great depression
In a time before computers and internet, a time when our nation was struggling with the Great Depression and its aftermath, the ability for people to get access to things like books was very limited…especially things like books. Due to the Great Depression and budget constraints, the American Library Association estimated in May 1936 that about a third of Americans no longer had adequate access to public library materials. That was when the government came up with a plan. The project was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program. It was called the Pack Horse Library Project. The idea was to deliver books to remote regions in the Appalachian Mountains, and it ran between 1935 and 1943. Women played a key role in a project that established 30 libraries serving 100,000 people. Packhorse librarians were often called “book women,” “book ladies,” or “packsaddle librarians.” This initiative provided jobs for about 200 people and brought books to roughly 100,000 residents in rural Kentucky.
Eastern rural Kentucky, a geographically isolated region, was largely cut off from the rest of the country. Before the Pack Horse Library Project, many residents in Appalachian Kentucky had no access to books, with an illiteracy rate of around 31%. The people in these remote areas knew that an education was a way out of poverty, but with no access, their situation seemed impossible to escape. What might have been a way out, was made nearly impossible because, while traveling libraries were established by the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1896, the lack of roads and population centers in eastern Kentucky made public library services scarce. In Kentucky, 63 counties had no library services at all during the early 1930s. The traveling libraries were completely discontinued in 1943.
The first Pack Horse Library was established in Paintsville in 1913 by May F Stafford, with financial support from local coal baron John C C Mayo. Unfortunately, that program ended in 1914 due to a lack of funding after Mayo’s death. Then, Elizabeth Fullerton, working with the WPA’s women’s and professional projects, revived Stafford’s idea in 1934. A Presbyterian minister in Leslie County offered his library to the WPA, proposing they fund workers to deliver books to people with limited access to library materials. His generosity led to the first pack horse library, initially run by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) until the WPA took over in 1935. By 1936, eight pack horse libraries were operating.
Books were rotated between locations, selected to match the preferences of library patrons. The libraries’ collections mainly focused on children’s books. Maggie Mae Smith, a supervisor at the Whitley County Pack Horse Library, shared how children would eagerly run to meet the book women, exclaiming, “Bring me a book to read.” The books didn’t just go to children either. For adults, the collection highlighted topics like current events, history, religion, and biographies. The Bible was a top request, along with “instructive literature.” Other 
favorites included Robinson Crusoe and works by Mark Twain. The women enjoyed illustrated home magazines and books on health and parenting. A unique feature of the collection was the recipe and quilting pattern books women compiled by jotting down their favorites into binders and shared across the community. While the pack horse librarians and their program weren’t the complete solution to the problems, they went a long way toward making a difference in a time when it was needed.
My grandpa, George Byer was, above everything else, a family man. His family was his top priority. Nevertheless, he and my grandmother, Hattie Byer were also givers, and over the years of their lives, especially during the Great Depression, my grandparents fed more people that even they will ever know. The Great Depression found so many people without work, and therefore without food. I don’t know exactly how it got started, but very few days went by without an extra mouth or two at the table. It wasn’t that my grandparents had a ton of money for extra food and no one else did, because that wasn’t the case. They would just add another potato and some water to the soup, and somehow no one ever went away hungry. The only explanation was that it was a miracle.
Grandpa was a man who understood miracles for sure, and he was a Christian man. He; his brother, Cliff; and a number of his kids even helped to build a church in North Casper. They always felt like that was their church after that. Putting your “blood, sweat, and tears” into a building like that would have the effect of a feeling of, if not ownership, then at least connection. Grandpa knew about construction and especially cement work, so it made sense that he would be one of the people involved, but this was not a hired job. It was a volunteer job. That takes a different kind of person…a person who is willing to work without pay to accomplish something for a good cause. That was the kind of person my grandfather was. It wasn’t a money matter, it was a faith matter, and Grandpa had faith. That showed in how many people he and Grandma fed over the years.
