Guest Post: The Great Depression, as I remember

Wow! A great article; thnaks to your uncle Walt for sharing with us. I was a generation after the Great Depression and the Greatest Generation.

I am amused at the comments that FDR did nothing to cure thos nation’s ills, in fact, some claim, he and his policies prolonged the issues. Yeah!

Like Cooledge and Hoover were hot on the trail. My home in the deep South was in a prolonged depression that lasted from The War until the start of WW11. Life was improving in the South after WW11, but I worked from the time I was in the 6th grade (for $2/day, cfrying hamburgers, sausages, and serving beer) until I finished HS while working a Amoco station.

The Republicans have never done anything positive for the South. Yet, people in north FL vote Rep as easily as they eat fish & grits.

FDR programs did not damage this nation; the extension by Dems and Reps damaged the nation. There was never an FDR program to pay Black Women to have babies. Yet, ADC does exactly that. HUD enslaves Black Families (if you can call a fatherless family or a family with 4 or more fathers a real family) for generations by providing project housing.

Walt, God Bless You!

Wonderful. I am at a loss for words. I hope our generation too, succeeds over this one gracefully. As you have said, this ain’t just about the US anymore.

Thank you so much for sharing. May God bless and keep you and your family.

This was very interesting. It gave us all an insight of the wisdom Walter has. Thanks for sharing. I found it while looking for Stoiber’s that I might be related to. My grandma was Olive M. Stoiber. She was from Ohio. Let me know if we are related. suzieq@bresnan.net

Just to let you know you could not work in a grocery store now if you were in 6th grade. Laws prohibit young people from working and with the minimum wage increases yearly, teens are left in the cold with job searches.

At my age I am not old enough to remember the Great Depression. However, I get a feel for it now and find it worrisome for my children. I only hope that it isn’t true that our children suffer in the future for what their parents do in the present.

Walter, thank you for the great article. How timely, too.

When I was a little kid, my grandmother used to scold people for spending too much money with the question: “Who do you think we are, the Rockefellers ?” I never understood why until this year. During the Great Depression, a few families like the Rockefellers (who owned the Standard Oil Trust, the national oil industry monopoly, and a variety of other businesses) had all of the money, and everybody else had no money, including my family. The rich would neither spend nor lend, and the poor could not afford to spend or borrow. So, the economy bumped along on life support until Roosevelt’s government jobs programs got going, helping people to earn (not borrow) money that they could then spend without going even deeper into debt.

The origins of the current problems are scarily similar to the depressions of the past: Depression of 1837, Long Depression of 1873-1896, and the Great Depression. People took on way too much debt, then the credit was suddenly pulled. There are great articles on Wikipedia about these. I’m afraid that we’ll be in there someday as the ‘Bush Depression’, or something like that, and there’s not much we can do about it now.

Aside from the government role in curing the problem (in all three previous depressions, it also took 5+ years to run its course through the economy), we need more people like the Stoibers to work, spend, and save responsibly for the future.

Merry Christmas, Walter !

NOT A SINGLE BANK FAILED IN HOUSTON, TEXAS BECAUSE JESSE JONES CALLED A MEETING OF ALL OF THE LOCAL BANKERS AND KNOCKED HEADS TILL THEY AGREED TO SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER IN THE EVENT OF A RUN. THIS WAS SO SUCCESSFUL THAT THE PRESIDENT CALLED HIM TO WASHINGTON TO DUPLICATE THE FEAT. HE WENT TO DETROIT AND ASKED HENRY FORD TO HELP THE BANKS, BUT FORD HATED ALL BANKS AND REFUSED TO GO ALONG–RESULT, DETOIT BANKS FAILED. WHEN JONES WENT TO NEW YORK, HE ASKED J.P.MORGAN TO DO THE SAME, BUT MORGAN REFUSED—AND THE NEW YORK BANKS FAILED. WE NEED ANOTHE JESSE JONES

THis is right. Back than that was alot of money

Many comments mention the greed of banks and Wall St. Let’s not forget that greed worked both ways to bring the country to our current economic situation. Greedy people, willing to bet on homes appreciating to outlandish values, overextended themselves to get into these new and fancy mortgages. When the economy hiccupped, these same greedy people found themselves in dire straits. And thus the spiral started. Are lending institutions to blame for offering such unrealistic mortgage packages? Yes! Are we as starry-eyed consumers equally at fault? Yes!!
One difference between the Depression generation and today’s is that they were willing to take the entry-level jobs (garbage men, street sweepers, etc.) whereas I’m not sure our generation would be willing to debase ourselves and take those entry-level jobs. “You want fries with that?”…

Posted By Robert, Philadelphia PA : November 26, 2008 2:24 pm

Excellent post. I agree with you!

I am in full agreement with this article. We finally have the proof that we’ve been looking for to prove Republicans wrong.

Grandpa Walt, you made us a wonderful family from those humble beginnings. Today, on Thanksgiving, we are so grateful for all the love, lessons, hard work, and the wisdom you have passed on to us!

A beautiful article. As a nation we have forgotten God. We have become afraid to talk about him. Yet He is the only one that can help us in hard times. May we rediscover the joy of giving and sharing. In the end the greatest asset that we have is one another. If we stand together then we will be ready to face anything. I have experienced this in my lifetime.
Johann Christoph Arnold

I agree, Josh Madison. This is NO accident. We must think of a plan to stop this, not sit back and let them do this to us ( again ).

To: Sai Jacksonville FL

Sorry Sai, the media did not mean to spoil your Christmas (call it what it is) and bring you back to economic reality. Frugality is the new reality and they are just reporting the economic facts. Instead people like you want to put your head into a hole in the ground and pretend this secular change is not happening so you can enjoy opening all your materialist presents this Christmas. We need to stop over consuming and spending and start saving to get this economy back to a savings economy and not a spending economy. Remember to get through this hard time we have to go through it and that will be tough times for most and the media is just preparing you for what is about to happen…..so wake up!

Many comments mention the greed of banks and Wall St. Let’s not forget that greed worked both ways to bring the country to our current economic situation. Greedy people, willing to bet on homes appreciating to outlandish values, overextended themselves to get into these new and fancy mortgages. When the economy hiccupped, these same greedy people found themselves in dire straits. And thus the spiral started. Are lending institutions to blame for offering such unrealistic mortgage packages? Yes! Are we as starry-eyed consumers equally at fault? Yes!!
One difference between the Depression generation and today’s is that they were willing to take the entry-level jobs (garbage men, street sweepers, etc.) whereas I’m not sure our generation would be willing to debase ourselves and take those entry-level jobs. “You want fries with that?”…

In my rant to discredit how poor we are (not), I forgot to mention how much I liked this article. I think all of us could do with a little more time playing baseball in a local lot with a ball that has been repaired numerous times. The ones who really need to do it are the scammers at the top. Not being a jajalionaire, I could never understand what the difference is between $30,000,000 salary and $35,000,000 — other than bragging rights.

I am so tired about hearing how broke we are. Give it a rest. Listening to the last election, one would think there is massive starvation here. We do SO MUCH right, but all we ever hear about is the wrong. And I look around the people who are screaming how broke they are and they weigh 200 pounds, have electronic gizmos up the yin-yang and eat a meal a day at fast food. This isn’t broke.

It’s going to take a prolonged and devastating economic turn for Americans to come close to the hardships faced by those that lived during the Great Depression.

What has me concerned is that there is a high probability that we will get there. It might not be this particular downturn, but a future one.

The government wants to bail us (or companies) out by throwing more money at the problem. They want banks to extend more credit to consumers. This will just lead us to go further into debt.

We, as individuals and as a country, are going to quickly approach the point where we will be working for the sole purpose of paying off the interest on our debts and not the principal itself.

And I can only imagine what is going to happen if other countries pull themselves out of this hole before we do.

It’s going to take a prolonged and devastating economic turn for Americans to come close to the hardships faced by those that lived during the Great Depression.

What has me concerned is that there is a high probability that we will get there. It might not be this particular downturn, but a future one.

The government wants to bail us (or companies) out by throwing more money at the problem. They want banks to extend more credit to consumers. This will just lead us to go further into debt.

We, as individuals and as a country, are going to quickly approach the point where we will be working for the sole purpose of paying off the interest on our debts and not the principal itself.

And I can only imagine what is going to happen if other countries pull themselves out of this hole before we do.

Thanks for posting this article. I’m 39 and have heard similar stories from my grandmother. Well done and well said in the last paragraph. Politicians today could learn alot from this generation. Thank you.

In response to Cheryl Davis of Jacksonville, AL – You are implying that other counties lack hard work, ethics and morals. I am going to assume you have not traveled much. You probably have never been out of the States and possibly never out of Alabama. Anyway, it seems to me that it is the lack of ethics and morals that have created this mess we are in. I am sure my post will not affect your view of the world but I just thought I would put the bug in your ear. We are no better or worse than anyone else. We are all humans and we all can be wonderful or terrible.

An inspiring, uplifting article. I would like to see more articles like this one. What caught my eye was the sentence about how after his family could no longer afford their house, Mr. Stoiber writes, “Luckily, we got an apartment…”. ‘Luckily’! What a terrific attitude.

The article makes me think I have been giving in too much to fear. What I need to do instead is buckle down and get to work like they did back then. Mr. Stoiber’s generation set a great example for us to follow.

Everyone will work bring back the WPA and the CCC That’s the answer i remember

Bubbles, recessions, depressions and prymid schemes seem to happen in cycles. I hope that the information age brings about useful references to guide future gennerations. Something like Walter’s thoughts captured on video as conversation would be great.

Finances will come and go, but God will still be there. The very best thing we can do is Trust in Him.

My family lived a block from the Southern Pacific railroad. Everyday some “hobo” as they were called, jumped from the train and came to my home asking for food. My mother would tell the man that she would give him a good meal but he had to work for it. That meant while she fixed the food, he would have to stack wood or cut the grass or do whatever small job she would find around the house. She didn’t find out until years later that there seem to be some sort of communication among the men riding the train so they would know where to go to get a hot meal. We were among the fortunate ones as my father ran a produce business and we always had fresh fruits and vegetables and Mom had a large brood of chickens. I was 6 years old at the beginning of the depression. This is about all I remember of those days.

Great story. We could all do well to learn something from it. And to the person who claims “In God We Trust” was not on US currency at the time I say one thing, “Look again”. I’m holding a Lincoln penny from 1920 in my hand. Sure as heck to the left of Lincoln in plain English it says “In God We Trust”.

Like the stories my parents told me about the depression you have some good ones, however the time line of events is not correct when you say the stock market crashed and then the banks closed. That is what they teach in public school today. In reality, the bank failures did not start for a year as the increase in the deposit currency ration shows – a full year of people putting their money in the bank to protect it from Wall St. The timely injection of $100M by the NY-Fed stabilized things for a while, and when the bank failures happened the other bank governors stopped Harrison from doing it again.

The depression started in reality with the bank failures that started in the midwest and eventually hit the Bank of the United States which was allowed to fail. Most people us the BofUS failure as the starting point. From that point it was panic.

The Fed did not respond in its capacity as lender of last resort and it’s records show no change in credit outstanding for that period. Gov. Young wanted to keep his powder dry in case of an emergency! That is what Helicopter Ben is trying to avoid. Inaction by the Fed caused a normal recession to become a depression, then fear of government supressed what would have been a recovery. Only in 1929-32 we were not already essentially bankrupt going in.

As for In God We Trust, it is on my Walking Liberty coins from the 30s. The old motto E Pluribus Unum, “from many they became one” is the one really remarkable fact about this country, how it came together despite all odds and how so many diverse people continue to come here. In God We Trust is a joke. No I don’t.

I remember the days well…Mnay nights all we had to eat was a bowl of warm milk with broken up bread in iy and if we were real lucky a tab ob butter…But we made it

Nice story. Unfortunately Roosevelt’s “great programs” did little to help the country recover from the depression and in fact prolonged it and deepened it. The onset of WWII and the supreme courts rejection of some of Roosevelt’s wackier schemes (like having a government agency set prices for all goods) are what helped end the depression.

My mother, who died last year, was the same age as Walter and told similar stories of the Great Depression and how her family survived it. Just like Walter, no matter now many years passed, she never forgot what it was like to do without. As a result, she was grateful for what she had, although money was always sparse, and she was generous to a fault to those less fortunate. I think about her stories a lot with the economy worsening and hope that we Americans can be as resilient as our ancestors if things get half as bad as the Great Depression.

