Stories from the Great Depression of the 1930s

Ruger#3

RAMBLIN ADMIN
Staff member
One of the stories my Pap enjoyed telling was getting a tongue lashing by my Ma to be sure and look for a certain pattern on a feed sack. She needed the sack to finish a dress.

There was little those two didn't know how to do themselves. I cherish my memories of life around them.
 
Last edited:

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
This story isnt really related to the depression but it speaks to the times then vs now.

My Daddy used to tell about the "convict camp" that was on his grandfathers farm. In those days the dirt road maintenance was done by prisoners. The county had remote camps around the county so the road crew could spend the night(s) while working in a remote community away from the County prison farm.

Daddy and his brothers were under strict rules to stay away from the convict camp. But as any young boys they didnt always mind. They would sneak and watch the action at the camp. He said they had cages of sorts that they locked some of the convicts in at night. The others were shackled to trees and together.
Much of the road grading equipment in the 1920s was horse drawn. Some of the prisoners were assigned to caring for the horses and mules.

When I came along in the 1950s our family still owned the land. The only thing remaining of the camp was a well.
 

Ruger#3

RAMBLIN ADMIN
Staff member
The habits that generation developed stuck with them for a lifetime. My Ma used stop us kids (50s & 60s), and hand out little buckets as we went to play. "You be sure and pick the berries when your on the hill playing" ,she would say. Everything that was edible went to the table or in a jar.
 

Crakajak

Daily Driveler News Team
My granddad had a rolling store outside of Centre Ala. He had a customer that owed him .50 cents and couldn't pay.Customer gave him a H&R single shot 12 gauge full choke, and a box of shells.Granddad said only reason the man traded was he was moving to town and didn't need the gun anymore.My dad killed his first deer with that gun in 1964.
 

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
The thread in the gardening forum about A family being self sufficient reminded me of something.

My dad told me the during the depression his family would root 3000 sweet potato slips. He said that they gave some to neighbors but they planted the majority for themselves I wish I could remember how many acres it was. When I was into gardening 50 was more than I wanted to mess with.

My daddy passed away 24 years ago today and I still wish I could get some of that sage advice and memories.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
I think many people survived off of sweet potatoes in the 20's and 30's. My Dad talked about going over their tater banks again and again looking for a few more taters towards the end of winter.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
Probably towards the end of the depression but my Dad sold fish. He would order a barrel of fish from Savannah packed in ice. It would come by train to Uvalda and he would load it up in the back of his truck and haul it all through the countryside to sell. He had scales and sold it by the pound. It would always be a little of whatever was caught off the cost.
I asked him what did he do with the fish that didn't sell? He said they ate them.
 

olcop

Senior Member
My Uncle Sylvester was old enough to remember it well, young boy and early teens. he called it "The Compression" but he told me of building a "Hoover Wagon, and of building a wooden body on a car frame and engine, one of his friends even mentioned the car to me, many years later----he said that basically, they didn't notice "The Compression" they didn't have much when it started, and had most of it left when it was over.....they grew most of what they ate, raised cows, hogs and chickens, my grandmother canned vegetables, they smoked their own meat, made sausage and generally ate well...said he didn't know they were poor and didn't have much, all the neighbors were in the same boat.
 

someguyintraffic

Senior Member
My granddad ( dads side ) was the youngest of 6, born in 1922. He was a lot younger than his siblings, a surprise baby. They did pretty well for 6 kids. GG was a surveyor and farmer and they had a country store. They all worked the fields. Raising cotton,tobacco, cattle. It was no life of luxury though. They all worked, and hard. Each got a pair of shoes once a year. To take cotton and tobacco to sell to the gin and tobacco buyers took all day from sun up to sundown by wagon and mule. My granddads uncle had made a fortune in New York in the stock market and lost it all in the crash. Came home and helped run the farm and store. I have the store ledger from early early 1900s through 30s.
He used to tell me stories about him and his friends riding calfs for fun and set hooking creeks and rabbit hunting. Used to help his Uncles pull cows stuck in the creek out with the mule team.

They raised big gardens, hogs, cattle, made everything they could, did plenty of backyard smithing, and were self sufficient.

I miss my ol granddad.

Granddad and Great Granddad. 1930s

Its amazing how much I looked like him as a young boy and how much he looked like his daddy when he grew old.

FB_IMG_1540948330700~2.jpg
 
Last edited:

4HAND

Cuffem & Stuffem Moderator
Staff member
My Granddaddy Butler was born in 1905 & lived to be 104. He had a ton of good stories.
 

4HAND

Cuffem & Stuffem Moderator
Staff member
One of my favorites. Great granddaddy had a little country store at one time. He was also a circuit riding preacher. He left Papa Butler in charge of the store one time while off preaching. Papa was just a grown boy. They sold 2 brands of coffee. One in a barrel that everyone liked & bought & the other kind was in some other type of container. Well the "good" coffee ran low so Papa poured the other coffee into the good coffee barrel. Folks were buying it left & right & bragging on it.
When Great Granddaddy returned & learned what Papa did he made him go to everyone he could remember had bought it & apologize.
I'll never forget what Papa said his daddy told him - "son that's deceitful, I wouldn't have had you do that for anything in this world."
 

ugajay

Senior Member
My papa was born in 1922 and remembered it well. He said shotgun shells were precious back then, and were used only when you could make the most of it. He said when they could spare a bit of corn, they would lay it in a row down a hedge row, and Pa instructed him and his brother to only shoot when enough birds feeding were "lined up enough to stop the family stomach growl" Like many have said, they were poor when it started and poor when it ended. My dad didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing until 1970, if that will let you know of their hard times.
 

