Hard Times: Students Interview Survivors of the Great Depression and World War II

The decades of the 1930s and 40s are among the most critical in American history.  The Wall Street crash of October 1929 acted as a catalyst, throwing the American economy into  free fall.  By 1932 over a quarter of the American working population were unable to find jobs.  Others lost homes or savings.  Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal did much to mitigrate the worst of the suffering but it did not resolve the problem of jump starting the economy.  Recovery would not come until the second World War.   Suddenly Americans of the 1940s were faced with a new, more dangerous crisis, WAR.  But while we may learn about these momentous events through books such as The Grapes of Wrath or  movies such as Saving Private Ryan, we are not always aware of how these events touched the  lives of everyday people.  Oral interviews with survivors can help to remedy  that omission.  The following selections are taken from student interviews.
Students who interviewed survivors of the Great Depression and World War II found that hard times varied from place to place. The lives of farmers, who lived in tight knit communities and grew their own food, were little affected by the Depression. This was not true, however, for those farmers living in the Midwest who were driven from the land by drought and dust storms, so dense they were often referred to as black blizzards.[For further Information, see The Dustbowl] Unemployed citydwellers were often worse off.

Survival Tactics:

• People did what they had to survive the Great Depression. Clothing was made from feed sacks with thin strips of old tires cut out for elastic for the waist. [Chris B.] Mothers became resourceful in providing clothes for their children, making socks from thread for example. [Adande W.] Most kids wore overalls. If their shoes wore out, they would have to go barefoot for the rest of the year. [Emily E.]
• Food was another problem. No part of a chicken was wasted, even the feet and legs--"the little meat on the toes, we ate it all." [Jeff D.] People bought only the essentials--flour, sugar, bread & wasted nothing. Leftover bread was made into bread pudding. [Rachel H.] In one case, relatives told of slaughtering animals, putting them on the back of a trailer, taking them door-to-door, and cutting off whatever portion the person wanted to buy.[David F.] In other cases, families ate lots of wild meat--rabbits, squirrels, and birds. [Seth B.] Butter was expensive so they used a a lard-type substance, mixed it until it was fluffy, and added yellow food colorings. [Karen B.) So was meat. Families bought fatback since it was cheaper than lean meat. [Michelle B.] Often food was given away. But only by getting there early could people obtain food such as cheese and herring. [Julio F.]
• In cities, long lines waited at soup kitchens. [Chris W.] Families often took in boarders mostly traveling salesmen who would get three meals a day and all but one of the beds in the house. The kids all had to crowd into the one remaining beds. [Jeff D]
• Those in the Midwest found the "dust to be incredible and life a struggle." People killed cattle and burned potatoes in an effort to raise prices. [Chris W.]

Living Conditions:

• Few homes in the countryside had electricity before 1936. People still cooked on woodstoves and cooled their food in nearby streams [Shaun W.] Homes were heated by fireplaces and wood stoves. Washing clothes was solved by heating water in a cast iron pot and scrubbing them clean with a scrub board. The cast iron pot doubled as a bath tub. [Dena W.] Water from the well doubled as refrigerated space during the summer. [Chris B.] Cardrboard came in handy for worn out soles and for cutting off the drafts in the house. Tin tubs doubled as bathtubs and for making molasses. [Jennifer C.]
• Food was plentiful if you lived on a farm. Farm families enjoyed a variety of fruits and homegrown vegetables --corn, beans, cabbage, apples, pears and peaches, all of which were canned for later use. [Nadia W.] A typical farm breakfast might consist of creamed corn, fried potatoes, biscuits, butter and molasses. [Jerry D.]
• Typical prices included 15 cents for a pound of potatoes, ten cents for bread, and 5 cents for a pound of bananas [Heather L.] You could buy Oh LaLa for twenty cents. [Megan F.] You could buy a 1928 Model A Ford--on credit--for $450 and fill it up with gas for 15 cents. [Kevin L.] Two years later, in 1930, a new Ford cost $550 and gas 20 cents. [David F.]
• But even that was too much for some. Farmers who had purchased fertilizer for their cotton crops and expected to get 25 cents a pound found that the price had dropped to 5 cents, leaving them stuck with the bill for the fertilizer. [Emily E.] In 1928 one family had purchased a 47 acre farm but when the price of cotton dropped were forced to borrow money from a neighbor to keep the farm. [Jon B.]
• Despite the Depression, schooling was important. Many children attended rural two-room schoolhouses. Grades 1-3 were in one room, 4-7 in other. Boys had to pump water into a drum so that the lunch ladies would have running water in the lunch room. Toliets were outside. [Summer W.] High schools usually ended at the 11th grade. [Will T.]
• Large families, particularly farming families, were the norm, ranging anywhere from eight [Karen. B.] to nine [Nadia W.] to ten [Emily E.] to eleven [Bob B.]