I hardlearned lesson of doing without is now becoming a reality for many deeply affected by our economic decline across the board. Driving to work today in my 19 year old car, which I call my “classic”, I was surrounded at a light by at least $400, 000 worth of luxury, elite vehicles. Whether partially owned and paying upwards to $700 per month on a loan or leasing and trying to live the dream, I felt very secure in my ride today. I only wish our American society would begin to downgrade their obsession with material things and start having an appreciation for the things that are really important. While probably never feeling the pinch of our recession/depression, I would hope the group surrounding me this AM will come to the senses or at least have some appreciation/sensitivity for what the other 90% of us may be going through.

I remember the Depression too. We were 3 small children
and scarce little to eat. Dad
was out of work and Mama cried
a lot. We knew not to ask for
anything and to be thankful for anything we did have. It
was a good life lesson for me.
To this day I am very frugal
and do not waste anything.

Things are different today. Now few people have “gardens” or “raise chickens” or even know how to hunt.
Even into the early 60ies, people still kept a chicken coop in town.Self sufficiency is gone except for the very few. Cut wood for fuel? Most homes have no way to use it.Plant a garden? Your HOA would have you arrested.
Then there were a multitude of individual banks, some went under, some didn’t. Today we have Mega-banks that if one fails , it takes out millions of depositors not a few hundred.
If there were a depression of the proportions of the 30ies, We would be in a terrible terrible state.It may not be survivable in the same way as the previous era.I’m 66 years old, I still have the skills to feed myself and my family, Do YOU??

This was a wonderful story. Although my parents were born in the late 50’s and early 60’s, they share similiar stories with me. Having come from families with no father in the household and very limited money, they knew how to stretch their dollar and be creative with entertaining themselves. I grew up learning to buy what I need as opposed to what I wanted. My generation (I am 22) seems to have trouble with buying things they don’t need and seemed to get whatever they wanted from their parents growing up. Thisis going to be a harsh reality for many. Steve from Belmont, CA explained it really well.

Children, look around you…economic crisis, moral decline, wars & rumors of wars, food crisis, water shortages…the world is rapidly changing. God created this earth, gave us life, & we have messed it up. The only answer is to look to Him for help–as a nation, and as individuals.

What a pity that when the Great Depression hit, nobody saw it for the failure of fractional-reserve banking that it was. Instead we patched up the inherently broken system like putting tape on a broken baseball and kept at it until now.

Any system based on make-believe money is simply not going to last.

It is a different world than it was in the 30s. A butcher today would not be allowed to hand out scraps due to health reasons. Kids can’t play outside or go adventuring without the risk of being kidnapped, killed etc due to our deteriorating social values. Finding odd jobs or work in this day would be near impossible since many of these under-the-table or odd-jobs type of roles are now filled by illegal aliens who have been doing them for decades. Our entire underlying infrastructure is so different, that while it is important to remember how these challenges were handled in the past, it is by no means a suitable template for today’s looming problems.

It is amazing to me. The rich get richer because of their greed. The poor get poorer but seem to find a way to help themselves AND others. The more you have and can help, the more you don’t do a thing.

Thank you for this story. Things are going to be really difficult for the US and the world in the next 3 years, but we toughed it out in the 30’s and we’ll tough it out now.

Sounds like you had it comparably better than my grandparents during the great depression. In my grandfathers case his parents died of illness brought on by being overworked and lack of nutrition. My grandfather at age 13 was sent off to work in the government work camps for 25 cents per day to help the rest of his siblings survive. In my grandmothers case their family survived by growing and selling vegetables in a plot of land the family owned outside of the city. They ate blackbirds in pies for meat. Many family members died of malnutrition and being overworked. The decedents of those that caused the Great Depression are at work again to bring the common people back under their firm control. If you believe this all one big accident of greed you are quite mistaken.

Its so nice all of you fall for this kind of crap. What seems to get forgotten is that their where plenty of rich people that had no idea that a great depression was even going on. Basically they took the money for themselves just as they are doing now. If thats o.k. with you, so be it. Start getting wise America, and see that we are becoming a nation of very rich and very poor, or maybe you, like a lot of others out there who have worked hard their whole lives will lose it to someone else. Lets bail out some more rich connected people. AIG, CITI, RICH CEO’S ETC..took our money in high interst rates and profits, and now they want bail out money. Seems like a big rip off to me.

Great witness of what happened and how to pull through it! Thanks!

I think there are two very important things that keep you going in hard times, at least for me, Family and Hope.

The great depression and the poverty it caused was also a large contributing factor to the bitter struggles for global resources that lead up to second world war. I don’t see any reason that the great depression part 2 would be any less violent. In fact, thanks to the brilliant idea of linking us into a global economy without sovereign and common wealth firewalls, we run an even greater risk of creating a domino war. It should be avoided at all costs, and those who caused the economic debacle should be tried and jailed for their violation of responsibility.

Economic tough times since then depended greatly on where you were and part of society oyu belonged to. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, and we were none too wealthy. My mom and dad, children of the Great Depression, knew how to get by though and my brother and I didn’t seem to notice. I didn’t really realize how much we didn’t have until I was in High School. After years in the military, Clinton happened, and a lot of us were without a decent job for a long time. Now, I expect the same thing to happen all over again. High tech, decent paying jobs for engineers and scientists will disappear as Obama shuts down the military to balance to budget. And this is happening at the same time that soaring oil prices caused a major economic slow down. The house of cards is falling. But you know, my mom won’t even notice it,… she’s still canning her own vegetables.

To Frank Smith in Orlando: “For the record”, I have a 1890 Silver Dollar given to us by my father’s grandfather and “In God We trust” is very clearly printed there! I don’t know where you got this story , but I’ve heard it before, and I think it’s put out by the Atheist movement, or something like that to furthur their cause. Although I am not against atheists, I do not like it when people frick with the facts.

I love that story. I hope that we will come out of the recession with similar values. It’s a funny thing that it usually takes hardships to teach us lessons that will stick.

Several comments have touched on ‘the kids these days’….. Kids don’t learn their bad habits on their own and they certainly aren’t/weren’t the ones caught up in the most recent example of this by way of the greed and materialism associated with the housing bubble.

In fact there hasn’t been much mention that in the past ten years or so we have experience three asset bubbles – stocks, residential real estate, commodities – all built on perhaps the most dangerous bubble of all, credit. This is not normal economic behavior and I suspect the last 10 years or so will be looked on in hindsight at some point as our own version of the ‘roaring twenties’. Were our parents and grandparents aware of the excess at that time until they were looking at it from the outside in and only in hindsight?

I’m afraid that American Culture has become ugly; fat, greedy, hateful, materialistic and the line between wants and needs/necessities has become terribly blurry. We work and work to get that money to spend and consume thereby sacrificing our own health as a result. It’s insane. We are not enjoying life in it’s own simple pleasures.

And I believe our kids (’these days’) are brought up to believe – indoctrinated – into this system that money will will buy you all the happiness in the world. Replacing the original pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of money which is in of itself of course, greed. In that regard, I am sympathetic about the what kind of society has been created for them.

Part of the problem is that as generations pass with time, we – and especially Americans – tend to forget the lessons that history teaches us and if there was more wisdom from folks like Walter, then perhaps what we are facing now wouldn’t be as a large a calamity.

actually Frank Smith, the motto “In God We Trust” has been on U.S. currency since 1864. It wasn’t added to paper money until 1957 when it was adopted as the official motto of the U.S. If you’re going to try to piss on this story, at least have correct facts.

We can learn many lessons from our elders! Yes, the stock market is a game – a game of greed.

I remember growing up in the 50’s here in a suburb of Los Angeles when my Mom made veggie soup and Mac and Cheese a lot because we had so little money. My Mom took in laundry and ironing to make ends meet. My Mom and Dad went without unless they could pay cash. The only things they paid for on time were the mortgage, car and large appliances. When I turned 13, my Mom went to work full time to help out, as costs began to escalate in the 60’s.

As an adult trying to support myself, I sometimes went days without food and could not afford such luxuries as a car, phone or TV. I know what it is like to go without.

Now in my early 60’s, I see coming to fruition that which has slowly become evident since the 80’s: economic disaster due to greed on the part of all. Just this morning coming to work, it was stated in the news that another economic package is needed to get people spending again. Wait a minute – is that not one of the main reasons we are in such dire straits? The other main reason is corporate greed. Over 50 yrs ago daily living was about morals, ethics, working, helping your neighbor etc. It was about PEOPLE. The last few decades it has been about MONEY and what money can buy. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars on special councils etc to figure out where we have gone wrong. Our forefathers would be greatly ashamed of us. We are in bondage to a system that lifts up and glorifies corporations and things, while kicking people to the curb. The change we so desperately need is not the one being hearalded by either the Dems or Reps. Instead, it is to get back to the basics of what is really important in this life.

Thank You Walter for sharing that memory with us.

You have to admire how people can rationalize a situation.

No one actually knows what is happening. We’ve all just thrown up our hands. Everything is going to be fine. The most poverty stricken areas of the United States will hopefully starve off, thus lessening the pressure on competition for jobs and food, and the richest and smartest will continue without the chaff they had been supporting all along. Our population in America has become to great for its resources, much like the rest of the world, and we need a reduction, I’m fine with this. It’s a natural thing. Hopefully if we hit a recession, we’ll put out of foreign countries and allow them to go their natural way toward extermination. If African countries can’t take care of themselves without American and European help, so be it. We have to look out for our own before we help other countries. America has lots of money, and can continue to make it, we’ll just have to stop spending it on other countries and other people. Everyone needs to keep their eyes on the fresh water supply, that’s what will go first, and then farming and cleanliness will be out the window, we’ll have disease and famine, it will be harrowing.

My father was almost 19 when the market crashed and never seemed to have a problem finding a job in Boston. Times were tough but not everyone was unemployed. Many people made it through the depression relatively unscathed and the same will be true this time.

I bet your phone/cable bill wasn’t $280.00 back then. Ya, that’s what I said, 2 phone lines and DirectTV for a mere $280.00/month, wonder why we all struggle to pay bills.

Many thanks to Walter for sharing his remembrances of the Great Depression. His story is not unlike the ones my father told me as I was growing up.

The current economic situation is a loud wake-up call to all of us about the true meaning of life and separating our wants from our needs. It’s a grand reality check.

I always try to see the good in whatever situation I’m presented with and I’m hopeful that our new president-elect Obama will point us in the right direction to rebuild our country’s economic foundation on the columns of clean and safe alternative energy and rebuilding our country’s sagging and outdated infrastructure. FDR institued programs that turned this country around during dark times and I have full faith that Barack Obama will do the same.

It’s time we all pull together and make this work. We all have our differences and that’s OK, but it’s the fact that we’re all Americans and are all in this together that we need to focus on at this time.

God Bless our country and our people…we shall get through this and come out healthier and more economically-sound on the other side.

That’s a very inpiring story! I wish people were as friendly and community oriented today as they were back then. It certainly would help everyone get through these tough times a lot better.

My whole childhood in the 1960’s and 1970’s was like this, and at times quite a bit worse! Being dirt poor with no end in sight, grinds the human spirit down to nothing. This New Great Depression will end for most of us eventually. Happy Days will come again. But regardless of the conditions on Wall Street, too many people will still have less than nothing,with more of nothing to look forward to. Sadly, that will probably never change.

Good article. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, on a farm in Iowa. It wasn’t as tough in those times as in the depression, but we still didn’t have all of the things that we take for granted today.

My great grandfather had died and left a wife and 7 children with a mortgaged farm in the midst of the Depression. The oldest brother took over the farm and worked to pay it off and support the family. Some of the other sons (when they were older) went to California to look for work. Most of that generation knew the value of their money and lived very frugal lives.

We all can make do with much less if need be. This housing bubble and credit crunch is much like the lead up to the depression, and there’s plenty of blame to go around to everyone, from the politicians to the bankers to the rest of us. Let’s work together to fix this thing and use history as our guide to try to prevent the next one.

A beautiful well-written story. Thank you Mr. Stoiber! I read it to my five year old and I know it made an impression. In a strange way, I hope we all get to experience this to some extent, so we may be more grateful for the things we have. Thank you!