Grandpa was a man who knew that when you have a big family, and money is tight, you have to find innovative ways to entertain your kids. You also need innovative ways to gather things like herbs and such that will help feed your family. Grandpa and Grandma knew all the right things to gather, and the kids were taught not only the right herbs to gather, but also the value of working together toward a common goal. In addition, activity 
was different for them too, but there isn’t a one of them who didn’t feel blessed by the activities that got to participate in. My mother, Collene Spencer loved rocks all her life, as did all of her siblings. The family went rock hunting for fun, and it was very fun for all of them. They always felt like the most blessed family on the planet. Today is the 132nd anniversary of my grandfather’s birth. Happy birthday in Heaven, Grandpa Byer. We love and miss you very much.
Growing up during the Great Depression, my aunt, Virginia Beadle knew how it was to have little, and yet, her parents, my grandparents, George and Hattie Byer made sure that their kids had everything they needed. I suppose that kids of today would feel that they were somehow cheated, because they weren’t given everything they wanted, including the moon. The kids of the depression era mostly knew that they were blessed to have anything they were given. That is probably why my grandparents’ kids were very grounded in their philosophy on life. The times demanded hard work and giving.
They spent a lot of time outdoors, and they knew about things like foraging for herbs, hunting for rocks, and snakes to stay away from. When tested, so to speak, Aunt Virginia stepped out the front door of the house when she was living with her son Steve and his wife, Wanda. Then, she immediately stepped back into the house. She told the boys who were there, that there was a rattle snake by the front door, and she said it was huge!! The boys had no idea that their mom might know snakes, and they thought she was a typical girl, afraid of any old snake. They said it was probably a garter snake. Well, it wasn’t a garter snake, and Aunt Virginia wasn’t a typical girl who was afraid of a snake. After Steve had killed the rattle snake and cut off his head and rattle, he measured the snake. Steve is 5’8″, and just holding the snake up, it hit the ground when Steve held 
it just under his chin. That is a big snake. I’m sure they believed that she knew a rattle snake after that.
Aunt Virginia, like all her siblings was used to foraging and even, treasure hunting. One time she found a particular treasure that blessed the whole family, really. Aunt Virginia was about 8 or 10 years old. She was playing outside in the yard with her siblings. For some reason, Aunt Virginia decided to go exploring at the side of the house, between their house and Great Grandma Byer’s house. She looked at the little flower garden there and saw something shiny. She didn’t even have to dig for it. When she picked it up, she saw that his was a man’s wedding ring. Great Grandpa was long dead, and her dad, Grandpa George Byer, had decided to forego a wedding ring so that he could give his bride, her mom and my grandma, Hattie Byer a wedding ring. Obviously, this was an exciting, and quite likely valuable, find. Aunt Virginia took the ring to show her dad. Grandpa looked at it and told her it was a beautiful ring. He put it on his hand and looked at it. Then he took it off and gave it back to Aunt Virginia. She said, “Daddy, you should keep it.” He said he couldn’t, but she insisted, and that is how my grandfather got his wedding band from his daughter. Aunt Virginia was so pleased to be able to give her dad the wedding ring he 
had never had and would not be able to buy for himself, as there were too many other things that his paycheck was needed for. And Grandpa was so pleased that she wanted him to have such a beautiful ring. He wore the ring proudly for the rest of his life. And everyone in the family was pleased that he had been blessed with the ring. It was typical of Aunt Virginia, who was always a kind and loving person, and I can see how that ring made her day, as much as it did Grandpa’s. Today would have been Aunt Virginia’s 95th birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Aunt Virginia. We love and miss you very much!!
Following their service in World War I, veterans were given a veterans’ bonus certificates…basically an I.O.U. from the government. When the Great Depression hit, and many veterans were out of work, the certificates became essentially worthless…at least for the time being. That was unacceptable to the veterans, who had been promised a bonus, and now they really needed it.