Jobs:

• Unemployment reached new heights during the Great Depression. Many workers faced shorter hours, then layoffs. One father, who had lost his job as a coal mine, moved his family to New York where he and his wife found work in a shoe factory. His children also worked, cleaning house and picking strawberries for a neighbor. One day the neighbor made pancakes. The children thought the pancakes were for them but she opened the door and threw them to her dogs. As soon as she left, the children pushed the dogs out of the way and "swallowed the pancakes like air." Another daughter mopped and cleaned at a bakery. Often the leftovers that she brought home was all the family had to eat. [Roya Q.]
• People took what jobs they could to survive. One man used to drive around trying to find construction work. Jobs lasted anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks and paid 40 cents an hour, leaving him, he wryly remarked, at "the bottom of the (social) ladder." [Stephen W.] Others found they needed two jobs just to get by. One farmer supplemented his income by working in a coronor's office. [Bethany Ke.] . One man after losing his job on the railroad became a barber and an auctioneer. [Jeremy G.]
• Even if you were able to hold on to a job or were a farmer, everyone knew people in the community out of work. Near Shelby, North Carolina, the local cotton mill cut jobs; [Chris R.] in Murfreesboro, the local basket factory closed along with several other businesses; [Jason S.] in Cherryville, the mill slowed down and then closed temporarily. [Ryan Q.] Even owning your own business--a lumber mill for example, did not guarantee your livelihood as one man found who also worked as a land appraiser. [Bethany Kl.]
• Some did relatively well even during the Depression. One man who sold paint and brushes throughout New England was able to send his son to the University of Alabama. Tuition was $60 a semester. [Glynne B.] Another who had begun by priming tobacco from sun up to sun down landed a job at a Joint Stock Land Bank, a farm lending institution. In one of those "it coulda been me" stories, he had an opportunity to buy land for $12 an acre where North Hills Mall now stands. But like many in the cash-starved depression years, he had no spare cash for investment. [Kevin L.] Although one man saw his salary cut in half after 1929 and moved to a managerial job in a hardware store for even less money, he received hardware supplies as part of his salary of a $100 per month. [Jon B.] After selling honey to pay for his college expenses at the University of Richmond, a minister was able to earn $2000 a year by serving two churches. one service in the morning and the other in the evening.
• In reality, people were grateful for working at all. A brick mason found he could only pay his workers 35 cents an hour but added, they were "glad to get it." After the Depression, neighbors admitted that they had seen him throw scraps to the dogs but were too proud to ask for help. [Susan B.] One Lebanese family in New Bern, who sold newspapers and owned a gift and toy store, included two grandmothers neither of whom spoke English. [Will T.] One mother sold iron cords door-to-door. She also cut the hair of a man who paid her in fruit from the grocery store where he worked. Her husband too found work in a grocery store after he was laid off from the shipyard. The family kept warm with wood stoves but tired of building fires as a way of life. [Rhett D.]

Losses

• The loss of jobs meant hardships for the whole family. A coal miner, forced to give up his job because of illness, found work as a carpenter and handyman to help his family get through "skinny times." [Deann L.] One small boy grew up with the children of tenants but as times got bad and the tenant family fell behind in their rent, his father rented the land to someone else. His father said that while it was "cold-hearted to send this family out into the cruel world," he had to do what was best for his own family.[Zach M.] It was difficult for children to understand why their father started to work more and spend less time at home. He was angry because he couldn't feed his family and would eventually have to send the children away to relatives in Virginia after the bank had foreclosed on his land.[Mye'sha J.]
• Others lost their farms or homes. In Georgia, a family moved from house to house after they had lost their land. The children attended four different gammar schools before the father could get his feet back on the ground. [Wade S.] After losing their farm to bankruptcy, one family found it took several jobs to survive --the mother ran a restaurant and hotel, the father worked as a butcher on the railroad. One time it got so bad, that the city cut off their water, forcing them to go to the gas station for water. [Bethany Kes.] After they lost a lot of land in 1929, only by moving to a smaller house and depending on friends was the family about to get through the depression. [Tres S.]
• The banking crisis affected Americans from all walks of life. When the bank closed and the family lost everything, one family had no choice but to pack all of their belongings into one small box, borrow a car, and move to Knoxville to live with relatives. [David M.] When the bank closed in Prophetstown, Illinois, a family that had owned two large farms and a controlling interest in one of the local banks lost everything. [Grey B.] While some lost only small amounts, others lost so much that they would never again trust banks. [John R.] When people were lining up to withdraw their money from the only bank in Roxobel, North Carolina, one man was able to borrow enough to keep it open. [Adam B.]
• Families and churches were critical in helping people get through loss. Families took in relatives that had lost their land. [Shaun W.] When her uncle lost his job, her parents moved downstairs so that her uncle and his family could move upstairs. [Rachel H.] Another remembered that her uncle asked women friends to come over for dinner he played the viola, they cooked. [Megan F.] In short, if families did not stick together during the depression, they had no chance to survive. [Kethan P.]
• Many children, particularly farm children, were forced to leave school early. One who left when he was fifteen, ever returned and always regretted it. [John R.] In some cases, boys left as early as the fourth grade to help out on the family farm. [Michelle B.] Others simply could not afford the seven cents it cost to ride a street car to school, although it helped when the school started selling a book of tickets half price. [Rachel H.] Others were not so lucky. Unable to afford bus fare, one student dropped out during the tenth grade. [Paul F.] Sometimes children were forced to quit school when their fathers lost their jobs. [Brian B.]