Walter,

Thank you for informing families about the impact of a depression on young children. As a mother of young children, I am not afraid for myself, but moreso for the impact on our kids. Your message that a ball will keep a kiddo going for a long time is quite reassuring to many of us that needed to hear it at this potentially financial dire time. Thanks much. May you and yours have a blessed holiday season. Deb in Colorado

In 1932 the dollar did not say “In god we trust” that was not a law until 1954…

I am 50 years old and my mother who is 83 years old has told me about the hard times of the great depression. The funny thing about what she said was ” We were poor and did not know it”. They lived on a farm due to my grand-father bing a share cropper. Mother said they raised just about all their food on this farm and would go to town once a month to get supplies that they had to buy. She said that grand-daddy would buy everything in bulk so to last at least a month.

My father I feel had it even harder. His family was so poor that he had to go live with and old woman that was a friend of the family. Mother said daddy worked this womans farm to make ends meet. My father never forgot these hard times. He was a man of few words, but he was a very hard worker. I can remember in the 60’s and 70’s my father working a full time job in a local factory for very low wages and then breaking up gardens with an old red belly ford tractor after he got off of work in the afternoons. Along with this he did landscaping milked cows for an old man he knew, raised cows and pigs on a 16 acre farm he owned, grew a garden on this farm plus dealt antiques.

He finally slowed down some in his early 60’s but then came down with lung cancer and died in 1993 at 67 years old.

I have often said if he was alive today to see what is going on in the world today, he would be very upset.

It’s going to get bad soon.

I’m a 23 year-old college student who did not have parents fortunate enough to give me a college fund to start off with. My father, a disabled former welder cannot sit or stand for more than about an hour, so he is on SSI and my mother at 60 years old works for the school district as a cook. They have no money to help me and what little they have they would give to me, would I ask for it. I don’t because I know that it takes money from their mouths.

So I support myself through college. Although the cost of living in CA is high, the Federal government feels that my family is not poor enough to receive a Pell grant, so I survive on CA education grants, what I earn working 24 hrs a week part-time at a print shop, and minimal student loans. Thank God I have no credit card debt…

I’ve already seen layoff’s at my work as the credit markets froze, small business relies upon short term loans. I survived one round and I have great respect for the owner–he’s trying his best to keep his employees working, but he’s not superman.

I hear about these stories about the Great Depression, but I never thought that I’d live through them. The writing is on the wall however.

The administration seems to be focused on the financial markets which are important. Yet they fail to realize one thing. Without jobs, nobody will spend money. Wage growth in the last 7 years has been stagnate, with standard of living on growing because of increased use of credit and borrowing against their homes. So while increased lending to banks might temporarily fix short-term credit, and even assuming mortgage values were to stop plummeting, where is new money going to come from? It would be foolish to sustain yet another growth period in the economy off of money people don’t have.

Yet I still here people blame big government for the problems. Every economist I have read about seems to agree that the reason this hasn’t turned to a depression yet is BECAUSE of the social safety nets in place, albeit tattered after the conservative revolution.

I’m not concerned about a flashy car…I bought my own car used with my own money and pay my own insurance. I don’t have brand new clothes to speak of-I buy a pair of jeans as one pair wears out, roughly about every 2 years. Nor do I have any sort of the night life stereotypical of a college student since most my time is spent working (24 hrs a week) at school or working on school work (at 12 units, roughly 3 hrs a week per unit or 36hrs) and things like chores and food and sleep, I don’t have time for anything else. I just want to make sure that I have a shot at making sure this doesn’t happen to my future children.

It’s what keeps me going and makes sure I keep pushing myself; after college I want to go to law school and go into public sector to make sure that people that abuse those who don’t know the law get brought to justice.

Course during the great depression you did not have a Congress that could vote to give themselves raises every year for 30 years straight while getting sweet stock tips from 30,000 lobbyists whispering sweet nothings in their ears as ordered by corporate America or lets call them what they really are which is business monopoly America. You didn’t have a president kissing OPEC instead of regulating them which was the real cause of this whole economic disaster. You didn’t have a supreme court that ignored the votes cast in the election in 2004 and empower the same monster that was destroying the country for another 4 years. You didn’t have a corrupt government refusing to impeach the monster that handpicked people to be in his administration that would ignore dead bodies of American mothers floating in the rivers for so many days down in New Orleans. What happened to the decider on that topic. Thieves have been in wall street since 1980 when Reagan empowered them. The only thing that changed this past decade is we were attacked by Saudi Arabia and our president did nothing about it. He just sent us off to another country with hopes of establishing a permanent corporate war mongering profiteering scam. My point of bringing up this past decade is America gained hope from government when everything fell apart in 1929. This time government corruption is so deep in line with the wall street corruption. I don’t think government can fix this problem. Only a new government can.

Walter, thank you for your perspective. I believe a Depression may be the best thing to happen to our society…we need a harsh slap in the face. As long as it doesn’t compromise our sovereignty, it could be beneficial. Of course many would suffer, but we’d suffer together, and it would make our country stronger in the long run. My parents grew up during the Depression, and their stories are just like Walter’s. Thanks again for your perspective. God bless the USA.

What an idiot, he thinks FDR brought wonderful programs and blames this whole mess on Wall Street and the upper echelons of the federal government. The man has learned nothing in 91 years. Sweet man, yes, but has not a clue.

This sounds almost exacty as my father and mother have described the 1930’s to me. As you say all avoidable – strange on how a relatively small group of people can have such as devasting effect on so many.

Yeah, back to basics is where its at. Im hanging on to a job, gonna make less than I did last year, and I dont make alot to start. But my girlfriend and I own our home, clip our coupons and are getting by fine. We dont have 300 channels on cable (just 15), dont go out to eat alot (we take turns cooking) , and rent our movies from netflix rather than hit a pricey theater. I have friends that make twice as much who are dead broke. Learn to be happy with what you have. Dont measure yourself by what you drive, how fancy your clothes/phone/ and things are. Enjoy the things in life that are free, parks, friends, laughter. You will find your ok. Capitalism is ok, but there is more to life than working to buy more junk you really dont need anyway.

The basic problem in our country is that we have turned our backs on God. At best we ignore Him. At worst we wish Him dead so that we can reign over ourselves.

We have decided to place ourselves in the driver’s seat to make the determination of what is true and what is false. We have turned our backs on the only source of truth and instead substituted our own desires.

Those that ‘trust in God’ sometimes only do so when they are no longer able to trust in themselves. We treat God as a last resort when He has told us He is to be our first and only choice.

Gay ‘marriage’, divorce, abortion, pride, selfishness, greed, deceit… you name it. If God is against it, we as a country seem very much to be for it, and we attack anyone that would indicate that we are wrong.

God will not be mocked and we are reaping as a people what we have sown.

Ps 37:23 If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm;
Ps 37:24 though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
Ps 37:25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
Ps 37:26 They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.
Ps 37:27 Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.
Ps 37:28 For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.

If you do not have a personal relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ, would you like to have one? God is willing to grant that if you turn to Him.

http://www.truthmill.com

Given my own recent experiences, this article gives me hope, thank you for posting it. I’m 24, with a dual degree from one of the best public universities in the country, and over the past few years I realized that that doesn’t necessarily mean job stability. I lost my job 2 months ago and am now working part-time, which is hard, but its made me realize how much money I spent on frivolous things (when everyone thought I was being frugal!). There is no reason to go out to eat 4 times a week, pay 9 dollars for a movies WITHOUT popcorn, and spend hundreds of dollars on gifts during the holidays. This year I’ll be sewing all of my gifts and my family and friends are very excited about it. I’ve also become a much better cook, read quite a few books, and am nearly finished with my early applications for law school. This year I know, more than ever before, what I’ll be thankful for come Thursday. It certainly can’t be bought.

boomer’s screwed things up. The “big-wig” boomers got greedy, selfish, arrogant, and blind. And now I see a comment throwing kids into the equation (kids expect too much….kids are spoiled) well guess who spoils them???? the parents. The boomer’s (who currently run the country) are morphing the youth inot society, so really the youth are just a reflection of the boomers. So dont throw kids into the equation.

What a wonderful piece!!! I don’t know about all y’all, but that really put the starch back in my backbone.

World Wars I and II and the Great Depression forged some really good/tough/no-nonsense people. I was fortunate in my youth to grow up in an economically-depressed area because it was a “grounding” experience. You learned that hard work pays off (and the consequences of laziness), that you can entertain yourself with just muscle & imagination and that the road to happiness isn’t paved with gold and “trinkets”. I laughed when I read of Walter’s childhood & biking to the swimming hole. I did the same thing and the adventures I had with my friends back then are still strong with me today. Walter, you need your own column — we need your perspective today!

I hope you people out there don’t really think we are being “tested”. Right now things still look good, you still have full malls and lines at Starbucks. All i have to say is hope and pray we never have to go through what Mr. Stoiber lived through because most people wont make it.

One way to curb Corporate greed within a PUBLIC CORPORATION is to have a EARNINGS DISCREPANCY BILL. This concept would have a percentage figure that cannot be exceeded, separating the highest paid person and the lowest paid person within a PUBLIC COMPANY. If we cannot agree on a percentage at all, then we cannot define greed and this problem will never resolve itself. If a CEO doesn’t care to get his salary cut along with undisclosed perks, start your own company! After all, this is a PUBLIC company. If corporations protect the highest paid salaries as well as payments of dividends to shareholders, then why not protect the front end workers who are producing the actual product that people are buying?

Thanks Walter.
My only concern is that like other stories I have read from your generation make the Great Depression sound charming. It is good to find the positive side of the situation -that we will all survive and have good memories of it but I do wish someone who lived through this could give us tips about what to do. I know my father’s family lived on a family farm and raised their own food and the other side of my family lost their fortune but would not talk about it. So I am left with a feeling that the truth is somewhere between unspeakable and charming.

Thank you Walter for sharing your perspective and insights. From looking at the history books, it looks to me like the first Depression was brought on by excessive greed and self absorbtion as well.

Unfortunately, the baby boomers did not learn from the previous generation’s mistakes and repeated them by becoming even more selfindulgent, reckless, and self absorbed. I think that that generation will go down in history as the one that ruined this great country (on many levels.)

Maurice,
This is what Capitalism is all
about.

I agree with the fact that we must experience difficult times for it will make one realize and value the true meanings in life. No more bailouts

Happiness can be found in adversity and in leisure. We owe it to ourselves and our families to seek it. Too often what we don’t have robs us of what we do have. The trick is to really believe we can be happy, one way or another.
The truly happy, will not oppress others to enrich himself. He will instead bring happiness to his neighbor.

God only knows we’ve been stuck in an overindulgent consumption driven society since the end of the 1970’s and we could use a good spanking. But the powers that be prefer to patch the broken machine rather than replacing it and so this crisis will pass with just a small segment of our society receiving the wisdom of less is more.

Oh lord. This is the end. End times!

What a great story. Thank you Walter for sharing this with us.

This was a wonderful picture of that time. I was reminded of my own grandfather talking about getting by with less and his understanding that life is not about stuff it is about Faith, family and friends. Very well done

As much as I do not want to see our country head into another Great Depression, there is something in me that borders on envy when I read this column. Walter knows that true happiness does not come from material goods but from the love of family and friends. We as a nation are so obsessed with material goods, and it is finally catching up with us. I don’t know how to sew, grow food, or anything like that. When Hurricane Ike hit us in Texas and we were without power for two weeks, we were totally lost without our computers, phones, etc.

Perhaps we need to go through something difficult to realize what is truly important in this life.

Great column!

I remember stories about the depression my grandparents would tell me. They moved from NY (no jobs) to FL and opened a small grocery store during the depression. People were hunger… neighbors, not everyone had a job or food, but my granddad would give credit, barter, etc. to help those in need. People came together, they cared and had compassion, they weren’t forced to by the government… they wanted to, there were no extensive government programs, no extensive “social safety net” just neighbors caring about neighbors because that was all there was, because you knew you had something to eat and your neighbor was going hungry that day and you helped and you shared because it was right and it was good.