As you would expect, telling people that the money they need today, will be coming to them down the road…eventually, is not going to go over well. In May, the so-called “Bonus Expeditionary Force,” a group of some 1,000 World War I veterans seeking cash payments for their veterans’ bonus certificates arrived in Washington DC. These men were unemployed and desperate. So began the protests by the “Bonus Marchers.” Most of the marchers were in 
financial straits, and they were either going to get paid, or they were going to go under. That was unacceptable for these loyal veterans, who felt that they were getting a bum deal. In June, more veteran groups spontaneously made their way to the nation’s capital, bringing the Bonus Marchers to nearly 20,000 strong. They were camping in vacant government buildings and in open fields made available by District of Columbia Police Chief Pelham D Glassford. The Bonus Marchers were demanding passage of the veterans’ payment bill introduced by Representative Wright Patman, and they wanted it passed now.
To their credit, the veterans conducted themselves in an orderly and peaceful fashion as they waited for the vote. Finally, on June 15 the Patman bill passed in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, two days later, it was defeated in the Senate, and the marchers were furious. They refused to leave the area. The government was trying to defuse the situation and clear the area, so they agreed to provide money for the protesters’ trip home, but 2,000 protesters refused 
the offer and continued to protest. Then, on July 28, President Herbert Hoover ordered the army to evict them forcibly. It was an order that would not end well. General MacArthur’s men set the protesters’ camps on fire, and the veterans were forced to leave the city. Hoover was increasingly regarded as insensitive to the needs of the nation’s many poor. He was strongly criticized by the public and press for the severity of his response.
Sometimes, what seems like a necessary change, and what might have been done with good intentions, ends up being far more detrimental than helpful. In the United States, from 1879 to 1933 our monetary system was based on and utilized gold. The lone exception to that was the embargo on gold exports during World War I. With the gold standard, creditors had the right to demand payment in gold. It was a stable and tangible source of income and payment, and it ensured that the borrower actually had the funds to make the payment. The bank failures during the Great Depression of the 1930s frightened the public, causing them to begin hoarding gold, making the “payment in gold” policy untenable, furthering the panic. On June 5, 1933, Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold, thereby taking the United States off the gold standard. That meant that our currency was no longer backed by gold. This may not have seemed like a bad solution at the time, but it certainly opened the door for a number of huge problems later.
President Roosevelt had seen how this worked when Britain was facing similar pressures, and they decided to drop the gold standard in 1931. So, when the Great Depression hit, Roosevelt decided to implement it in the US. Soon after taking office in March 1933, President Roosevelt declared a nationwide bank moratorium in order to prevent a run on the banks by consumers lacking confidence in the economy. At the same time, he forbade banks from paying out gold or to exporting it. He based his decision on the Keynesian economic theory, which states that one of the best ways to fight off an economic downturn is to inflate the money supply. If the amount of gold held by the Federal Reserve is increased, it would in turn increase its power to inflate the money supply.
With that in mind, Roosevelt, on April 5, 1933, ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 turned in for other money. The order required all persons to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve by May 1, 1933. In exchange, they were to be given $20.67 per ounce. I’m sure it seemed like a good deal, so the people complied. By May 10, the government had taken in $300 million of gold coin and $470 million of gold certificates. Congress two months later, enacted a joint resolution repealing the gold clauses in many public and private obligations that required the debtor to repay the creditor in gold dollars of the same weight and fineness as those borrowed. To complete the inflation process, in 1934, the government price of gold was increased to $35 per ounce, effectively increasing the gold on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets by 69 percent. This increase in assets allowed the Federal Reserve to further inflate the money supply. So, with a stroke of the pen, the Federal Reserve, and thereby the government increased their wealth by 69%…overnight.
The $35 per ounce value of gold held August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, thus completely abandoning the gold standard. Now I’m not an economist, but if I understand this correctly, it was at that point that the United States, as well as many other nations, began using what is known as “Fiat Money.” Fiat money is “a type of currency that is not backed by a precious metal, such as gold or silver. Fiat money is an intrinsically valueless object or record that is accepted widely as a means of payment. Accordingly, the value of fiat money is greater than the value of its metal or paper content.” It is designated by the issuing government to be legal 
tender and it was authorized by government regulations, which means that the government could decide what its value would be. That would render the money to be worthless. Not that it changed much in the amounts of Fiat money in use at the time, but in 1974, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that permitted Americans to own gold bullion again.
