Lost Penmanship: Thomas Jefferson Would Be Saddened
- Image by blmurch via Flickr
There are of course similarities between the economic recession that blanketed the US economy in 2009 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. The stock market took a beating. Unemployment was prevalent in families and communities across the nation. Food, fuel and livestock became almost unbearably expensive, causing folks to turn to conserving and rationing their food and transportation.Yet, historians will balk at comparing the economic recession of the recent times to the Great Depression. To understand why, they say we have to rewind the clock two or three generations.During the Great Depression, a staggering one in four Americans was out of work. Parents who had little income in the city couldn’t afford to feed their children. They sent the kids off to live with relatives in the country who could use their help on the farm. Soup kitchens and bread lines became iconic symbols of need. Families would store fresh potatoes under hay to preserve them throughout an entire winter. Compare that to the modern-day recession, when the worst of times saw the unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent. So far, stories of children being shipped off to live with relatives in the country have not become commonplace. While food pantries have seen their number of patrons rise significantly, the middle class still goes primarily to the grocery store to get their groceries.It’s not an act of disrespect toward those who struggled through the Great Depression to compare these difficult times to theirs. Also, it’s not intended to lessen the significance of the hardships faced by Americans these days to say the two cannot be compared.But a bit of perspective never hurt anybody. Perhaps today’s generation has gotten a dose of empathy, even respect for the ancestors who proceeded, and who waded through much rougher waters than we today can imagine.
Is the Recession Comparable to the Great Depression?
- Image by Renegade98 via Flickr
There are of course similarities between the economic recession that blanketed the US economy in 2009 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. The stock market took a beating. Unemployment was prevalent in families and communities across the nation. Food, fuel and livestock became almost unbearably expensive, causing folks to turn to conserving and rationing their food and transportation.Yet, historians will balk at comparing the economic recession of the recent times to the Great Depression. To understand why, they say we have to rewind the clock two or three generations.During the Great Depression, a staggering one in four Americans was out of work. Parents who had little income in the city couldn’t afford to feed their children. They sent the kids off to live with relatives in the country who could use their help on the farm. Soup kitchens and bread lines became iconic symbols of need. Families would store fresh potatoes under hay to preserve them throughout an entire winter. Compare that to the modern-day recession, when the worst of times saw the unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent. So far, stories of children being shipped off to live with relatives in the country have not become commonplace. While food pantries have seen their number of patrons rise significantly, the middle class still goes primarily to the grocery store to get their groceries.It’s not an act of disrespect toward those who struggled through the Great Depression to compare these difficult times to theirs. Also, it’s not intended to lessen the significance of the hardships faced by Americans these days to say the two cannot be compared.But a bit of perspective never hurt anybody. Perhaps today’s generation has gotten a dose of empathy, even respect for the ancestors who proceeded, and who waded through much rougher waters than we today can imagine.
When Times are Tough, People Revert to What They Know
- Image via Wikipedia
It’s long been recognized that when money isn’t abundant and when markets are unstable, people revert to more basic ways of living. They rely on what they can trust.
During the nation’s recent economic downturn, when food costs were at an all-time high, many Americans turned to the wisdom and frugality of their grandparents. They started planting gardens again. Some even tried out canning and preserving food.In many appliance repair stores across the United States, salespeople couldn’t keep the canning utensils on the shelves.
Canning classes popped up in community centers from rural Missouri to New York City. People who had never planted a seed suddenly found themselves growing tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. Some communities began “community gardens,” where a plot of land is used by several neighbors for planting and reaping their own fruit and vegetables.
One detail that was almost lost in the fray was that some of the new gardeners and canners mentioned their grandparents when talking about their new hobbies. It was “grandmother’s canner” that was responsible for the stocked pantry one man remembered as a child. It was grandfather’s steady stream of potatoes and squash that saw one family through the winter.Some family stories that emerged from new canners and gardeners have dated back to the Great Depression, when self-sustaining families in the country were among those who hurt the least, since they had their gardens and animals to rely on for food.
It was a humbling experience for the young; it was a rewarding sense of validation for the old.
It’s worth accepting from all this that generations from the past had some things today’s generation doesn’t: a tried and true system of growing and sustaining their own food source. They trusted and respected the land they relied on, and in return, the Earth provided everything they needed.
