Dad passed in January of ‘06.
Mom passed in April of this year.
My sister and I have been going through 50 years of living in the house they built in 1970 and moved into in February of ‘71.
I was born in May of that same year.
They were married in ‘62 and my sister was born in ‘65. At that time they lived in a house in town, close to my maternal grandmothers house.
That house was built when my mother was 16 years old when they decided to move to town. It was the first time my mother’s family had indoor plumbing and electricity.
Dad’s family had about the same story.
Dad quit school in 10th grade to go to work. At 18, he lied about his age to get his CDL. He took out a loan and bought a truck. He made his fortune hauling flatbed freight in a used B61 Mack. We found some old paystubs of his, in 1963 he was making $24/hour at one point.
Mom worked at the local army depot. She made $3495.00 PER YEAR as a GS3 typist.

After getting married, and after my sister came along, mom (and dad) wanted to do something close to home.
He quit trucking, paid cash for 100 acres, and built a house (concrete slab, brick home) and a dairy barn on it.
Mom quit the depot and they went to work.
I often heard dad say “anything a man can do 24/7, he ought to be able to make money at it.”

Alas, such was not the case with dairy farming in the late 60s and early 70s.
We have found paperwork detailing their finances throughout their marriage.
When dad was trucking, if they wanted/needed something, they bought it.
We have found a couple movie cameras from that era, several still cameras, and a couple audio recorders.
The dairy business broke them.
They sold out, scattered the money out amongst their debtors. Not enough to satisfy them mind you. But it bought them enough time to put the house up for collateral and borrow enough money to pay them off completely.
Mom went back to work at the depot. Dad got a job at a local lignite strip mine, a job he hated.
But they went to these jobs, and scrimped and saved. They paid the house off (again) when I was 18.
They both wore themselves out. Us kids never wanted for anything.
Rheumatoid arthritis pretty well put mom down the year she turned 40. I was in Junior High when that happened. She tried for a few years to stay at her depot job, but just couldn’t. She finally retired on disability, and for years was ashamed of that decision. I’m convinced if it wasn’t for us kids, she would’ve stayed out there till it killed her.
Dad worked his coal mine job for 17 years. He was miserable. We still farmed and ran lease trucks during this time also. I never remember him sleeping more than a few hours at once. He looks so incredibly tired in nearly all the photos we have of him. I don’t remember a single Christmas when I was kid, that he wasn’t either headed to dayshift at the mine, or coming in from graveyard.

I’m gonna stop now. This is too long anyway, and for some reason my vision is blurry.
I just wish I could tell them one more time:
Thank you. And I love you.

I tell people all the time (mostly the under 30 crowd) that they don’t know what poverty and hard times look/feel like.

Paternal grandparents were uneducated mill workers. Grandmother died when my dad was 16. Grandfather worked til the day he died. Dad was 18 when it happened.

Maternal grandparents were orphans. Grandfather joined the Marines and got half blown up on Pelileu in 1944. They got by ok.

We lived in a rundown singlewide in what is now the back yard of the house my mom still lives in to this day. Every winter the pipes in the trailer froze. When my dad and his friends built the house, the last winter before it was done we spent many a night in a half finished house huddled around the fireplace to stay warm. A large part of my childhood was spent cutting and hauling wood for that fireplace. My parents went without eating a few meals so that my sister and I could eat. Most of our clothes were hand made by my mom. The bullying was relentless until the day I graduated high school. My sister and I never went without what we needed but compared to our friends and most kids now we were dirt freakin poor.

None of that is exactly ancient history. I graduated high school in 1990.

My parents both lived through the Depression. As a child, we did not live extravagantly and both my parents booted my ass into the real world about the time I turned 12. They accomplished this entry into reality but forcing me to... Work! If I wanted something, I had to work for it. I am retired now and from time to time still feel weird when I realize I dont have a job to go to. One of my most vivid childhood memories was a visit to my fathers childhood home in Kentucky. It was a tiny sharecroppers shack and pigs were living under the porch. My old man worked for 35 years at WPAFB and after he retired, took a job at a local retirement community and was there for almost 20 years. Then and now, I was amazed by the mans work ethic. The children of the depression learned hard lessons.

