them again - and get home before light - knowing that if she was ever found out - she’d be deported - or just killed. They ate bark too. And lots of various herbs and weeds. Stuff they could forage from the woods. He was hungry - but managed not to be malnourished - and stayed lean and half-starved till he came to Australia in the late forties - after many, many adventures...

I can’t fathom how he did it. And what’s more - he gets sad - but not bitter! - and has always been so amazingly generous and hospitable. No one goes unfed around him! And tho’ he’s 95 and a skinny, frail little thing now - my god that man can still eat for Australia! And can still knock back a few beers with the best of them too!

My Australian mother (a year or two younger than my dad - but she died about twenty years ago) did it very tough in a small rural town here. Again, half-starved but not malnourished - and both of them stayed lean and healthy & fit. Often wonder if it was that deprivation in their younger years that did it - they certainly didn’t suffer from diseases of excess!

In our house growing up though - we never ate rabbit - or pears! Apparently mum’s father worked trapping rabbits - and they are it endlessly! They also had some pear trees - and she couldn’t stand either of them anymore as an adult. Dad couldn’t handle turnips or swedes - apparently they featured prominently in the cuisine of European displaced person camps in the years following the war - and he had had sufficient!

Argh - that made no sense (R19 here). I'll explain a wee bit...

My Great-Grandfather on my mother's side was an American. Apparently he was a bit of a firebrand and by the time he met my Great-Grandmother (who was British), he was working as an engineer for a company in Philadelphia. They married, had two children and things were trotting along nicely until the Depression hit, he lost his job and he blamed everything on the capitalist system and the US Government in particular.

His wife wasn't best pleased about having an angry man floating about the house, so she got in touch with her family over in Scotland, namely her brother (who I'm named after) who worked for John Brown and Company who offered him a job. JB&C, btw, were the company that built liners like the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. As well as that, my great-grandfather's socialist leanings were starting to get him a bad name (which was funny, given that my great-grandfather was what we in the UK would call Champagne Socialist) and he got battered a few times by good ole patriots. Yes, this shit happened back before McCarthyism.

So, in 1935, my great-grandfather and his family emigrated from the US to Scotland. Compared to the US, moving to late-industrial Scotland was apparently like stepping back into the Dark Ages for my great-grandfather, who, as soon as he could, moved his family out of Glasgow and as far into the countryside as he could afford. My grandfather once said that this probably helped save his family's lives during the Second World War - they had originally lived not too far from the shipyards of Clydebank, which suffered near-catastrophic bombing. By the time of the Second World War my great-grandparents were debating whether or not to go back to the USA. Apparently it was because my grandfather met my grandmother that they decided to stay put, heh.

What kind of frugal habits do you have that were passed down? I don’t throw away tinfoil if it’s clean. I also reuse baggies. I also reuse Talenti gelato containers. When eating out at a restaurant I always get a doggy bag and use it for a meal the next day. I was taught never to waste food!

[quote]I also reuse Talenti gelato containers.

I do, too. Mostly, I keep spices in them. Ground ancho, chipotle, cumin. Some garlic powder. Whole nutmeg. If I'm only using half a can of tomatoes, I put the rest in a Talenti container, but not for long. Tomatoes don't keep in plastic.

I love my see-through Talenti containers. Perfect for the freezer.

What a great idea, r24. I think I shall transfer some frozen peas to a Talenti container (or two).

1929 until WWII was the Great Depression.

2007-2008 was the Great Recession.

[quote]What kind of frugal habits do you have that were passed down?

Hardly any. My father's cheapitude had the opposite effect. I'm happier spending than saving. Whether that's really influenced by my father's behavior is uncertain, but it comes up from time to time.

My mother grew up and went to high school outside DC during the Depression. The farm kids had enough to eat, but that was it. Now those families are multimillionaires.

My parents were born in the 1920s, my mother in the Midwest, her father died in bed when she was two in 1928. She remembered watching her mother walk away from the house the day after her father died, afraid she would not return. Mom told us that dead relatives body's were kept at home in the parlor until the burial. She remembered having to kiss her paternal dead grandmother goodbye as a child, how she didn't want to kiss her.

She grew up in her grandmother's house in a small town. They had no indoor plumbing, used an outhouse mostly, and in winter at night, chamber pots. Her grandmother was a strict Southern Baptist, made them go to church for several hours on Sunday and sit on hard benches. She shared a bed with said mean grandmother, who rolled up a blanket and put it between them so she couldn't accidentally touch her. Mother felt unloved by mean grannie, but her own mother was sweet and loving.

Her mother worked nights at the phone company and walked two miles in the snow to get there. Had to cross railroad tracks, that scared her as trains ran frequently. One day in the 1930s, the 16 yr old neighbor girl across the street died in her mother's arms at home from TB. She remembers her mother running to comfort her, her cries heard round the neighborhood.

They raised chickens and had a garden for food.

After marrying my father and moving to San Francisco in 1946 she fully embraced the stylish, big city life. She always liked fashion, but forever stayed frugal. Sewed her own clothes. She talked to us a lot about the deprivations of her younger years.