” In God we Trust”

As a Canadian i would like to Thank you Americans for keeping the world a safer place to Live.
i dont know where. how. why. the world is in this Melt down. i have Faith in ………..Barack Obama …… we all know that feeling we call your gut feeling .well i have never had a gut feeling stronger then i have about ……Barack Obama…….. he will be remebered in history as the Presitdent who brought the country ( world) together in its drakest time

I think you may be interested in “Pennyland – Echoes of the Great Depression” which I created from an original song written by my brother. Here’s the link to the YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9-iz40K6o

I’ve also placed it on my website at http://www.pennyland.org

This is not meant as a political statement, but rather as an attempt to put a face on something that so often appears academic.

Frank Thomas

Growing up as a child of parents who went through the depression, we lived the same way described here, on into the 1940’s and early 50’s. The story of the baseball is our story and many part time jobs.

Times were bad, but Good.

At the slightest mention of a possible repeated depression, I thought that we should hear from those who lived through the Great one of 1929. My dad was 15 at the time, and I recall hearing his stories of how people helped each other through that awful time. I am glad that we were finally shown a comment from a first-hander, since my dad died several years ago and I try hard to remember his words. It is amazing to see how the human ‘appetite’ doesn’t slight during even this auspicious time in history. I pray we all come through it OK, but mostly worry about the children. We now see stories of animals being brought to shelters – hooray for those decent folk who chose to do so. But, what about the increased incidents of child neglect and malnourishment. It’s out there, but we don’t hear of it. If people have lost their jobs, how can they feed their families? The government seems to be giving more $ to big business and their own, but what about the children? I truly don’t want to read headlines of some poor family who had no where to turn and chose to sacrifice God’s children. It will really piss me off!

My grandmother was born in 1913 in eastern germany and my father in 1926 in the united states. They both lived through the great depression as well. What I learned from them is similar to what the author wrote: we can all do without. We don’t need what the marketers say we do. Don’t waste food and resources and be thankful for your family, friends and good health. My grandmother just passed last month at the age of 95 and till the end she and my grandfather lived a simple life and saved for expensive or luxury items. If anything good comes out of the state of our economy today it’s that we need to go back to doing that and stop trying to keep up with others who feel the only way they can be happy is to keep buying everything.

Here’s a fact that might come as suprise to some people in this country…If you took the salaries of the top 20 CEO’s of major corporation’s in our country, most of which are in the multimillion’s, and cut them to $750,000 a year, which is still a rediculous ammount to earn for the job they do, and took to the left over money from their salaries and invested it into this “crisis” were in, it could easily be solved. But instead, we still have men and women, with little common sense, making 20 million a year, so they can drink $1,000 bottles of wine and treat their trophy wifes to dinner’s at 5 star resturants. Its quite funny to think it could be fixed this way. So next time you happen to see a CEO of a major company, thank him for this mess were in.

My mother grew up during the Great Depression as the youngest child in a family of eight. Both of my grandparents were lucky enough to have jobs (my grandmother was a saleslady at Sears, and my grandfather worked in a lumber yard). However, with their meager earnings and the size of the family, they scraped by on what they had and struggled at times to keep enough food on the table.

My mother often told stories of how she and her three sisters shared a single bed. (Being the youngest and smallest, my mother had to sleep across the bottom of the bed with her sisters’ feet in her face all night.) My mother had only one dress for school as my grandparents couldn’t afford to buy new clothes for the kids. So, every day when my mom came home from school, she would wash her dress in a large tub, wring it out, and hang it out to dry. My grandparents also lived near a convent where the sisters had their own milking cow. The sisters would share their milk with my mother’s family (even though they were not Catholic) and my mother never forgot their kindness. There are many more stories like this I could relate.

Of course, this experience stuck with my mother all of her life, even as she was raising my sister and me. Although we were not hard up during my childhood years, my mother always drilled into us the concepts of frugality, avoiding waste, wise money management, and the evils of credit. When I was 12 years old, my father abandoned the family, forcing my mom to return to work and to raise my sister and I on her own. Thanks to what my mother learned when she was young, we managed to fulfill our basic needs (even if we didn’t get everything we wanted). When I was a teenager, I pitched in with part time (and later full-time) work and managed to contribute to the household income while paying my own way through college. I suspect we would have been much worse off if my mother hadn’t brought with her the valuable lessons she learned as a survivor of the Great Depression.

People like Walter and my mother (who, sadly, passed away five years ago) have so much to teach us as we face our own lean times ahead. Like my mother, I have practiced frugality all my life, and I have no debt except for my mortgage. Thanks to my my mother and what she has taught me, I feel like I’m ready to face whatever comes. But I do fear for those who grew up in relative luxury (often purchased on credit) and have never had to pinch a dime until now. If times get worse, it will be hardest for them.

Wonderful!!! Simply an wonderful article

I couldn’t agree more with what Steve, in Belmont, CA had to say! Very well put! People today in this country really do scare me. Our priorities are so out of order.

My wife and I have always lived within our means, and usually below that. We could afford a bigger house, but choose not to. We could afford brand new cars, but choose to buy used ones and keep them a long time. We could afford exotic vacations, but choose to see first what our own great country has to offer. We take responsibility for our own spending and would NEVER expect someone to bail us out. People have got to start taking accountability for their own actions and THINK before they spend! There should be NO bailouts for anybody or anything, period! Let things fall where they will!

Great story and give us all hope. But let’s not forget that the country in 1932 was not out of the depression and in 1937 (5 yrs after FDR was in office) the country sunk again.

Great article with some very valid and useful points. That said, we’re not anywhere near the Depression at this point, and we won’t be. Things are much different now. It’s bad, but not that bad. Articles like this get people worked up because of panic and not fundamentals. That’s journalism in the 21st century, folks.

And Jason Stoons, how can you really say that “the Great Depression of 2008 is starting” when unemployment is well below that of the Great Depression and GDP has not dropped like it did then? I guess you discount the majority of economists who have projected that the economy will start growing again in Q2 2009. People like Jason frighten me more than this Depression panic.

In the time of crisis people and magazines are forgetting the social responsibility. I think media is helping the economy to slip into deep recession or depression. Media is spoiling the holiday season by coverage about great depression over and over.

FDR’s New Deal policies prolonged the Great Depression by about 7 years- they did anything but help lead America on a path to economic recovery. Specifically, his anti-competition and pro-labor measures are to blame.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx?RelNum=5409

I enjoyed this article and I too salute the Greatest Generation. My father was born in 1919, is still alive, and has good recall of the Great Depression. He spent those years living in the Northeast (Pittsburgh and Boston areas) with his parents and six siblings. His father was in sales for several major corporations and could be categorized as middle class. Interestingly, my father does not have especially bad memories of The Great Depression. Due to a strong industrial base I believe parts of the Northeast did not suffer the same level poverty and deprivation as other areas in the US. There are some elderly folks who look back at FDR with disdain for the many entitlement programs that were created with good intention during his administrations, but now contribute to our current economic problems and national debt.

Steve in Belmont, You are so very right my friend. This is a direct cause of way to much Leverage that socity has taken on so we can all have a Escalade exspensive overpriced clothes our houses had to be bigger and better that our friends so we could fill a void in souels. This was a long time comeing. I hate to say I told you so to these people in our country but I saw this comeing and me and my wife have always paid for things in cash and if we wanted something we would save and not run up debt. we would be proud of what we stood for as a family instead of what we had. I wanted a high def T.V so bad and you know what I did, I saved little by little and it took me two years and I was able to get the T.V of my dreams and was so proud of how hard I worked for it and saved little amounts that didnt hurt our familly budget over time and did it the right way. We have lost our way and I hope this brings some sense back to our lives as a people.

Thank you for posting this story. I think that it is important for us to remind ourselves of the challenges that lay ahead. My grandfather, who is 94, still talks about the Great Depression and the trials that our family went through. I’m posting a link to this in my Facebook profile and I hope other young people will take the time to read. As Thanksgiving time, this story should remind us to be grateful for all we have and propel us to action in light of some great issues facing our country. Even if they don’t do anything, at the very least, they should be aware.

What a wonderful column. Mr. Stoiber certainly drove me back down memory lane. Both my parents died within the last two years. Their lives were inexorably changed by the sacrifices they had to make during the Great Depression. How humbling it must have been for my grandparents, with children in tow, to line-up and wait for their daily ration of bread and soup. When they died in 2006 it took me months to ready the house for sale. Apparently, they ’saved’ everything. If anyone needs a picture tube from a 1950’s Emerson b&w, please let me know. And don’t even talk about food! What’s an expiration date, anyway? And here I am thinking back to my own 1950’s childhood. We wrapped baseballs in electrical tape, played with a one-size fits all baseball bat, and generally lived our formative years with our noses pressed up against the proverbial store window. Does anything really change? I learned great lessons from not only my parents, but people like Walter. And as he so correctly noted, we will get through this too.

Very moving story. I believe then people were different, they weren’t so vain, they weren’t so selfish and they weren’t so mean. Today people take what is beyond their reach, perhaps I’m being cynical but our kids today are spoiled. When you are spoiled you don’t like to be told “NO”.

If this country ever gets to another Great Depression then I feel it will be complete anarchy.

Society has changed, many scoff at religion but that old religion is what kept people civil, today that old religion is not practiced by more than 90% of this country.

I truly hope that another Great Depression does not happen but if it does then the ones to suffer the most will be the young (under 10) and the old (over 60) as they will be preyed upon.

The only places that could possibly avoid this is those still strong communities in middle America who have solid neighbor relationships (but even that is beginning to wither away)

Regarding Steve of Belmont CA post: I am so glad to know there are young people like you. I don’t doubt your love for the USA. Hard work, high ethics and morals, are what made and will make the USA stand apart from other nations.

What a wonderful story. Those were the good old days, when children knew how to play and have fun without the help of technology.Kids these days don’t know the meaning of “Go play outside.”

So if I understand Jason from TX, without air conditioning your electronic do-dads won’t work? The cost of electricity? Still cheap compared to the increase in wages from the depression 30’s.

Peter in LA, I chose to move from the West Coast to raise my family in Montana, where my son plays in the neighborhood withour fear of being harmed in any way. It always comes down to the CHOICES we make. I chose to stop chasing bigger/brighter everything and keeping up with the “Jones” to a scaled back lifestyle where we owe less than 1/3 of what our house is worth and we drive 5 year old cars. If you don’t think you have a choice, you are not being objective.

I’m not concerned about going without. I’m not concerned with explaining to our son why we cannot have everything we want all the time.

s.

I wonder how many of us believe in God now to pray than believed in God in the ’30s? We could be in real trouble.

In 1959, in California we built scooters the same way. Someone suggested you could remove the soap box, leaving the 2X4 and metal roller skate wheels–the first skateboards.

The News needs to stop posting stuff like this. THey are creating panic !! The News is a major problem concerning the current economic environment ! They make people stop spending and the chain reaction begins !! STOP printing this stuff !!

This story reminds us again and again that living by your means and hard work is THE only solution to debt free future!
I am in my earlly 30s, and my parents always remind me to start saving now, think before lavish purchases and think of my kids before swiping credit cards on the things I really dont need!

I am the only stepfather to my wifes 4 children. Even with a meager dual income we have managed to provide all the love and toys necessary to “spoil” our children. I know I could apreciate doing without as I hope my kids will look back on this experience with the same value that this gentleman does. However, in the short run, it will stretch our limits as a family raising 4 soon to be teenage cell phone crazed-ps3/xbox no chore take most things for granted I need new sneaker lifestyle to max

My grandparents said we (the younger generations) couldn’t handle a Depression… how true that may have been! They have all recently passed on, so I’m glad they won’t be here to see it, but I think about Mr. Stoiber said about getting by without the things we thought we had to have… a cell phone for example?!? Cable tv, or HD for that matter. All of these years of companies telling us what they thought was good for Americans and had us believing we couldn’t live without, how fitting the same companies would fall victim to their own greed. They have to rely on the government for a bailout that does nothing more than validate their own corruptness. As consumers tighten their belts, banks and companies in turn ‘back door’ taxpayers through Uncle Sam for relief, as their immoral rape of Lady Liberty continues, bankrupting not only past generations of wealth, but mortgaging generations to come. God help us all.