My background is not as harsh as some narrated here, but my parents lived through the Depression, too, and my dad was a hard worker. Expectations on me were pretty high, but I didn't have to enter the hard work force so early. I did have after school jobs as a teenager and worked summers during college. My parents were thrifty, but not miserly. We often "made do" with old things instead of discarding and buying new. I was in high school when we got our first TV set. Recreation was playing board games with my many cousins who lived nearby, or outdoor games with the neighbor kids.

It wasn't a hard life, but it did have structure and a strong work ethic.

flashguy

i remember a couple of black suits sitting at the dinning room talble of a rented house I grew up in with both my parents. My mother in tears. Kennedy was president. My father was a school teacher in a rural poor community. Made very little. I was scared. The suits were from the IRS.
My folks were scraping by trying to raise 4 young children.
When the school year ended the next day My father went to work for the state forestry department and worked every weekday and a lot of Saturdays right up until the first day he had to report back to school. Did that for probably 25 years or more. I am sure they never took a "real vacation." I know we never did as a family.

My parents had 4 kids. Much later on I popping into the scene. Everyone was surprised that Mom was pregnant at her age and delivered a healthy kid. I did not know my 3 oldest siblings as siblings due to our age difference. In fact, the oldest 2 were out of high school, married and in college before I was old enough to understand who was what.

Having said that, my Dad was born in 1912 and my Mom in 1916. I'm barely into my 60's now.

Mom & Dad went through the Great Depression as well as WW2. They, my Dad's Uncle, and grandparents always had stories about getting through the Great Depression, the occasional recessions, etc, and having to struggle and do without many things. My Dad worked his way through College in the 1930's. The stories, and the written correspondence I have, tell quite story of struggling through, as you might imagine. Dad had 2 brothers who went to California in the Great Migration (think the Grapes of Wrath movie) to hopefully find something to work at, feed themselves and not be hungry, and a roof over their head. They turned out fine.

Dad had a fulltime job and he & Mom owned a business. When Dad got home from work, we ate a quick dinner and Dad worked at the business until bedtime, as well as on Saturday and Sunday. As soon as I got old enough I too worked in the family business. I didn't watch tv, Dad always said stay busy and save your money.

WW2 rationing. What stories I heard, not just from my parents but from everybody who lived in that era. To them, it was just life. They had nothing else to compare their life to and know anything different.

I was at the Flea Market about 15 years ago and noticed a little old lady selling Mason Jars out of the trunk and backseat of her car. I started talking to her and that conversation lasted over an hour. She told me she went through the Great Depression too. She told me that shortly before the Great Depression started she was living at home with her parents and family. Her "Dowry" as she described it, was that her Mother and she canned around 1,000 Mason Jars of foods, all types from fruits and vegetables and jellies to canned meats. When she got married that 1,000 jars of Mason Jars fed her and her husband until they could get jobs and money coming in, as this was during the Great Depression.

I had money in my pocket and I ended up purchasing her Mason Jars and her old Presto Pressure canner. And Yes, I still have and use that old Pressure Canner and it always reminds me of her and her story.

We've had it easy. No major war, no Great Depression. We have places to live and plenty of food, good jobs and money and pretty darn good health care. We can travel, go on vacations, spend out idle time watching TV or surfing the Internet. We *think*I we have it rough, but we really don't.

Indeed we are spoiled.
.

I often wish I could talk to all of my great grandparents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, parents etc now especially as I get older. I'm 67 and I lost the last of my parents last year.

I'd really like to have a 1-1 cup of coffee with my father, my grandfathers and cousins who have passed and just talk to them.

If you ever wonder how good we have it just look around. Over half the population is morbidity obese.

We are a fat population.

It used to be in this country that you either made it or you didn't. Welfare was almost non existent and if it was around it was short lived.
People grew gardens, canned vegetables, and raised what animals they could, whether it was chickens or a milk cow. I can still remember my grandmother chopping off a chicken's head and it went running up the field without a head. I also remember her milking the cow and making home churned butter. They used to buy flour in 25 pound sacks to make biscuits. I still remember slaughtering hogs around Thanksgiving and making apple butter.

It was a hard life but the whole family chipped in and people were happier.

For most of my life I worked 2 jobs and was also in the Army Reserves for 23 years. I missed out on a lot of my kid's activities but it was the only way to make it back then.