Being the oldest child isn’t always the easiest job. My Aunt Evelyn Hushman, my mom’s sister, was born on November 9, 1928…shortly before Black Monday and the beginning of the Great Depression. These were not easy times, and everyone had to pitch in. That isn’t always easy for anyone, but for the oldest child, it means helping to raise all the children born after you are, and when the family has 9 children, that’s eight children that you get to help raise. Granted, Aunt Evelyn was a little young to help much with her sisters, Virginia and Deloris, but she helped a lot more when it came to Larry, Collene (my mom), Wayne, Bonnie, Dixie, and Sandy…who was just three years older than her first niece, Sheila “Susie” Young. At that point, the cycle came back around, and some of the younger children got to help raise their nieces and nephews.
Aunt Evelyn loved getting together with friends, and even her siblings. She and Uncle George often double dated with my parents, and they later bowled together for years. Aunt Evelyn was a very social person, and loved gatherings. I remember the whole Hushman family coming to celebrate my mom’s birthday, which was on New Year’s Day, hence the New Year’s Eve party. We always had such a great time when the Hushman family joined in the parties, and I really miss those days very much. Because it was Mom’s birthday party, all the kids were welcome, and sometimes I wonder if our parents were half crazy having at least ten kids in the house at one time, and mind you, it was too cold to play outside, because it was after all, the middle of winter. Still, a great time was had by all.
My parents, Aunt Evelyn, and Uncle George also bowled together every Thursday night. They had a great time. I don’t remember what kind of averages they all had but I think they were pretty good bowlers. They loved spending time together, and bowling was a great way to do that. They were good friends all of their lives, and I know my mom couldn’t stand the idea of living without her big sister. Mom loved her so very much. I’m thankful they are together again in Heaven. Today would have been Aunt Evelyn’s 93rd birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven Aunt Evelyn. We love and miss you very much.
I never had the opportunity to get to know my Grandpa Allen Luther Spencer, because he passed away before my parents were married, and 4½ years before I was born. Life was not always easy for my grandfather. His first marriage ended in divorce, following the death of his daughter, Dorothy, which was quickly followed by the birth of his son, Norman. The loss of a child can be so devastating, that many people never recover, and many marriages fail. It was a dark time for him, until he met my grandmother.
After their marriage and four more children, Laura in 1912, Bill in 1922, Allen (my dad) in 1924, and Ruth in 1925, it looked like his life was on the right track again. Of course, like many other people, this good period was followed by the Great Depression. Thankfully, my grandfather was a carpenter (mostly for the Great Northern Railway), and as near as I can tell, had a job throughout the Great Depression. Still, times were tough, and I’m sure the wages were not what a family of six really needed to live. Most people struggled during the Great Depression.
My grandfather was a product of his circumstances, and the times he lived in, and the two things together created a stressful life for him and his second family. Much more was expected of the two older children, and feelings were raw at times. The younger two children really never remember his being so hard on them. Grandpa had specific ideas of things the children should learn and do. All of the children learned to play the violin and some learned the guitar. My Aunt Laura never really liked learning to play the violin, but the rest of the children did…or at least they did later. Grandpa Spencer may not have been an easy teacher, or maybe it’s just hard to learn from your dad.
No matter what kind of a man my grandfather was, and whether circumstances led to his troubles, his children loved him very much. Like any family, kids and parents “lock horns” sometimes. That doesn’t mean you don’t love them. When my grandfather was dying, my dad drove from Casper, Wyoming to Superior, Wisconsin, 980 
miles, in 17 hours. That might not seem like a big deal these days, but cars didn’t do what they can do now, and speeds were different then too. Needless to say, my dad made it home to see his dad before he passed away, and he was always thankful that he made the trip, and always thankful that he saw his dad one more time. I only wish I could have met him and gotten to know him too. I feel like I missed out, on my grandfather and my Grandma Spencer, who passed away when I was 2½ months old. Happy birthday in Heaven Grandpa Spencer. I look forward to meeting you someday soon.