Ruger#3

RAMBLIN ADMIN
Staff member
Coal mines were shutdown so cash just didn’t exist. Barter was used to get what you needed. Pap had a dairy cow and Ma churned butter and skimmed cream. Fresh dairy brought poultry and pork to the table through barter. This practice carried on with the older folks in the area through my early years.
 

Gary Mercer

Senior Member
Both my parents grew up in the LA basin in California during the depression. They also tended gardens in their backyards. My Grandpa had a victory garden in the same spot during WW 2. (I don't think the garden ever went away with the end of the depression.) He taught me all he knew about gardening when I was old enough to go with him to the garden, which was at the end of the war.
We lived in Glendale, CA at the time, and he would swap produce with other neighbors. We would also pick fruit from the oranges, lemons and avocados in the back yard. ( I also got to go with him to the dairy, where he got buckets of fertilizer for free.)
There was a pomegranate tree on an abandoned lot that I used to pilfer. Not to mention the vineyard that I used to walk thru on the way to school.
Glendale was pretty rural in spots in the 40s. We lived with my Mom's parents during the war, and that was up in the foothills above Glendale and Burbank.
Gramps would take me for a walk up the street to Mountain Street, the left about a block to a cliff alongside the road. ( kinda like today's "Scenic overlook.)
We would sit there and watch the fighter planes take off from Lockheed in Burbank. (Couldn't see the plant, just the planes coming out of the camouflage netting. They built them on an assembly line, then they took off and test flew them to their staging area to go to the war zones.
You guys know how to get and old Geezer rambling...sorry.
 
Last edited:

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
Both my parents grew up in the LA basin in California during the depression. They also tended gardens in their backyards. My Grandpa had a victory garden in the same spot during WW 2. (I don't think the garden ever went away with the end of the depression.) He taught me all he knew about gardening when I was old enough to go with him to the garden, which was at the end of the war.
We lived in Glendale, CA at the time, and he would swap produce with other neighbors. We would also pick fruit from the oranges, lemons and avocados in the back yard. ( I also got to go with him to the dairy, where he got buckets of fertilizer for free.)
There was a pomegranate tree on an abandoned lot that I used to pilfer. Not to mention the vineyard that I used to walk thru on the way to school.
Glendale was pretty rural in spots in the 40s. We lived with my Mom's parents during the war, and that was up in the foothills above Glendale and Burbank.
Gramps would take me for a walk up the street to Mountain Street, the left about a block to a cliff alongside the road. ( kinda like today's "Scenic overlook.)
We would sit there and watch the fighter planes take off from Lockheed in Burbank. (Couldn't see the plant, just the planes coming out of the camouflage netting. They built them on an assembly line, then they took off and test flew them to their staging area to go to the war zones.
You guys know how to get and old Geezer rambling...sorry.

Interesting story. It would be cool to have fresh avocados, etc. Did ya'll grow mangos? We had a pomegranate bush, a quince bush, kumquat, and a couple of orange trees. The orange trees never did anything. Just a bit too cold in South Georgia.

A few years back Dad dug it all up because he couldn't get the young people to eat any of it. They get too much candy.

We would eat almost any kind of fruit, grape, or berry when I was young. Plums, hog haws, blackberries, figs, etc.

I would love to of had avocados. I never even had one until I joined the Navy.
 

Gary Mercer

Senior Member
Interesting story. It would be cool to have fresh avocados, etc. Did ya'll grow mangos? We had a pomegranate bush, a quince bush, kumquat, and a couple of orange trees. The orange trees never did anything. Just a bit too cold in South Georgia.

A few years back Dad dug it all up because he couldn't get the young people to eat any of it. They get too much candy.

We would eat almost any kind of fruit, grape, or berry when I was young. Plums, hog haws, blackberries, figs, etc.

I would love to of had avocados. I never even had one until I joined the Navy.
Grandma would slice up the avocados and put a real lite vinegar dressing on them. Boy they were good. I used to climb the trees to get the high ones. I was a little sucker at the time, and Grandma would encourage me to "get that one." Then it was "be careful and don't fall."
The country was at war, and every thing was rationed. We lived in the city, but we had yard birds, and ate a lot from the garden. In Calif. we had several growing seasons.
I remember the hardware store carried scratch feed for the chickens. Grandma grew up in a wealthy family, but she could wring a chicken's neck with the best of them. I guess if you went thru the depression, you learned how to survive.
Sorry, Guys, I didn't mean to hi-jack this thread.
Gary
 

Milkman

Deer Farmer Moderator
Staff member
Gary
It’s my thread and you haven’t jacked anything. You keep on posting your memories please. ?
MM
 
Top