I just wonder if most people could handle really hard times anymore.

to hell with that.

we are not spoiled-- we are fortunate. spoiled implies we are GIVEN something at no expense

i have worked for 35+ years making the best decisions I could have. probably paid a half million in taxes along the way. purposely NOT doing the DUMB thing that sometimes is what I WANT to do...

yes we are FORTUNATE to live here in the US -- the land of plenty. But SPOILED -- I ain't buying that. life is more than willing to come kick you in the ass at the slightest slip up.

-----------------------------------

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
...They used to buy flour in 25 pound sacks to make biscuits.

And then the flour sack material was used to make dresses and shirts--they were made in a variety of patterns to make that nicer. A lot of home-made clothing back then (and hand-me-downs).

Kids today (and many adults) have no conception of want or shortages. During WWII (I was 4 when it started) there was rationing of many things: meat, butter, sugar were big examples. And there were strong policies for saving and turning in to the government various things for the war effort: tin foil, any aluminum, bacon drippings (used to get glycerine for explosives), nylon (for parachutes), rubber (for tires and seals). Gasoline was highly restricted--no driving for fun (and not much for work). Kids toys were made of pressed cardboard instead of metal or plastic. Life was not particularly "hard" but it was not necessarily pleasant and certainly not lavish. The whole population saved, scrimped, and sacrificed--not just those sent to war.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
...They used to buy flour in 25 pound sacks to make biscuits.

And then the flour sack material was used to make dresses and shirts--they were made in a variety of patterns to make that nicer.

Kids today (and many adults) have no conception of want or shortages. During WWII (I was 4 when it started) there was rationing of many things: meat, butter, sugar were big examples. And there were strong policies for saving and turning in to the government various things for the war effort: tin foil, any aluminum, bacon drippings (used to get glycerine for explosives), nylon (for parachutes), rubber (for tires and seals). Gasoline was highly restricted--no driving for fun (and not much for work). Kids toys were made of pressed cardboard instead of metal or plastic. Life was not particularly "hard" but it was not necessarily pleasant and certainly not lavish. The whole population saved, scrimped, and sacrificed--not just those sent to war.

flashguy

Yes and beautiful quilts were made with scrap pieces of cloth. I still have some home made quilts that have been passed down.

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
...They used to buy flour in 25 pound sacks to make biscuits.

And then the flour sack material was used to make dresses and shirts--they were made in a variety of patterns to make that nicer. A lot of home-made clothing back then (and hand-me-downs).

Kids today (and many adults) have no conception of want or shortages. During WWII (I was 4 when it started) there was rationing of many things: meat, butter, sugar were big examples. And there were strong policies for saving and turning in to the government various things for the war effort: tin foil, any aluminum, bacon drippings (used to get glycerine for explosives), nylon (for parachutes), rubber (for tires and seals). Gasoline was highly restricted--no driving for fun (and not much for work). Kids toys were made of pressed cardboard instead of metal or plastic. Life was not particularly "hard" but it was not necessarily pleasant and certainly not lavish. The whole population saved, scrimped, and sacrificed--not just those sent to war.

flashguy

Yes and beautiful quilts were made with scrap pieces of cloth. I still have some home made quilts that have been passed down.

My mom used those scraps that way, and also to form "ropes" that she crocheted into braids that were sewed together into mats and rugs. Nothing was wasted.

flashguy

Their generation was one that could truly accomplish anything. It’s very good you realize the stock you come from

I grew up in the late 50's early 60's, we had it pretty good, kind a poor but not really. My dad was a plumber and started me off on that path when I was 12, paying me a .25 an hour. I then started having to pay for my own school clothes with the money I earned. Really sucked to me and I blame the way I am with the money I earn to this day.

On the other hand it gave me a really good work ethic that I carry with me to this day. Thank You Dad!!

My folks weren't poor, but they were middle class and made a lot of sacrifices for my sister and me. I remember when my mom used to clean houses in a wealthy neighborhood in Dallas (Highland Park) in the late 70s/early 80s. It was obviously under the table cash. We had a neighbor who was an IRS agent. His kids were our age and we carpooled once in a while. I remember playing at his house one day when he asked me to go get something out of his glovebox. I opened it up and there was a holstered .38 snubbie and a US Treasury Agent badge on the holster. I never forgot about that.