My Uncle Larry was born during the years of the Great Depression, in an era of big families. He was the 4th child and first son of my grandparents, George and Hattie Byer. While times were tough, the one thing that George and Hattie had plenty of was love. The family was rich in that. My mother, Collene Spencer, followed Uncle Larry in quick succession, arriving when he was just 20 months old. Following Mom, Uncle Wayne arrived two years later. Their childhood would be spent as close friends and allies, along with the associated sibling arguments too, I’m sure. While I’m not sure how the boys felt about Mom tagging along in things, they didn’t really complain too much, and defended their sister when needed. For her part, Mom considered these brothers, the only ones she had, to be…maybe her charges too somehow. She might very well be prone to protecting them, whether they needed it or not, even against their mother…to her detriment sometimes, because it earned her the same punishment that Grandma Byer was dishing out to her sons. Still, my mom looked up to and loved her brothers. I suppose that to a degree, being the girl between the brothers made her a bit of a tomboy, but it also shaped her into the wonderful woman who became my mom.
Uncle Larry was a determined man, who wanted something better for his family. I believe that land ownership was a part of that desire. I remember wondering as a kid, why he and my Aunt Jeanette chose to live in the country. The rest of the family at that time, were city dwellers (though Casper wasn’t a large city) and it always seemed strange to me that they lived in the country. Lots of land, however, gave them the ability to have a big place to entertain, and outbuildings to pursue any other activities they might be interested in, such as ceramics. They proudly hosted ceramics sessions with any of the family who wanted to join in. Grandma and Grandpa Byer were some of those who loved going out to get their “Crafty Side” on.
All of my grandparents kids lived most of their lives in Wyoming, most of them in Casper, so when Uncle Larry took a transfer to Louisiana with Texaco, I remember being quite shocked. I’m not sure why I should have been, because my own mother had lived for 5 years in Superior, Wisconsin, where my older sister, Cheryl and I were both born. Still, at the time, I felt kind of shocked. The refinery where Uncle Larry worked, here in Casper, closed, and he wasn’t old enough to retire, so he could take the transfer or take a layoff. The choice was simple really. They mover to Louisiana and lived their until his retirement before returning to live the rest of his life in 
Casper, where both of their children, Larry and Tina both live too. I remember being quite happy when they moved back here. I felt like having the family back together again. My husband, Bob and I loved running into them on occasion, often at a home improvement store, where we were both looking for some new item we needed for our houses. When he passed away, I felt very sad that those impromptu meeting would now be over. Uncle Larry passed away on December 22, 2011, and I still miss him very much. Today would nave been Uncle Larry’s 86th birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Uncle Larry. We love and miss you very much.
These days, it seems we are all aware of what an emu is, probably due to the Liberty Mutual commercials that are out there, but in 1932 Australia, these were a nuisance bird. They were everywhere and they were not popular. In fact, they were running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia, and the public was very concerned. They had made several attempts to curb the growth of the emu population, including the Australian soldiers being armed with Lewis guns…leading the media to adopt the name “Emu War” when referring to the incident. While a number of the birds were killed, the emu population persisted and continued to cause crop destruction.
After World War I ended, the Australian government gave land to large numbers of ex-soldiers from Australia and the UK. The purpose of the gift was to take up farming within Western Australia, often in areas that had been counterproductive. When the Great Depression hit in 1929, these farmers were encouraged to increase their wheat crops. The government promised assistance in the form of subsidies, but later failed to deliver. In spite of the recommendations and the promised subsidies, wheat prices continued to fall, and by October 1932 matters were becoming critical, with the farmers preparing to harvest the season’s crops and threatening to refuse to deliver the wheat.
To make matters, the area was hit with the arrival of as many as 20,000 emus. This is apparently an annual event as the emus regularly migrate after their breeding season, heading to the coast from the inland regions. With the cleared land and additional water supplies being made available for livestock by the Western Australian farmers, the emus decided that the farmlands were a good, and closer habitat, and they began to foray into farm territory, especially in the marginal farming land around Chandler and Walgoolan. The emus began to eat and spoil the crops. In addition, they left large gaps in fences where rabbits could enter and cause further destruction.