The days of old are surely missed, by those of us today that either experienced or were told the stories of the “simpler” times. Yes, there were issues of racial oppression, and lack of technology… but I feel that simplistic values and morals overcame all of the negative aspects of that time. I’ve come through a variety of adversities in my short 30yrs of life. Now I am ok financially, but I’ve noticed that the saying is so true in today’s society; “the more you have, the more you want”. We are making salaries that are ridiculous compared to $35/mo like the gentleman in this story. People struggled, but yet they seem happy during the rough times. Now, we as Americans are spoiled. If grocery stores, and malls closed today… only a few people would actually know how to make “ends meet” if there wasn’t some store, or person there to do the work. Farming, hunting, and home economic skills are abscent in todays world. There are few people that want to do anything for “cheap” wages, or even to help someone less fortunate than ourselves. If the economy returns to the “Depression” of the 30’s, America as we know it would not survive. All the youth know how to do is spend money, watch televsion, play video games, and text-message. Horrible social and survival skills are taught today, due to the “worship” of money. It is sad to see how lost we as a nation truely are. We are basically on the earth to survive as a species, not gather materialistic items.

On a positive note, the youth of my generation have finally shown that we are actually paying attention, and want to make a difference during the recent election. We are dissappointed with the past 20 yrs of government corruption. We are striving to ensure that the future have a government “For the people, by the people”. God bless us all!

I know that my family can get by with less. The only problem is where we live which is 20 miles from our jobs, if we manage to keep them.

Great article. I agree that today’ssociety is a “me first” society. You can tell just by walking down the street. I think we should all take a page from our previous generations and think more about what is good for this country and less about what is good for ourselves. After all………if the country is on it’s way down, it will not be long before we are all affected in one way or another.

What scares me is all the knowledge that has been lost between then and now. Most young people do not know how to grow their own food or be self-sustaining in any form. If things get as bad as the Great Depression a whole lot of people are going to be in a whole lot of trouble.

What a wonderful story. We as a people are so spoiled. We forget how lucky we are. Although it’s going to be difficult, I think this crisis is going to be good for us. As a result, we’ll be better off; more prepared to tackle difficult issues.

Thank you for reminding us Walter. God bless you. And God bless all the people who are struggling right now. Don’t give up. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We can do this if we work together.

I saw where Jason commented about having “air conditioning and heating” necessities today that they didn’t have in 1929. I’m sorry, just because we’ve gotten used to that doesn’t mean it’s any more of a necessity today. It’s still a luxury. I’m coping with rising heating costs by building my own solar panels which circulate fluid into the foundation.

People have gotten soft and are quick to complain these days. What ever happened to the pioneer spirit that settled the West? Where did these people come from that complain so much? I hope we do have a major awakening in this country so we can realize we’ve taken so much for granted.

I don’t think it’s fair that consumers have to suffer for big businesses, do they not understand that we the consumers made them who they are and allow them to live rich lives while we live poor. Why the government didn’t act sooner ato bail out homeowners? Yet they run to the aid of big businesses.

He had me until the end. What does being frugal and getting by with less have to do with praying? You should put less faith in God and more faith in man’s ability to adapt and do without. Lack of personal responsibility is what got us into this mess, and far too many people are willing to put blind faith in God ahead of their own ability to change things. I’m not anti-religion, but please, this is not a matter of “prayer”.

This was a very touching piece of history. It is a reminder that we are so spoiled this day and age, ourselves and our children. It made me very sad and a bit envious that our children won’t have those kinds of memories. It is with struggle and the lack of material goods that really build character.

I’m 26 and often wonder what I would’ve been like growing during the Depression or WWII. This piece lets me see the world I never knew. Thank you for sharing.

I’m glad he at least didn’t claim Obama as the next savior of the nation. Thank God for not bringing that up.

It is annoying for todays generation to even begin to equate what is currently happening in our economy to the turmoil which Walter lived through. We have it easy right now compared to what the Great Depression of the 20’s & 30’s was. Unemployment was at 30%!! Ours is what, 6.5%? There was no capital flowing in the economy in the late 20’s. I saw a report the other day of the lines out the door for the new Blackberry Storm phone. The problem we have today is poor news reporting by a media driven by headlines and scaring the populace. Things are bad, but please, ask Walter, or call my Grandmother and tell them how bad you have it, and they’ll probably chuckle and begin telling you a REAL story of hardship.

Thank You. You are an inspiration that we all may need.

I grew up in Western Oklahoma to a family that survived not only the Great Depression, but, simultaneously, the Dust Bowl. Our family survived the worst drought and famine in our nation’s history and are stronger for it.

This crisis will pass, and ultimately, we will be a stronger nation for it. We NEED the occasional correction in order to put our priorities back into perspective. Family and friends are so much more important than finding a way to get that latest pair of Jimmy Choo’s.

We have become a caricature of ourselves and we must recreate the sense of character,compassion, toughness and hope that Americans have represented throughout the world.

Do people still believe that FDR helped us rise out of the Great Depression? I honestly can’t think of a single action on his part that didn’t prolong or worsen the depression, when seriously held to the test of cause and effect. And I’m very much afraid that an Obama administration holds FDR as a good example. I’ll recommend one book: FDR’s Folly by Jim Powell. See also the fun diversion: areyouacapitalist.com.

Thank you, Mr. Stoiber!

As a 46 year old single mom facing what’s inevitably coming for this great country, and anxious on so many levels about it – you reminded me very clearly of the stories told and lessons learned from my grandfather, who also lived through the Depression on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Having been raised by ones from “the greatest generation,” I am grateful for the wisdom and strength I have inherited. I can also see the fortitude in my teenage kids (both of who are named after my dear grandaddy). I can do this, we can do this!

Thank you again, Mr. Stoiber!

Wow, it sounds like the Great Depression was drawn by Norman Rockwell! As a youngster, I don’t think the author really “experienced” the Great Depression. The Grapes of Wrath don’t sound so upbeat. But it is a very nice positive piece that can give everyone heart in these hard times!

Well-done Mr. Stoiber…thank you.

My parents died last year at the ages of 86 and 87. They shared many of their survival techniques for the depression, and they have come back to mind (and practice) many times recently. For example, this thanksgiving our turkey carcass will go in the crock pot with veggies for soup.

One of my favorites: my mom grew up in S Dakota and survived the Dust Bowl. Her mom found an abandoned car, and patiently cut out the fabric headliner with a pen knife. She then made a patch for the hole in the center from the dome light, and the family then had a much-needed blanket.

With peace, JMarie

Isn’t it funny how he mentioned at the end of the story about on the back of a dollar bill “In God We Trust” and yet TODAY we have so many trying or wishing those words could be removed. God please forgive us.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story! I often wish I had the ability to stretch a dollar, I grew up never learning that ability, and have always spent more than saved. I worry about my own kids who think they can have anything they want, just ‘use the card, Mom’. I’m trying to teach them to save and not have the nicest things. It seems life in 2008 has been teaching me a lesson I never learned, I am now watching every dollar and actually enjoying not spending so much.

I loved this story. I grew up in Duncansville PA about 4 miles from Altoona. It is amazing to hear how people survived the Depression. Altoona still suffers. The railroad business is down, the U.S. steel business is down, the economy in Altoona is still not good. But the people who live in that area are supportive of one another and go out of their way to help each other.

In God We Trust was first used on paper money in 1957 when it appeared on the one-dollar Silver Certificate. I’m not sure if he was insinuating that the bills of 1929 contained this phrase, but I just wanted to point that out.

I also grew up in Altoona, PA during the depression years. It was certainly difficult for the adults but, on reflection, a great time to grow up. I don’t remember being “poor” since all of us kids were in much the same boat, as it were. Most Altoonan’s were working people with relatively few wealthy and relatively few very poor prior to the depression. The main source of employment was the Pennsylvania Railroad and smaller enterprises such as the Silk Mill in Juniata.
MY Father, “Ted” Brehman also worked for Penn Elec, the local power company and those who worked there kept their jobs by agreeing to take half pay during those trying time. Us kids, however, played baseball in a city that is still baseball crazy with a team in each Ward of the City, we swam in Ivy Side Park (now the campus of a branch of Penn State University, we hiked, played tag, cowboys and Indians, and, in general, were very active physically and walked long distances, mostly uphill, this being Altoona which laid in a valley surrounded by mountains. Many of the dishes that I recall so fondly, were, in retrospect, actually my mother’s effort to spend as little as possible for food.

In this age of the nuclear family with few relatives nearby, broken marriages, no wide circle of friends, no membership in organizations such as the Masons, Kiawanis, etc., no farming relatives to turn to for food, no real sense of neighborhood such as we experienced,
I fear that it will be much harder.

Thanks for your wisdom and shared experience Walter. There is a lot for America to learn.

All things aside – Walter, you look GREAT for 91 yrs young!

We owe much to Walter and the previous generations who taught Christian values and instilled honesty and integrity in raising their children. The Norman Rockwell world is past.

For those who think we are going to “tighten belts” and work through this crisis, listen: This is Revelation 18. Before this is over, the world will be under martial law along with all the Big Brother scenarios that people once feared. There will be real hunger and suffering in the USA on a scale that will make the Great Depression seem like the good old days.

Give Obama credit for trying, no pun intended. But if you want to make it, get out of debt, prepare to live without money, and be right with God.

Hi Walter, your story helps those of us who were born in plenty and raised in boom years understand that this, too, is surmountable and shall pass. I’m going to pick up my old bike from my parents’ house this Thanksgiving weekend (put a new chain on it) and ride that to work from now on.

The Great Depression was a farce! It is a lie concocted by the Federal government who has transcribed fear into our history books for decades. Guys like good ‘ol Walt here are senile old coots who take government handouts to spread the lies and fear! Don’t listen to the lies people!

I love these old stories to remind us all of our roots. I wish my kids could even begin to fathom what our grandparents went through. Thank you sir for reminding us. I know that I would make it, but I don’t think 95% of Americans today could make it through a time like that.

Thanks so much for sharing your story. It’s really a wonderful reminder of what’s important in life.

This is much appreciated! Although we do not want the pain associated with the Great Depression, the perspective gained during that time is needed now. My generation (Xers) is not willing to give up luxuries, and the Boomers seem intent on bailing everyone out without making changes. We need to become the great generation that Walter belongs to!

I believe everyone is a survivor – it is our strongest instinct. And sometimes it is good for us all ( kids and adults alike ) to learn important lessons about saving and making-do and remembering what are truly the important things in life. HOWEVER, it would be a great mistake to get sidetracked into romanticizing ourselves as heros, when a great crime has and is being committed by an elite few, and instead of holding them accountable, we are apparently giving them more golden parachutes and bonuses. This group ( the Friedmanites ( have been destroying economies and millions of people’s lives for the past 30 years. They have intentionally silenced ( murdered ) many who have fought against them, and murdered many more through their “free-market” policies which have left many countries suddenly impoverished after their mandates have been forced upon them. Since when do we think it is alright to set murderers free ? And for god’s sake, since when is it ok to REWARD them for their crimes ? Don’t understand what I’ve written ? Read ‘The Shoick Doctrine’ by Naomi Klein, and look around you – listen to peoples’ stories!

Thank you Mr. Stoiber! This country needed to hear this. The simple things are what matter and hard times show people that they are not the only ones that matter. Faith (GOD), family and friends will get someone through anything.If only this country had the values of yesteryear that your generation had. America could be great again.
I’m afraid that should this economic crisis worsen as it did in the depression, people wouldn’t handle it with dignity. GOD help us all.

I feel guilty nitpicking such a great story, but I wanted to point out that the words “In God We Trust” weren’t added to paper money until the early 1950s.

MY DAD, GRADUATED FROM DAYTON, PA. HIGH SCHOOL, ALSO IN 1935. ONLY THING THAT SAVED THE FISHERS WAS THAT MY GRANDPA WORKED ON THE RAILROAD, AND LUCKILY IT KEPT ROLLING. I LEARNED THRIFTINESS, AS YOU CAN IMAGINE, FROM MY WONDERFUL FATHER, BECAUSE HE REMEMBERED. AND READING WALTER’S STORY WAS SUCH A BLESSING TO ME. THANK YOU FOR HAVING IT PRINTED.

What wonderful insight! Thank you for sharing.

Appreciate the story, but the message for this crisis should be: if you don’t have the money, don’t spend it. But if you do have the money, SPEND SPEND SPEND!

My father and mother worked very hard to support us 4 kids. We used our imaginations and creativity and had fun. We didn’t have every toy or gadget on the market.We were happy with what my parents provided for us.Dad sometimes worked 2 jobs.We got gifts on Christmas and birthdays. Praise for good grades. Money, cars? never. We had to get jobs and work hard to earn those. I think today’s generation is money hungry and are not satisfied unless they are on top.Everything is money to them. Very materialistic, and overly competitive.Keeping up with their peers, and if they can’t they are outcasts. The greedy get greedier..

