re: I wonder what it was like during the Great Depression

Edit; hit the wrong button. Apples to oranges. People are totally different today.

I had the privilege of knowing my great grandparents Dude & Dot, Irish immigrants who became Kansas wheat farmers. In regards to the Dirty Thirtys he would speak with almost a fond twinkle in his eyes of "Yes, it was tough but you just got up every day & put your nose to the grindstone. It was tough for everyone. Sitting around crying about it was pointless." He also said neighbors helped neighbors.

Incoming experience is a real possibility

I was born in late '38 - pretty close to the very depth of the Great Depression. My first conscious vivid memory was of the attack on Pearl Harbor - probably the day after when FDR declared war, because my memory is centered around the big Philco Radio in the corner of the room with my mom, dad, and brother huddled close to it - my mother crying (first and last time I had ever witnessed her cry) I was trying to appear invisible - didn't know what was happening but hoping it was not my fault.

We never went hungry - my mother and dad worked from morning til night every day of their lives until they were way past 70 yrs old. We grew out own food except for occasional round steak, bacon, and staples like sugar, flour, lettuce, etc. Mostly ate home grown chicken and veggies.

The first words of advice I ever heard was = "sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt them."

Later, when I started to school, my dad gave me the advice "if you get in trouble at school you'll get a whipping when you get home. Then I will listen to you tell me what it was about."

Dad's general rule for life was = "don't show your arse" ===> "short for don't embarrass me in public."

Mom said 'a lie can go around the world before the truth can tie its shoe laces."

My favorite teacher said = "you are what you do" and "don't rest on your laurels"

At teenagers we joked about everything - today 90% of that would be considered some kind of 'hate-crime' - but as I recall it the humor was genuine and drew mostly from the stereotypes involved. No religion, race, creed, color, affiliation, gender, profession, or any other category you can invent was in any kind of 'protected' status. If it was funny = we all laughed together. If it was not funny = the rest of us groaned and laughed at the teller.

We all grew up and even the least academic of my graduating class of 87 made good lives for themselves, none that I know of became a criminal nor a bum, several becoming wealthy and almost all solid citizens who could be counted on in a pinch.

Our generation's greatest fault is that we obviously did not impress on our children the very basic value system that we grew up within. We grew up in the last truly moral age. And we did not guard that legacy well enough. We thought it was 'natural.'

We were wrong. It needed to be jealously guarded and consciously nurtured. It is now a fixture of the past or a figment of imagination. I fear it will take another world-wide disaster to re-establish the necessity of concentrating our efforts and plans toward things that really matter.

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We really didn't deserve to have that man walking among us

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iswydt


btw - I remember when he died. There really was much admiration for the man at that time - as far as I could tell as a child. At least I never heard it, but politics in general was not talked about much then - at certainly not with youngsters in attendance.

And there was no 24hr news cycle.

Might be the most intelligent post I have read on this site all year, perhaps ever. Nice contribution.

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My grandmother told me they really didn't know it was a depression because they didn't have much to begin with

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My grandmother told me this exact same thing. They lived on the farm and grew their own food anyway. She said it was tough before the depression and tough after the depression but their life didn’t change either way. I suspect the people in the cities saw it much differently.

dEmOgrAphICs

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ChineseBandit58

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Fantastic post. The Silent Generation has largely been forgotten.