When the farmers relayed their concerns about the birds ravaging their crops, and a group of the ex-soldiers were sent to meet with the Minister of Defense, Sir George Pearce. Something had to be done. Having served in World War I, the soldiers-turned-settlers were well aware of the effectiveness of machine guns, and they requested their deployment to fight this new enemy. The minister readily agreed, although with conditions attached: the guns were to be used by military personnel, troop transport was to be financed by the Western Australian government, and the farmers would provide food, accommodation, and payment for the ammunition. The farmers agreed and Pearce also supported the deployment on the grounds that the birds would make good target practice, while some in the government viewed the operation as a way of being seen to be helping the Western Australian farmers, as a way of staving off the secession movement that was brewing.
Sir George Pearce, who was later referred to in Parliament, as the “Minister of the Emu War” by Senator James Dunn, ordered the army to selectively thin the nuisance emu population…by large numbers. The “war” was scheduled to begin in October 1932, under the command of Major G P W Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery. Meredith was supposed to use troops armed with two Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, but the operation was delayed by a period of rainfall that caused the emus to scatter over a wider area. The rain finally stopped by November 2, 1932, and the troops were quickly deployed with orders to assist the farmers and, according to a newspaper account, to collect 100 emu skins so that their feathers could be used to make hats for light horsemen. On November 2nd, the men travelled to Campion, where some 50 emus were sighted. Unfortunately, when they got there, the birds were out of range of the guns. The local settlers attempted to herd the emus into an ambush, but the birds split into small groups and ran so that they were difficult to target. Nevertheless, while the first attack from the machine guns was ineffective due to the distance from the targets, a second round of gunfire was able to kill “a number” of birds. Later the same day, a small flock was encountered, and “perhaps a dozen” birds were killed.
The next significant event was on November 4th, when Meredith established an ambush near a local dam. More than 1,000 emus were spotted heading towards their position. This time the gunners waited until the birds were in close proximity before opening fire. The gun jammed after only twelve birds were killed and the rest scattered before any more could be shot. No more birds were sighted that day, so the decision was made to move further south, where the birds were “reported to be fairly tame.” The group had only limited success in spite of Meredith’s efforts. As the pursuit continued, it became apparent that “each pack seemed to have its own leader now…a big black-plumed bird which stands fully six feet high and keeps watch while his mates carry out their work of destruction and warns them of our approach.” In desperation, Meredith even went so far as to mount one of the guns on a truck. He was still ineffective, as the truck was unable to gain on the birds, and the ride was so rough that the gunner was unable to fire any shots, even if they had been able to get close. By November 8th, six days after the first attack, 2,500 rounds of ammunition had been fired. The number of birds killed is uncertain. One account estimates that it was 50 birds, but other accounts range from 200 to 500, the latter figure being provided by the settlers. Meredith’s official reported that there were no casualties among the men.
Summarizing the operation, ornithologist Dominic Serventy commented, “The machine-gunners’ dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month. On 8 November, members in the Australian House of Representatives discussed the operation. Following the negative coverage of the events in the local media, that included claims that “only a few” emus had died, Pearce withdrew the military personnel and the guns on 8 November.”
After the “Emu War” was over, Meredith compared the emus to Zulus and commented on the striking maneuverability of the emus, even while badly wounded. After the withdrawal of the military, the emu attacks on crops continued. Farmers again asked for support, citing the hot weather and drought that brought emus invading farms in the thousands. James Mitchell, the Premier of Western Australia lent his strong support to renewal of the military assistance. At the same time, a report from the Base Commander was issued that indicated 300 emus had been killed in the initial operation.
The killing continued periodically, with similar results. The Emu was just too fast, too aware, or too “lucky,” to be caught or killed. By December 1932, word of the Emu War had spread, reaching the United Kingdom. 
Conservationists protested the cull as “extermination of the rare emu”. Dominic Serventy and Hubert Whittell, the eminent Australian ornithologists, described the “war” as “an attempt at the mass destruction of the birds”. Throughout 1930 and onward, the farmers tried exclusion barrier fencing as a means of keeping emus out of agricultural areas (in addition to other vermin, such as dingoes and rabbits). In November 1950, Hugh Leslie raised the issues of emus in federal parliament and urged Army Minister Josiah Francis to release a quantity of .303 ammunition from the army for the use of farmers. The minister approved the release of 500,000 rounds of ammunition. The emu continues to thrive today.
