Right now, I look around and see a computer, a Christmas tree, a couch, and a tv. During the Great Depression, people would often look around to see five people sharing one room and only scraps of food to pass around. Looking at Christmas during the Great Depression, it makes me realize how much we have in our world today and how much we have to be grateful for. Upon reading many accounts of Christmas during the 1930's, here are some highlight the desperate living conditions of the Great Depression:
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| One family's dinner on Christmas. |
Ruth Miller - This eighty-six year old wrote that the winter that year made it difficult to get to school. Due to a lack of sufficient clothing for the winter, Miller often skipped out on school. Every year, she looked forward to Santa Claus while her mom awaited Christmas day with anxiety. Her mom told her kids, "Santa won't be visiting us this year. He can't get to our house. It's too wet and muddy" (Miller). That year they chopped down a little cedar and gathered vines, holly, and mistletoe. They made paper chains from old catalogs with flour paste. They cut out paper dolls and snowflakes. For Christmas breakfast, they had hot biscuits, fried salt pork, molasses, and parched cornmeal tea. Miller recalls receiving no presents but enjoying the company of her family.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Moon - Thomas Moon told his story of shoving too full size beds in the living room and gathering by the fire. Whenever his family was hungry, they could walk outside and pick berries. They ate everything from bullfrogs to rabbits and possums. His wife, Annie, remembers the many times she would travel to the nuns to get a ticket to receive stale bread and stale cake. Her father, who delivered fruits and vegetables as a truck driver, would often take cases that broke and give them to the family for Christmas. To decorate their house, their family would pop popcorn, take a needle and thread, and hang the lines up.
B. Virdot - The Christmas of 1933, an anonymous writer by the name of B. Virdot, placed an ad in the Canton Repository offering to help the needy that season. People wrote in to him expressing their hardships and grief. That Christmas, 150 families received $5 checks (which was a lot of money in those days). One man, George Monnot, used to co-own a Ford dealership and lived a lavish life with summer homes and yachts. He lost everything in the Great Depression and wrote in for help. Another woman, Ida Bailey, wrote the following:
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| A picture of B. Virdot and his briefcase |
"This Xmas is not going to be a Merry one for us, but we are trying to make the best we can of it. We want to do all we can to make the Children happy but can't do much. About 7 years ago Mr. Bailey lost his health and it has been nick & tuck ever since but we thank God he is able to work again. We all work whenever we can make a nickel honest. Three years ago this Depression hit us and we lost all our furniture and had to separate with our Children. We have 4 of them [out of 12] with us again. There are three girls working for their Cloaths & Board. I do wish I could have my children all with me once again. I work by the day any place I can get work...you know the wages they get don't go very far when there is 6 to buy eats for...I think if there were some more people in Canton like you and open up their Hearts and share up with us poor people that does their hard work for them for almost nothing (a dollar a day) when the time comes for them to leave this world I would think they would feel better satisfied for they can't take any of it with them...." (Bailey).
This passage truly shows the desperation of people during this time. Families were torn apart and people learned to live practically on nothing. B. Virdot was revealed decades later to be Sam Stone. His acts of kindness and service were embedded into the hearts of countless people. One woman, Helen Palm, now in her mid nineties, still remembers this act of service and said "God love him."
Reading these passages made me so grateful to live in Los Altos and to not have to go through these hardships that many in the Great Depression experienced. If you have the time, I encourage any who reads this to research stories of the Great Depression.
Bib:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/garden/02depression.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-yuletide-gift-of-kindness-70852670/?no-ist=&onsite_source=smithsonianmag.com&page=5
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865592896/Christmas-I-remember-best-A-Christmas-in-the-middle-of-the-Great-Depression.html?pg=all
http://www.baylor.edu/livingstories/index.php?id=78991
So interesting to see the differences of reaction during different times and depending on the time period. These past years, we have been in recession, not as bad as the one that occured in the early 1930's, but still notable. Today, we also see many people in need for food, more so during holiday time, and there are numerous food drives, the Salvation Army is more active, and Second Harvest food bank asks for more donations. However, we rarely see an individual who will give away his money in a newspaper advertisement, probably because everyone is so infactuated with their own well. being and wealth. This goes to show that the depression hit so many people and so harshly that those in good fortune felt a responsibility to help others. This may also be the case today, however it is enacted more by corporations than individuals. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteReading the firsthand accounts of people who lived through the Great Depression really puts things into perspective. What really gets to me though is how these families coped with their situation. Rather than falling into despair, the parents made do with what they had, and still managed to let their children experience Christmas. The parents could have easily decided not to celebrate the holidays and instead focus on getting by. However, they choose to make things harder for themselves by splurging on "hot biscuits, fried salt pork, molasses, and parched cornmeal tea" for the family. I think stories like these show how people can and will persevere no matter the circumstances they have been placed in, which is a rather uplifting message. It also reminds me of what the holidays are actually supposed to be about: family and thanksgiving, something that seems to have been lost in our culture of "things".
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this an dim glad that you wrote it. The personal stories really added to the concreteness, and adds to the impact of the realization that during this time there was no Christmas. I can only imagine the worried mothers and fathers who didn't have enough to eat during presents, much less enough money to buy even small gifts for their children. Some didn't even have a roof to keep the cold out. However, it is also heartwarming to see the attempts to garnish the Christmas spirit during these hard times, and makes us appreciate the holidays all the more. Even the wealthy during this time celebrated a much more frugal Christmas than usual. I researched stories of merely one inexpensive gift for a child, to maybe a single larger gift such as a wagon, which in those times was a huge deal, but it puts into perspective how some are getting a car for Christmas today when a doll used to be plenty for a child to be happy. Its always important to connect these events to what we experience today.
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