What a wonderful article! I’m going to send it to my friends. It’s so true that we don’t need all the things we’ve grown accustomed to. We just need God, family, friends, and each other. Thanks, Walter!!

There is a huge difference in the people who lived though the great depression and the generation of today. That previous generation were tough, had grown to work hard, did not expect anything from anyone and learned to go without. Today’s generation is soft, demand that other fix their problems, refuse to take personal responsibilities and would rather go into debt that go without.

Today, people would rather spend 40k on a gas guzzling SUV than a 8k second hand vehicle or even a 15k new vehicle. Even when in debt, people will stil buy their 56″ flat screen TV or continue to pay for their cable service.

Today’s generation could not handle a great depression and if one comes, I will be stocking up on ammo to ensure I can defend my family.

“We’d get a wooden soap box from the grocery store, a three-foot piece of 2×4, and a pair of old roller skates. Soon we were set to go.” [As I remember it (and I do, rather fondly) a pair of roller skates would make TWO scooters.]

We all learned a lot from those times, but there aren’t many of us left with that memory. In a way that’s too bad.

My grandmother just turned 94 last month. She has often told me stories about when she was a teenager during The Great Depression. She said that her family was fortunate, her father was a sharecropper in south Alabama. He was able to grow some of the food for his family as well. Almost everything they had they made. I asked my grandmother once did they take any trips to the beach in Panama City, Florida. She laughed and said, “All we had was a mule and wagon. We weren’t about to ride it for an hour and a half just to go to the beach and then back again.”

Walter suffered, but this is nothing compared to stories I’ve heard, from poor people. A bike? Candy? That would be unheard of. My parents and grandparents struggled for food. Anyone ever hear of “coffee soup?” That was a staple for my mother, a young girl during the depression. People were starving. Compared to them, Walter had it easy.

And Mr. Corporate Director who posted: no, it is not the public’s fault for being “weak.” And why promote this attitude of “see, they suffered through it, so can you.”

What an inspiring tale. It just goes to show that there is so much that we have in our lives that we take for granted. Much of which we don’t even need, and yet we still complain.

If things eventually get as bad as they were when Walter was a child, I only hope that I can learn as much from the experience as he did. You really learn to appreciate the important gifts in life when you go through a time like that.

I don’t wish for another Great Depression but I hope that if I live until 91 I will have a story to tell as inspiring as the one I just read.

Thanks Walter.

Thank you for reminding us of what is important and what we can do without. We don’t NEED our satellite dishes, our IPods, our fancy stereos, Blockbuster or Netflix. We can go to the library for free internet and, gasp, a book to read for entertainment, or borrow a DVD to watch. We could all do with a lot less, but choose not to. In these troubling times, we just might have to. And, guess what, we’ll survive, maybe even thrive, as we realize what is truly important.

Wonderful story about the Great Depression from someone who actually lived it. I would like to see more of these stories, they may help us understand more of what is going now. Thanks again. Happy Thanksgiving.

Although I realize the message that was being conveyed and found myself nodding in agreement for most of his anecdotal, feel good stories he lost me in the last 4 sentences. His statement that he wouldn’t part with the experience of living through the great depression, a statement which sounds as odd as it is, and the rest of the article, makes the assertion that if we were to go through a great depression today it wouldn’t be all bad. I mean think of all the great stories you can tell! There are many reasons, which I’m sure doesn’t escape even the most dense of readers why a great depression would be bad, very bad.

Having very close grandparents in their 80’s and hearing their stories about how they grew up as young kids during the great depression was actually pretty horrible, a statement they themselves have made on several occasions gives me other impressions of that horrible time period. It wasn’t a fondness for that time period that is stirred in them when they recollected the things that happened at that time but rather a feeling of “I don’t know how we made it through!” Neither of my grandparents’ large immigrant families believed in accepting any support from the government and never took any money from it out of principle (of which both families were and still are in the case of my still living grandmother, staunch Democrats). This along with the fact that it was undoubtedly harder for fresh off the boat immigrants to find jobs in that time period then some would also make life tougher for some then others.

I’m sure his parents were living a life they never wish they had too, his father losing his job a few times, then his fathers death which led to the loss of their house and the fact that his mother then had to enter the work force, which was undoubtedly hard for women at that time considering the sexist ethics of that time period. Perhaps a somber message of how both he and his family lived through it but hopes that we can work through this recession and see our great country rebound back to when we had even greater prosperity.

We were all dooped by these big wigs into putting our money into Wall Street. Now people’s retirement money is all but gone. We most definately will all have to make changes in our lives. Since both my husband and my parents are divorced and re-married, we worry about who will go where. We know that in all reality at least one of our parents is going to end up with us because retirees cannot live any more on the money they had… the money got sucked out in the stock market… I think I like the lesson of “Its a game they didn’t care to play” speaking of wall street…
I am so glad this country elected Obama. I really think that he can help put us back on the right track. I know it will take time, but I really believe he wants to help us…

I truly appreciate this story, it certainly gives us perspective. My parents, who were already poor in 1928-9, both were forced to drop out of high school, in order to help feed their families. They survived, although the story they shared with me revealed more challenges than triumphs.

One thing that’s clear throughout is the compassion, brotherhood and kinship that people felt in trying to survive those rough financial times. As Walter stated “…She got vegetables from other families in our neighborhood…Our butcher would give us soup bones (leaving a little meat on it), free of charge”.

Times are dramatically different now. I doubt you could ask the butcher at SuperWalmart for soup bones, or your local grocery chain for veggies. Compassion isn’t a prized value as it was back then, and the spirit of kinship has all but disappeared.

I keep hoping that events of recent years will pull us together, both tragedies and triumphs, so we can, as a country, regain those values.

for 91 you look great………..its funny that when push comes to shove you seem to find a way…………..its just that because of all the greed that got us in this and they go scott free and re-elected that it just doesn’t seem to sit right and they should be able to do something about it ……look at all the dam money these ceo’s took from us

Phenomenal perspective. Walter represents what has been lost by much of America and our governement especially, accountability! We have such a high consumer debt rate because so many US citizens believe that it is absolutely acceptable to continue to owe thousands of dollars in credit card charges, while charging another thousand before even half of the previous debt is paid off!

It’s also a big reason for the current real-estate housing debacle, and govt. bailouts, and etc. And unlike the Great Depression in Walter’s time, our govt. has not let all of these public owned financial institutions on Wall Street fail. And in the end, we the tax payers pay for it all, while still losing our jobs by the thousands with no relief in sight. Walter had something that has been lost in America from the Govt down to many American citizens, accountability.

A person would have to be a moron to think that americas’s spending and savings habits won’t need to change in order to turn this country around for the better. Some things really are not necessary for your life to function well, and sometimes it takes a disaster of an extreme magnitude for people to realize that fact, and start using fiscal and congnitive common sense.

What a beautiful passage. Being humbled hurts, but it strengthens our character and makes us focus on things that truly matter. The beauty of those days where that people had a moral grounding and learned what to cling to when things got bad, i often lose hope with our current society that we would not do the same, but there is always hope.

this is a quick reply to the “Things are different today. One thing Walter did not mention was how much they paid for electricity…” comment below.
You must live an incredibly cushy life to not even be able to consider the posibility that you may have to do without these things for financial reasons.
I have seen people today, living with out any of the comforts that you mention.
You may want to try camping for a week or something that can help you grasp the difference between want and need.

I am only 71, but I can compare some of my experiences growing up with the writer. I remember when my Father went off to war (2nd World War) and my Mother had to go to work. We lived with my Grandmother, who was also working. Most things were rationed, if you even had any money to buy them – sugar, coffee, gasoline, etc. During those years, my brother and I would get a new pair of “tennies” in September when school started, and by the next summer we would go barefooted because the shoes had too many holes in them. I started working when I was 12 years old at Playland Park operating a children’s ride. I’d work four hours each weekday after school and 12 hours each day on the weekend for 25 cents an hour. Of course we didn’t have a television or air conditioning or even a radio. My Grandmother would let me listen to programs on her radio on Sunday afternoon – Like “The Squeaking Door”, “Amos and Andy”, and “Dagwood Bumsted”. The funny thing is that I didn’t really know that things were so bad. It wasn’t until later in life that I could look back and compare with how things got later in my life. I have never tried to live above my means though, and have taught my children to always try to be prepared for “a rainy day”. It makes me sad to see our nation suffering from the actions of a few. The world has enough wealth for everyone, if only there were leaders who were strong and wise enough to be compassionate to all. What is wrong with taking only your fair share?

This generation, steeled in hardship, won the peace in WWII. It is hard to imagine that there will ever be a greater generation.

I hope we find our hardships today will teach us tolerance and reliance, and that just placing a bumper sticker on our car does not suffice for involvement or caring.

Thanks Patricia and many more thanks to Walter.Reading his rememberances made me remember the many conversations I have had with my parents and grandparents,all of whom lived and learned through those hard times.God bless them and you too!

I know this is late, but I hope it gets printed.

I think the problem in today’s American society is the breakdown of family. It has become fasionable to have babies without being married, which causes kids to grow up without the benefit of a family unit. Even for those lucky enough to have a mom & dad in the same house (still married!!), with the advent of the internet and later the i-Pod, they become more and more isolated and withdrawn. They no longer interact with each other face to face….everything is done in the cyber world, and it causes social awkwardness.

I recently returned from Morocco, and even though it is a third world country, everyone pretty much looks out for their fellow man. If you go to someone’s house, they will ALWAYS make sure you have something to eat or drink, even if it is 1 cookie and some water. It’s the gesture that matters. They want to make sure that you are treated well as their guest. I think we need to get back to our basic humanity. Care for our elderly parents with compassion and love, not irritation or act as if they are a burden. There are no nursing homes in Morocco….you take care of your parents at home, where they belong.

I think the economic crisis is very frightening, but at the same time, perhaps it would force people to live together again (families), and in that they may find some piece of compassion they thought had long ago died. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

This should be read by everyone…the people who will make it, and be better off are the ones that change with the times and understand that all of the extra’s are not that important. Look out on any street and half of the cars you see are new or made within the last 2 years, we are in debt as a country.

Amazing. Thank you for your story!

This was a Great article. It’s nice to know that on occasion we still give a voice to those who have the most experience. Thank you for posting it.

While one guy thinks that the 20s and 30s were simpler times because people didn’t have A/C to pay for, I disagree. Things were different, but not more simple. True, your electric bill wasn’t as much, but you’d be paying the ice man to keep the icebox cold (though you’d still have less time until spoilage), and you’d be running multiple electric fans (which used electricity less efficiently than today’s fans) all over the house. Gas was cheap, but cars needed more frequent maintenence. More importantly, time is money. We pay for modern conveniences because they save us time. If you don’t have the weekend to devote to mowing your lawn with a push-mower, you’d pay a kid to do it. Your wife didn’t have the option to pursue a career, because the housework was a full time job (sorry, full-time moms of today, it no longer is — now get off the computer and back to watching The View).

How are unsubstantiated inflammatory comments like this tolerated, no less commonly accepted:

“brought about presumably by “the powers that be” on Wall Street and in the upper echelons of the federal government. A classic display of selfishness, greed, and politics”

This is just some cavalier random call to revolution. I understand that not everyone is familiar with the math involved in the details here, but when the hands that fed us all suddenly have trouble and can’t hand out the jobs, capital gains, and unwarranted spoils we’ve all been enjoying, it seems unappreciative at best and actually downright dangerous to suddenly lambaste all the ‘people on wall street’ who have been propping up unskilled labor and spending excess for years. If Morgan Stanley had done anything close to the analog of a $40k/year family taking a $400k ‘cash back’ loan to live in a $350k house they would have gone under in moments.

I wonder if Paulson, Bush, Obama, and Bernanke will ever feel the economic heat? Wasteington, D.C. is full of losers. The best and brightest are in the private sector leaving the scraps for the American people to salivate over (next up to bat O-Ba-Ma!).

This is a great article and actually shows the ability for people to adapt to their circumstances, and provides great perspective on the personal side of bad economies.