My father was born in 1923 and grew up in San Francisco, his father had a good job and they lived in a house with wainscoting, stained glass windows, and a giant stone fireplace. Grandpa made wine in the basement and when my father was a youth would sell it to the fishermen in China Basin. He was a character, his life an adventure. He walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on opening day in 1935. Grandma was also stylish, wore fashionable clothes and hats, liked her cocktails. She had a joyous, ringing laugh and a mischievous outlook on life.

[quote]R4 That family was Scots Irish and proud of being cheap, so I grew up being very frugal, and it has served me well.

How do you deal with everyone despising, and avoiding, cheapskates?

I only know one true cheapskate of my own (boomer) generation. Over time, I learned he liked to spread misery and ungenerosity in every area of life. I had to get rid of him in my life.

My maternal grandparents had 3 kids when the depression hit. My grandfather got a job as the janitor/custodian at the neighborhood Catholic church and school. He made $100/month. I remember my grandmother saying Christmas 1931 my grandfather went out with $10 to buy presents for the entire family.

My dad was born in Chicago in 1909, so he was 20 when The Great Depression started. His father owned a dry goods and butcher store and my father delivered groceries using a horse drawn buggy. When people could no longer afford meat, the store went out of business. In his early 20's my dad and his friend would hop fright trains headed to Detroit and drive new cars back to Chicago for the few buyers who could afford them. Of course riding the rails wasn't safe. Muggings and murders were common and he learned to defend himself with whatever means were available. I believe he made a dollar for every car he drove back, then he would hop the next train to Detroit and do it again. He was a pretty amazing man.

R30, there is a big difference between being frugal and being cheap.

I agree, R34. I am the child of the elephant washer at R4. My family always bought the cheapest ice cream from Thrifty drug store. No Talenti for us, of course they didn't have it then.

I am extremely generous. I have paid for friends' new roofs, lawyers for child support, paid off student loans, paid preschool tuition for low income friends, paid for classes and seminars, and always pick up the check for dinner.

I shop online, and get clothes when they are 70% off sale prices, and I theoretically I would stand in line on free ice cream day but I am too lazy. I research companies and services and like to know I am getting a good value.

I hate the idea of expensive handbags. I would wither before I would pay $4000 for a Gucci or Chanel anything.

I do have a pricey pot habit, though. We are old hippies, and that was a time when being poor was cool, and I really internalized that. I have never spent beyond my needs and have never owed money. I put myself through college, and it was the best thing I ever did.

R9, in Pennsylvania, coal mining was (and still is) primarily done in northeast and southwest of the state. Was there coal mining in the southeast section of the state? As a native of this area, I never heard of this.

My great grandparents, on my mother’s side, were immigrants from Southern Europe. My grandfather often went to bed hungry. He was from a large Greek family. He tried to get a job with a local landscaping business, but he wasn’t hired because he was Greek with dark features. It was so sad, but he became a self made man who was successful and had real estate and owned restaurants.

The depression scarred my grandparents, and they worked hard and saved their money. They were very practical, and spent money for quality items because they lasted. They weren’t wasteful.

My grandfather, who would been a teacher, gave up his job right before the depression hit, to be a salesman as it was a lot more money. When the market crashed, he lost $3,000. Couldn't get a job with WPA as he was with the wrong political party. Took a job as janitor to support five kids till times got better.

My Uncle walked everyday for about two miles to a furniture plant to ask for a job. Wouldn't give it to him because he was single with no children, yet to support. After about a year of showing up every day, he got the job and eventually went on to be the third highest paid employee until he retired.

R36 More importantly was it bituminous or anthracite coal?

My family had money and land and lost it all during the great depression. Years later, in 1991, my brother died of AIDS and was buried in a cemetery that was on land formerly owed by my ancestors.

The Depression found my maternal grandparents living with their 4 kids in Los Angeles. Having come to the USA as children, lying about their ages to immediately being work, they had met, married and fled the cold winters of the Eat Coast. Both were working at P.O.P. that is Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Lots of stories about bag men skimming off the top and general money laundering.

Grandma couldn't take the large number of suicides when the suddenly poor jumped off POP's amusement park rides. It was bad enough seeing neighbor children going to school wearing newspapers as they couldn't afford clothing. She'd buy her 2 sons socks several sizes to big as they'd grow into them. Evenings were spent darning the socks as holes could always be fixed.

She'd heard about Australia, a new land with supposedly plenty of opportunities. Unfortunately there was a ship strike so Australia was out of the question. The only place ships were going was HI. Hard working grandma became a made, then a general manager, and finally the owner of an apartment complex. The land was about $5 a square foot. She also bought a house on Waikiki Beach for not much more money.

Life was good. Then came WW II. Still the family stayed for years in HI, sending her 4 kids to college in The States.

Depression and wartime affected each child differently. One bachelor uncle became unusually eccentric regarding money. He did extremely well at his career, a parts buyer for North American Rockwell hired to save the company money. I used to complain to my friends about his over-the-top thriftiness. They'd be hysterically LOL before I got through the story of the day. At least he was a superb investor of all the money he'd saved.