The following is a reprint of a previously published blog. Enjoy!
Times are hard now. There’s no debating this fact.
As an RN, my job is pretty much recession proof. But that doesn’t mean that my retirement is doing better than anyone else’s. Or that food prices aren’t shockingly high.
We are in a recession, and the media keeps making comparisons to the great depression of the 1930’s.
But there’s one big difference between now and 80 years ago — the great dust bowl.
The great dust bowl of the American west will forever be entwined with the abject poverty of the depression. The mile high dirt filled clouds that swept through towns and country, demolishing both crops and dreams.
I’m currently reading an excellent book called, “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl,” by Timothy Egan.
This gripping book follows the stories of a few families through the homesteading of Texas and Oklahoma in the early 20th century through the dust bowl. Before this, my knowledge of this disastrous time in America’s history was pretty much limited to a single high school reading of “The Grapes of Wrath.”
Trolling through the internet, I found the wonderful Dust Bowl Oral History Project out of Ford county, Kansas. Transcribed interviews with people who had lived through these times proved fascinating and riveting.
Tales of never ending grit and dirt that frustrated women fighting a daily losing battle against the dusters. The impossible goal to keep a clean house, despite the dust that seeped through every available crack. Memories of how they would cut worn-out sheets down the middle to transform the center into the outer part. Stories of dried out crops buried in sand and blowing silt. Death by “dust pneumonia.”
In answer to the question about “the greatest lesson learned” from the great depression, one woman answered:
“I learned how to do things, how to make things work, how to use things, how to appreciate things. Don’t throw anything away. I think, I had to know how to do things, know how to cope.”
The stories are heartbreaking, yet inspiring.
So I will not let myself compare our current economic crisis to the great depression.
I’ve got a good job, ability to live well on very little money, and fresh air to breathe.
Have you grown up hearing stories of how your parents or grandparents survived the great depression? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 8 comments }
Both women were also talking about how they rarely have to buy presents, as they have a convenient stash of homemade goodies ripe for gift giving. 