The comments are interesting when you start to see opinions like: “Our young people have no idea of what it takes to survive under such circumtances. (sic)”, “They are much different than the college student of 10 years ago.”, and “kids expect several hundred dollars worth of Holiday gifts.”

There seems to be an opinion that generations are immutable. They are one way and won’t change. Well, todays kids and adults are just as capable rising to the challenge and learning to do more with less, as kids and adults in the 1920s/30s were. And that is what we should take from this example, we will adapt and navigate this financial crisis on a personal level. Will it be fun? Probably not. But we’ll remember it as a shaping event for America, just as Mr. Stoiber does.

America will rise again like the Pheonix.

My response: we who came of age during the Reagan era made our mistakes during the 1980s that helped put us in this mess. We thought only about “me-phi-me” and voted for the wrong guys and the wrong economic policies. Granted, we’re paying for it now and perhaps nobody will say that those of us who came of age can be counted as “the Greatest Generation” but does that mean we cannot learn from our mistakes and just go down in history (if judgment day doesn’t come soon enough to erase all history) as the worst? Nope. I don’t buy that. I don’t agree with the idea that ours is a generation that only takes the easy way out and is only concerned with instant gratification. I wholeheartedly believe we still have time to do the right thing. Granted, some would say whether rightly or wrongly that the Great Depression was a much simpler time than our own, but conquering that which faces us would make us “the Greatest Generation” if we learn from what that generation did to survive world war as well as the Depression.
Keep in mind to avoid romanticizing the so-called “Greatest Generation.” With all due respect to those who did the right thing, not all of them did. While that generation did conquer war, Great Depression, racial injustice and other evils, some participated in those evils. There were just as many in the so-called “Greatest Generation” that fought to keep segregation as there was that fought against it; there were as many Nazi sympathizers and collaborators as there were those that banded together to fight against the godless forces of fascism. Likewise in our time there are those that believe that ours is a nation of “whiners” and that the crisis we face is all “in the mind;” some favor the Iraq debacle as there are those trying to stop it; as many think the environmental problems we face are “the biggest hoax” ever played on the American people as are among us that are trying to prevent more drastic climate change.
Still, these past few weeks give me optimism I share with that professor.

I read this with a full heart and tears…at 56 I know we must all sacrifice and work together or we will all suffer together.

This is agood time for we Americans to take stock of our life styles.

Stop buying and start saving and then maybe you won’t have to lament the bad times the next time they come around.

Because when you learn to save, you learn to set your expectations at a more realistic level.

Contrary to what the marketers preach, debt is not a good thing to get into, if you can’t get out of it. There is no such thing as easy money.

Remember, anyone who wants you to part with your money is a salesperson: they are in it for themselves, and not necessarily in it for you.

Inspirational story. There were no bailouts in the Great Depression and yet GM survived just fine. To people who say that today’s problems were caused by greed, well, the Great Depression had a similar root cause. People were buying stocks on credit.

Great article. I hope we don’t go through a great depression, because our generation is ill equipped to handle it. I have no doubt millions of us, facing hardship and hunger, will still be buying that nice pendant from QVC, trying to eat out, and going to Starbucks daily.

These are the stories I appreciate hearing. It’s a perspective that serves us well as the future holds so much unknown.

I’m 45 years old, but I lived through some tough economic times in early 70s after my father lost a cushy sales job and then struggled but never regained his footing. It left a lasting, negative imprint on our family which never really recovered. I fear that this new economic crisis will tear at families who don’t have enough support, and aren’t likely to get it from their communities. Compare the social fabric of the 1930 to the 2000s. What I’m told, over and over again, by my elders is how things are different now, and I believe them. We have to do a better job or reaching out to people we don’t know in our communities and stop acting so scared of each other. We need more sidewalks and fewer highways. We need to see each other face-to-face on buses and trains. We have to rebuild our schools and stop pretending that market solutions are the solution to everything.

The same greed caused the Great Depression. Oh how history repeats itself.

I am pleased to read the History of Great Depression Narrated by Walter Stoiber and would request the coming generations to follow and believe the advise of ELDERLY PEOPLE AS THEY ARE MORE EXPERIENCED.
M.M.Sharma
M.Sharma@titan.com.eg

That’s nice. Both my parents went through the great depression. But I must say, everything he writes about we also did in 70’s when I grew up. So hard times are not just for those who may think that if you didn’t go through the depression you may not know how to survive and prosper.

My grandma always describes how her family wore out their shoes, and then put pieces of cardboard in the soles to cover the holes. People today have high standards and unrealistic expectations. We need to take a step back, take a deep breath and a good look at our lifestyles of excess. A good thing to come out of this may be that we all reduce, reuse, and recycle more! I love how he described using a baseball until the cover came off, and refurbishing an old bike-common sense and basic values-that’s why that generation survived. Thanks for sharing that story!

I think this is a great wake up call to our generation…a long overdue paradigm shift. If nothing else, our planet cannot continue to sustain our rate of greed and over-consumption. The new American ideal is an incredibly unhealthy one…unhealthy food, unhealthy habits, ie: way too much tv, video games, shopping and “impulse buying” as the new American past times. Massive SUV’s and Hummvees that get 3 miles to a gallon of gas, $5 lattes, $200 hair highlights and $300 jeans are hopefully a thing of the past. My neighbor spent $6,000 on Christmas gifts for her 4 and 6 year old kids so they can have “everything”. It’s disgusting. I’m sorry, but this country deserves whatever it has coming to it after this kind of gluttony.

Sanity at last.

Actually, by reading this account of the Great Depression, it does not look like his family had a hard time compared to folks in my family who had to stand in soup lines, and their children going to bed with hunger pains.

This is certainly part of the reason they are called the greatest generation!

Thanks for sharing such an interesting story that hit close to home. If more people would have listened to such stories of the past – maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in today. If, however, global depression continues to ensue, I hope to see the spirit of good-hearted people prevail as in the past. I wish your uncle the best of luck and good health in his future years.

THE BIG ONE IS COMING; WHY? THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT MAKE HUGE MONEY ARE THE POLITICIANS AND THE CROOKS.THE R. E. TAXES ARE TOO HIGH FOR THE WORKING PEOPLE TO PAY, JUST THE TAXES ARE ANOTHER MORTGAGE IN THE HOUSEHOLD AFTER THIS, ARE EXPENSES AND AT THE END NOT EVEN A DECENT JOB. SO THE BIG ONE IS COMING AND WHO IS THE ONE TO BLAME; THE CROOKS AND THE POLITICIANS, LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL POLITICIANS.NOW IS COMING THE “BAILOUTS” THIS IS THE FINAL “JOKE”
GOD BLESS THE U. S. A.
TONY G.

What a powerful story! We can all learn a little something from Walter. It doesn’t matter what you have, but who you have to surround you when times get hard. “Tough times don’t last but tough people do.” Greed has always been around, but it is a shame that it has overpowered the human spirit. Thank you for the inspirational story!

Part of the problem that is occuring now is due to automation and the modern factory. Factories (such as the one I work at) are mostly void of humans. Sure you see one now and again lurking in the offices staring at a computer screen. But the shop floor is bustling with activity – without people. Look at the footage of factories in the 40s and 50s. People everywhere earning a decent wage and paying their rent or mortgage.
As unemployment rises, so does the risk of another foreclosure. It’s a vicious cycle that will be difficult to break.
The human population will continue to grow. We need alternatives.

Thank you for this article! I still have both, my 92yr old parents with me. We need more stories about how ‘they did it’. They have so much to teach and we need to learn. Bless you and yours!

Interesting…FDR was elected in 1932 with lots of promises, just today. And yet, the Depression actually lasted until 1939. I think that, as Americans, we should be able to fix our problems in less than 7 years.

Great story and I like the man alot. But there is one problem with the idea of returning to simpler times and living within our means. The people who caused this mess in the first place are still sitting on their yachts and billion dollar bank accounts while we cancel our cable and eat scraps. I think I hear the faint sound of laughter coming from those yachts and mansions.

Great story! A close family that really pulled together. (I wonder if this generation of kids can get ‘back to basics’ and live without Wii, ipods, cell phones, etc., and instead play outside and make their own fun.) I wasn’t around for the Great Depression but it seems like the problems of this recession (depression?) are more complicated and will be harder and take longer to fix. Hopefully we can get through this one!

The problem is Walter, not many in America today are willing to do without, work hard, or even pray. Now everyone expects everything given to them. It is frightening.

Although I am only 30 and didnt experience the great depresseion, I did however grow up poor in a single parent home, I know what its like to live off of ramen and tunafish and sometimes nothing.

Im thankfull for my battle hardened childhood, my children now have no idea what it means to go hungry or do without certain things. My wife and I have been gradually withdrawing from some of the finer things of life like a movie once a month with the kids or eating out. I dont want it to be a shock to my kids systems when everything tanks and we go from doing alright to totally devestated and poor.

This christmas is vastly different then last year. My apprieciation towards money has been renewed. I remember last year I spend just under 100 for christmas decorations. I couldnt even contemplate doing that this year. I thank God for opening my eyes to this, while people are starving in my own community it doesnt make any sense to put up glorious decorations.

Christmas will have a new and refreshed meaning this year, as for me and my family God will be the main focus for this year. On thanksgiving I will remind my family why we are to be thankfull.

I’m originally from the Altoona area, though I now live in Utah. My grandparents talk about the Depression in much the same way you did. However, for those in Broad Top, things lasted just a little longer. My grandmother to this day lives like a depression is around the corner at any time. She’s always counseled against credit cards and loans and living beyond your means. I am proud to have listened to my Elders. I may be poor by some peoples standards, but this crisis really isn’t affecting me because I don’t have a house I can’t afford or investments that are trickling away. Its wonderful to read this article and get reminded of those lessons.

Thanks for the great story. We are in a better position today than 80 years ago. We know it is coming. So let’s prepare now.

Walter’s perspective is a gift. The most important things in life are independent of money. As for the current economy – as Shakespeare said; “Nothing is either good nor bad except that we make it so.”

Live with Intention
Dr Bill Toth
CreateYourFate.com

Can I adopt Walter as my grandfather? These are the people that we enjoy listening and learning from over a game of cards or a cup of coffee. They are the ones who can honestly say “Been there-done that”

I recall my parents who both are from Italy and grew up in Italy during WWII. When the Germans came, there wasnt enough food to feed them-and my father has a large family of 9 children. They made it..all of them. When I grew up my father would never let me throw away food that I didnt eat on my plate. I hated it then-but it sure makes sense now.

I am 60 but I paid attention when my grandparents talked. I read and I learned much through those stories. But, what we face today is going to be so much harder on average folks than it was in the Great Depression because we are so overburdened with credit card debt that those in the 1930s did not have to deal with, on top of losing their jobs. They lived in the same communities where they grew up, most times, and had relatives and long time friends to share the burdens. Our families today are scattered to the wind across this country and when push comes to shove, they are left to survive in isolation in their newly chosen communities. What will this society do if they have to give up cell phones, Internet, or television? Or with our suburban living, how will they both husband and wife get to work with one car? The school buses won’t be able to handle the new load of kids who might no longer have “front door” service from their parents. Kids might finally become more respectful and considerate if they learn life’s lessons by sacrifice.

This is a great article! I am 37 and can remember my grandmother talking about that time and how hard it was. I agree there are so many things we could do without and one has to wonder if it will get worse. I am married with two little girls and have been with my company for 15 years. At this point there is no extra savings and we have cut out the little extras. After this article I will be cutting back even more and hope that things will change for the better!

“In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected our 32nd president and brought with him a number of wonderful programs and signs of recovery.”

Garet Garrett and John T. Flynn, as well as others, did not think so.

It sounds like he handled that time really well. People need to pay more attention to the ways kids cope and learn from them, they adapt so easily.

I am appreciative that this was posted and that the poster got by just by managing to give up some things that at the time felt like needs. There were however many people who had much worse experiences during the Great Depression. I fear that some of us will forget how horrendous it really was for so many. My great-grandparents were forced to sell my grandfather as a small boy because they couldn’t afford to feed themselves, let alone him. I pray that it doesn’t get anywhere near that bad this time.

Thank you for sharing. I hope that this experience will prove as valuable for my generation (I am 28) as it has for yours.

