State Of...

Now with the extra time I have on my hands I have been doing allot of reading about the economy and the TARP payments and of the fiasco going on with AIG. Basically what I understand from what I have read is that the economy is at almost the same levels just before the depression. Is it going to happen again...who knows. But let us hope that it does not.

Now my parents were born at the end of the depression so they do not remember it at all. So that leaves my grandmother. But she was raised on a ranch her parents had homesteaded so except for people always stopping by the ranch for work she had no other way to tell that there was anything different.

On the other hand my wife's parents do remember the depression and they were effected by it greatly. Her dad probably had it the worst as they were in Oklahoma when the depression started and headed west and were basically fruit tramps moving up and down the west coast where ever there was fruit to be picked.

He has told me that when they did have any money to buy food that it was usually beans and they would cook them plain most of the time. The first few meals would just basically be the water from the beans and as they added water to them and recooked them they would eventually just have a kind of mush to eat.

During the winter time when there was little to no food they actually had rock soup. His mother would put on a big production even going to the trouble to wrap it up like it had came from the store so they would think it would be great.

The only time they were able to eat enough was when they were picking fruit and then it usually made them sick. Only occasionally did they ever have any meat or milk and everything they owned could be put in or on a old car that they had.

One thing I always found interesting was that they still to this day like beans. When I first met them there was always a pot of beans on the stove and my father in law would eat some every meal. Still would except for health reasons. I know for a fact that when ever we go to visit them that there will be a pot of beans ready when I get there as I like them also and that is his excuse to have some.

So maybe as a suggestion you might want to ask any old timers you know about what it was like then and how they survived just in case. You might be surprised what you can learn.

It is what it is

Rod