My parents were young during the Great Depression. I grew up hearing the tales of the hardships they endured. I've heard these memories for over fifty years now. Years ago, my Grandparents told me their stories, and now, even in their 80's, my parents still remember it all clearly.
They've described things to me so vividly, I could almost see it for myself. And it scares me. I don't want my children and grandchildren to have to survive such an event. And it enrages me, that our government has brought us to this brink of pain yet again.
My father always said my mother was the lucky one, because she lived in the country. She agreed. They had no money, but they had a little land and could eat what they grew. They had some food, if nothing else, and milk from the cow. There were ten children in her family, the baby born right into the worst of it. He didn't survive very long. They didn't have the money for a doctor and he died a few weeks after being born. They walked to their one room school house in their bare feet, because they couldn't afford shoes. They had scrubbed their scant clothes so they were clean, and meticulously patched. The kids all worked hard at home after school, because only together could they provide the labor to keep them from going hungry. They would handgraze the horse because they couldn't buy him feed, and he was vital to their survival. That horse pulled the plow and was their sole transportation. In the evenings, they couldn't afford oil for the lamps, so there was no light.
My father lived in town. He was one of five children. His father had lost a hand in WWI and had trouble finding work. They were very, very hungry. He told me once how grateful they were when someone gave them a box of wormy raisins and a couple wrinkled apples. My father left school, never finished the sixth grade, so he could work in a box factory for a few cents a day to help feed his family. He was embarrassed when I was young, because he couldn't read or write well, despite his amazing intelligence. As I was growing up, he would get any books he could and practice. He said it was not a worry when they couldn't afford ice for the icebox, because they couldn't afford food to put in it either. During the Depression, two of his brothers died. One was involved in an accident at the box factory; he was 13. The other, the eldest at 16, was found dead in a gutter one day while he was out looking for a job, and there were no jobs to be had. It appeared he had been beaten. The details were never clear. Each day was a frantic effort to survive.
These experiences left their mark on my parents. As children, coming home from school and hungry, we couldn't run in the door and say "I'm starving." To my parents, that wasn't just an expression, because they had truly known real hunger. I wore hand-me-downs growing up. For Christmas and birthdays, we each got a single small gift. Mom and Dad saved every cent they could. The only day of the week we had meat for a meal was on Sunday, after church. They didn't believe in credit and if they didn't have the cash, that was that. Mom sewed our clothes. She always had a garden in the yard. For vacations, we went camping because it was cheap. They saved every cent. They never forgot certain lessons from their youth.
Pictures of the Great Depression
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression
Songs from the Great Depression
I don't have all the answers, nor do I pretend to. What I do know is I don't want to live through what my parents survived. I don't want that for my children. I don't want that for my grandchildren.
It feels like the only thing standing between us and the brink of a depression is a group of self-absorbed, egocentric, arrogant, rich politicians occupied with only one interest and that is preserving their way of life, not ours. I hope Senator Obama can lead them to doing the right thing. I hope desperately that he is our next President, because if he isn't, "they" will continue to parasitically drain us as they have been doing all along.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that scared me. It chills my soul.