I am so thankful for your story. My parents around for the Great Depression, and my grandparents weren’t around for conversation before they passed. I’m going to share this story with my children ages 12, 9 and 3. I hope my children won’t have to live through a depression, but I know like every other trial, we would make it through and somehow through the dark feel blessed for having had the experience. I feel I have a million questions about how families survived. Thanks for sparking my curiosity, HEA

Fantastic story.

It’s great to read about history from somebody that lived through the events. Right now, most people can use the reassurance that they will come through a negative economic downturn, and most importantly, will be able to resume a happy productive life. I’m 42, and I hope my generation, and the generations prior, come through this with the same dignity and class as the writer of the article. Maybe we will get lucky and not have to endure the same depth of hardship.

To the fellow that said he would fear his children playing in today’s streets due to crime doesn’t realize that when times are tough communities become more powerful than individuals.

Times of prosperity bring out the “I” and “Me” mentality. Tough times bring people together. Thieves and crooks would be banished in that environment more easily.

Outstanding Story. Want to hear more from our older generation, as this story gives one much hope. Our older generation have so much to teach us.

WE as a nation have failed to put God first in all things, along with other nations. We reap what we sow. Is it too late to turn our face to God. No.
The lesson is. Life is a moment in time, but one to be lived in consideration of others, not in self.

This story is so awesome… wonderful to read this first thing in the morning. Thank you!

What a great story about Walter and the tough times in American History. I can still remember my grandmother telling stories about the Depression. She used to say that they didn’t look at giving material things up as a sacrifice but rather as a commitment to their family and community. I do think alot of people will suffer during these hard economic times. I also think we will emerge stronger than ever with a strong sense of Patriotism, Community and family.

This story is really touching. Thanks so much for sharing it.

WE ARE SPOILED AND MOST COULD NOT SURVIVE.

I really enjoyed this article. It reminded me of my grandmother, who is 83, and the stories she told me about her life in the Great Depression. They would pick fruits off the trees and picked their own vegetables out of their garden to have something to eat. They eventually lost their farm house. But the morals and values of that time has stayed with my grandmother to this day. She is not frivolous with her money and still does not trust banks. She does not play the stock market and has hidden places in house where she keeps some money. Oh, I wish I could be like her! Maybe we can learn something from the “greatest generation” and pass it on to our kids and grandchildren.

I just finished reading “Little Heathens” by Mildred Anderson Kalish. This book was a memoir about growning up in rural Eastern Iowa during the Depression. This book rocked! It was funny, poignant and full of useful recipes and ways to live simple but productive lives. It is a fairly recent work, I found it on my local library’s New Non-fiction rack.

Nice story, however the words “In God We Trust” were not printed on the back of our paper money until the 1950’s.

Great story and a wonderful reminder of the strength and resiliancy of people. My own grandmother lived through the depression and had a favorite saying from those days, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

A great story from one of our greatest American generations. Happiness is not found in the quality of material things but how you use them. This lesson seems to be lost on the past few generations since the success of this man’s generation generated enough affluence so that they were never tested with real hardship. It is not surprisinig then that they lost sight of true values and what really matters leaving their children to clean up the mess they have made. People who face adversity seem to find and then rely on those values and become successful later. Others who fail the test and become criminals eventually get what is coming to them. The mess that our current leaders got us into has been long in the making and they are steeped in its culture. I doubt the same people have what it takes to pull us out of the huge mess they made. I suspect the next generation will have to be as resilient at this man’s generation was since I think the economic problems will nearly as crippling for as long and perhaps longer. I think it is better if the necessary corrections take place sooner rather than later since the pain will be greater the longer the federal budget and trade defecits are allowed to pile up by irresponsible leadership. Those tabs are going to have to be paid by somebody and the last few generations have been passing the buck to their children and grandchildren.

This was the most aspiring article I have read in a long time. It gave me hope and a sense of assurance that we will all be fine in due time. Thank you for sharing this article with us and may god bless you.

Amazing wisdom, Walter. Americans have always been great at many things . . . unfortunately consuming was one of those things. It has become the “god” in which we trust. Though I too would never want to see another Great Depression, America would undoubtedly benefit from a realignment of values – less consumerism, more community, less technology, more face-to-face conversations, less greed, more compassion.

Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Tape a ball up? Today we wouold just throw it away. I think our generation today are so materalistic what’s coming will be a great thing. We can live without alot of this crap they sell you all day long, everywhere you turn! Hold on my ipod is riging…

I also remember the depression and that my parents had a commodity in our house and we gave out flour & coffee and other staples to people who had nothing but the cloths on there backs . I rummaged in dumps to find scrap to get spending money. But just the same we were happy without much . Potato soup was a staple and if there was a little meat in it that was Thanksgiving .

What a wonderful story for people today. I am convinced that experiences like this are what have given the writer’s generation such strength of character. Maybe a financial downturn is not so bad afterall…somethings are more important than prosperity.

Thank you for this article! It has been nothing but doomsday in the news and even though were discussing the Great Depression, the main thing to take from this is we will make it. We will do what ever it is we need to do as a nation. And we will do it together!

For the record, “In God We Trust” wasn’t on US money during the Great Depression. It was added to the dollar in 1957 in an effort to create an image that God was on the side of capitalism and He was against those commies.

This isn’t a wake up call folks! It is the real deal. Erveryone is tip toeing around this and not wanting to alarm or scare the trading partners of the world. We ARE going into a depression. The world climate is cyclical (Dust Bowl Days again) and the Big Three can not be saved by tax dollars of those who are broke! You cannot pay off debt with debt. Remember we went OFF the gold standard and there is no gold to back up the monopoly money we use as currency. Oh and the thing about food being traded in the Great Depression? Well guess what America…we have outsourced our food to other countries to grow for us. Our money stops…so does our food chain. We dont live on family farms like in the 30s’ so we are going to have hunger and civil unrest because of no food for the masses. It is beyond greed. It was hyper-greed that has caused this. Stand by because the real fun will start in the next year and continue for years just like in the 30s. It is inevitable.

The money in the 30’s did have “in God We Trust” on them. In your day you didn’t need reminders to be PC from the government.

Back to the basics has been the story my father taught his 7 children all his life. Each one of my siblings were taught all about the depression. We were raised to know how to survive with out the extra’s. It’s amazing people forget history repeats. Ask the older generations and you will get through it. Thanks Pop!!!!

How true! I am sure we can always go back to basics in life to weather the storm. I just cannot accept the fact that we have to suufer because of the greed of some and who may be getting away without accountability.

I’m pleased to hear such great history from Walter, though I’m not ignorant to the struggles so many had faced during this challenging time in our history. I’m in my early 30’s, but appreciate the true struggles the average American faced during The Great Depression. My parents always taught me to work hard and never take anything for granted. Nothing is handed and everything must be earned.

It’s the simple things in life that matter the most. Good food, shelter, and the love of our family, friends, and neighbors.

Something has been lost in this great country which we live. So many are concerned about impressing others and maxing out their credit cards vs. being secure with themselves and understanding what true happiness and net worth means. Not to mention, many Americans are so ignorant to the rest of the world around us. There are people in this world fighting for drops of water and here we are overspending with our materialistic idealogies.

America’s ignorance and it’s debt have been a house of cards for the past few decades. It’s sad to see, but this correction has been long overdue. Sooner or later the ignorant, selfish, complacent, and greedy were going to face the reality. Today is their wake up call.

I’m a patriot of this country, so please don’t think I’m putting down America. I paid my way through business school, served in the military, and I’m a proud director of one of the world’s largest corporations. What this country needs is more people like Walter. People today in this country scare me. Very weak and sad.

I believe the fundamentals of basic living went out the door years ago. Today, kids expect several hundred dollars worth of Holiday gifts. I am always amazed around the holiday season because its common for parents to swipe their credit cards charging thousands of dollars, not thinking at the time that one day they’ll have to pay it back, maybe. Greed is the reason our country is in a recession. Going back to the fundamentals of basic living like Walter experienced will turn this country and our economy around.

Things are different today.

One thing Walter did not mention was how much they paid for electricity – if they had it at all. I doubt they had air conditioning, but how did they heat their home?

Today, we have air conditioning in the summertime (and heat in the wintertime, that’s a given). So the electric bill due to air conditioning is one expense we have today that he did not have then.

Today, we have electronic doodads, televisions and computers, that use electricity, and also require air conditioning as they really aren’t designed to operate in temperatures over 85 degree Fahrenheit.

Walter’s family may have had a radio, but they certainly did not have a television or a computer or the Internet. So there was no power consumption from those devices.

Today, we have telephones. Walter did not say they had a telephone, but it is probable that they did. He certainly did not get fraudulent telemarketing calls from crooks trying to steal credit card numbers or social security numbers or identity theft like we have now.

No television, maybe radio, most news came from newspapers or magazines that were shared and passed around. And these magazines weren’t the gross monsters like Vogue is with frivolous drivel throughout.

And did they have an automobile? He did not say, but even if they did, there was no frivolous driving, as gasoline was expensive. Tires were expensive. Cars were not as reliable then as they are now, so you just didn’t hop in the car and drive 150 miles, like I can do now to visit relatives.

And look at him – a thin man. That means he walked a lot when he was young, and walked a lot as he grew older, and probably does not eat food larded with palm oil or high-fructose corn syrup – two “foods” he did not grow up eating.

I know how my ‘ancestors’ lived during the Great Depression of 1929, I was fortunate to hear the stories before they died. They all considered Wall Steet a “game” they did not care to play.

And it was people like Walter and my older relatives who kept the laws in force that prevented the financial shenanigans that Wall Street cooked up in the last few years. Remember Senator Proxmire? After he and his colleagues in the Senate retired, the weasels made sure they got the replacement senators into their pockets.

And Phil Gramm was one of them. That guy refuses to realize his push to “deregulate” made most of this disaster possible, it allowed the con artists to create new games.

So the Great Depression of 2008 is starting, it is the story for the Baby Boom Generation to experience, it will be my story, and the next generation’s story to endure and put a stop to.

Take care of Walter, he didn’t create this mess. We need his perspective – please interview him on video.

Yes, things are different. We have more weasels to lock up than his generation did.

As a college professor, I am heartened by today’s college student. They are much different than the college student of 10 years ago. I believe that today’s young people will be the next great generation. They have no choice other than to rise to the challenge and, being American and young, they will succeed.

(p.s. Thanks for reminding me of my parents and their instructive stories from The Great Depression. Oh, how I wish others had listened to and learned from those lessons.)

I just wish that I believed that today a “butcher” would part with soup bones for free & that neighbors would share vegetables & that my kids would not be running the risk of getting shot by playing ball in the park or daring to ride a bicycle. Just the other day an elderly lady was beaten & nearly killed by a guy who pushed her off her bicycle & stole it.

Mr. Stoiber:
A nice story from a regular guy. I’m sure there’s a lot of physical things we don’t need, but since is all about instant gratification today and most working people never experiencing a moderate recession (its all baout the 40 somethings, right?), its not likely to happen until once again the leverage is taken away from us – like buying shares with debt in the 20’s. There is a large contingent of us who like to take the party too far, all the way to the end, usually until it gets ugly and the cops are called. I am confident, though, that this country can put its head down and turn it around. It going to take a while though, just like back when you were a kid. Debt is hard thing to shake.

Very nice…and reassuring. Times might get tough, but human resiliancy usually prevails.

A wonderful reminder that what really matters is the simple pleasures of day to day living. I’m 60, and my father taught me to tape up an old baseball to get more mileage out of it. I never had a new bicycle. I rode my father’s bike, and it was the coolest one in the neighborhood.

As I turn 80 I remember everything you wrote about. We too had difficult times. My dad was a garage foreman after the dealership closed it became extremely difficult to survive. If it were not for the neighborhood grocers extending credit we would not have. We learned the value of a dollar and what we could do with or without. During that time I collected and sold newspapers and returnable bottles that yielded enough to go to the movies which cost $.10 at the time.

My prayers are that we avoid a meltdown such as the great depression. Our young people have no idea of what it takes to survive under such circumtances.

This is my only comment I have ever made on these posts and probably will be my only comment. But I really felt moved by your words. I am encouraged by your testimony and I thank you for pointing out the flaws in the “powers that be”. God Bless

And that, fellow readers, is why they are called “the greatest generation.” I think we all need to get over ourselves, and get on with what must be done.

This is a wonderful, moving and reassuring columns. Yes, we all are being tested, but just like Walter, we wlll come through it.