No, I’m not talking of foods to eat when you are feeling depressed, although the Great Depression really did qualify as depressing. Nevertheless, as I was considering the days of the Great Depression, I wondered what foods the people had survived on, when money was scarce, and food was suddenly expensive…more so than these days, when you consider the lack of jobs and money. People were forced to re-evaluate their priorities and their food choices.
It was at this point that foods like Bisquick, Good Humor ice cream bars, Kraft macaroni and cheese, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Kool-Aid, Toll House chocolate chips, Ritz Crackers, and Spam appeared on the scene. They were inexpensive foods then, and they have never left us. To this day, some people call them “broke food.” In many ways, foods had to be more filling, more calorie laden, because you didn’t always get to eat as much as you wanted. That makes the calories important. Some foods became too pricey. Less expensive options on things became a must. Crisco was a less expensive option to butter, Oscar Meyer Wieners replaced more costly sausages, Maxwell House Sanka coffee was an option to whole bean coffees, Heinz Ketchup was used as the base for a simple tomato soup, Underwood Deviled Ham substituted fresh lunch meat, Carnation evaporated milk replaced fresh milk, Ground acorns became a substitute for coffee. People added chicory to extend the coffee supplies, while honey, molasses and corn sweeteners replaced sugar, because sugar was at a premium, and later on in World War II, it was rationed.
It wasn’t just the new foods that were strange, but rather what people made with some of them, that amazes me. Basically, foods changed from what we had known before, because fruits, vegetables, and meats weren’t as readily available. Things like meatless meatloaf and appleless apple pie appeared on the scene. Meatloaf became “anything” loaf…from meatless meatloaf made with everything from peanuts to raisins to liver loaf, families used their creativity and whatever was available to make this alternative to the weekly favorite. With a shortage of apples came the “mock apple pie” which substituted apples for crumbled crackers sprinkled with flavored syrup and cinnamon, all baked into a crust. The most famous of these recipes appeared on the back of the Ritz cracker box in 1934, the “Ritz mock apple pie” was an instant hit. Things like chipped beef on toast or waffles was also a staple, and one my mom, Collene Spencer picked up from her mom, Hattie Byer. Mom liked it so much that it was something we had from time to time. Basically, it used a little chipped beef and a lot of gravy. I can see how it would have been a staple in the Great Depression, because it was very filling. And of course, my personal favorite, and one I still love since my grandmother first made them for us, Potato Pancakes. Because of the wide availability and low cost of potatoes, Depression-era cooks used potatoes as substitutes in other dishes. Potato pancakes, made with grated potatoes cooked or fried in a pan, was a common dish at every meal. We loved them, and nobody made them like Grandma.
People foraged in their yards too. These days, many people drink Dandelion Tea or put Dandelion leaves in their salad. Of course, the dandelions we use today have to be carefully cultivated, because most of us try very hard to kill them when they spring up in our gardens. Weed killer would not make for “healthy” dandelions. Wild onions were also used, and were something I remember Mom telling us about. She loved them. Of course, people who knew about plants could forage for herbs that could be used for everything from seasoning to medicine. Most of us today don’t really know many of the herbs in the wild, although we might know them if we plant them from a seed.
Soups took on various new forms too. Mulligan Stew came about from those who were homeless, because it entailed putting in anything that was available. Some people actually went so far as to put lint in to make it more filling. “Tomato” soup even took on new forms, substituting Ketchup for tomato sauce. And they even managed to have dessert sometimes. Prune Pudding was founded during this time. Prunes were easy to store, 
widely available, and much less expensive than other fruits, while providing needed nutrients to the Depression-era diet. The fruit is packed with fiber and supplies almost one-third of your daily needs for Vitamin K. And it already had sweetness, so there wasn’t much to do, but heat it. While some of the foods of the Great Depression era where designed to fill people up, some managed to be nutritious too. Either way, some of the foods developed back then are still with us today, and there are still a lot of us who have had some of the recipes that were developed in those days, by our grandparents.