Recreation

• Having fun cost a lot less then than it does now. Swimming was a favorite activity. Boys went swimming in rivers or "muddles," made Johnny Walkers (stilts), jumped rope, or played horseshoes. [Shaun W.] Since they couldn't afford swimming suits, boys and girls swam nude but in separate swimming holes. They drank pepsi, ate moon pies for lunch and listened to the Lone Ranger, Amos and Andy, and Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy on the radio. [Jeff D.] Boys sometimes dammed up the creek and went skinny dipping with the local girls. They drank "dope" or coke, and listened to boxing on the radio. [Wade S.] The only fun one person could remember was riding an old mule barebacked, eating a candy bar andr drinking a coke. [Jason S.]
• Activities acceptable to adults included apple peelings and picnics; on the other hand, drinking and sitting in cars were not acceptable. [Bethany Kl.] Young people tended to congregate at each other's homes for entertainment. They pushed back the furniture, someone would play the piano, another the saxaphone, and the rest would dance. [Rachel H.] Others would go to the YMCA to jitterbug or go sledding in the winter. [Jeremy G.]
• Playing games was big. Monopoly was just out. [Daniel K.] In Buffalo, New York, one family played board games, went to movies, and listened to Burns and Allen [Brian B.] but one Missouri woman would not see a movie until she was fourteen. [Summer L.] But to many, the best times were simply sitting around the fireplace, popping corn, and listening to Amos and Andy. [Susan B.]
• Christmas was often bleak. One little girl will never forget the $6 store bought doll that her whole family chipped in to buy. [Karen B.] One young boy always received horehound candy and one special toy--usually skates that he would wear out by the end of spring and be ready for another pair the next Christmas. [Jeff D.] But many depression children usually did not receive gifts and had to be satisfied with an apple or orange. [Kate Y.]

Strikes

• The 1930s were a period of labor unrest, strikes, and formation of a new national organization committed to industrial unionism, the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organization). Many were afraid that even talking about unionizing would cost factory workers their jobs. [DeAnn L.] Others stated that they were so happy to have a job that no one felt that they could afford to strike. [Jason S.] Often coal mine operators offered incentives in an effort to keep unions out by giving workers "tons of benefits" and better working conditions. But any miner that joined a strike could lose his job. [Roya Q.]
• Efforts to organize unions often resulted in violence. In Marion, North Carolina, a bunch of "damn Yankees" came down to help unionize the South. Trouble started when representatives of the tried to keep local workers from entering the factory. A shootout resulted and several people were killed. After that the unions kept away from Marion. [Jeff D.] One of North Carolina's best known strikes took place at the Firestone-Loray Textile mill in Gastonia in 1929. Strikers were trying to organize a union, shots rang out, and the Gastonia police chief, D. A. Alderholt was killed. [Heather L.]

African-Americans and the Depression

• Already poor for the most part, African-Americans were hit particularly hard by the depression. Share farmers (croppers) buying groceries on credit were not allowed to see a record of their grocery tab. This led to the belief that the grocery store owner was cheating them to keep them working on the farm. They often ate rancid food given to poor blacks by whites. Department stores would not allow blacks to try on clothes unless they purchased the item, otherwise the store maintained that it cold not sell the clothes. Nor were they allowed to return items after purchase. [Adande W.]
• Raleigh like other places in the South was segregated. During live performances at the Grand Theater, blacks sat in the back while whites sat in the bottom toward the front. Even in Raleigh there were black homes with no running water, refrigerators, or indoor plumbing. Such organizations as Masonic Lodges aided black communities. One man planned his visits to coincide with meals. In that way, he often ended up with four meals. [Marcia H.]
• One young girl remembers white kids on busses spitting on her as she walked to school. [Daniel S.] One nine year old whose father had died and whose mother kept the family afloat by working as a housekeeper part of the time and tended hogs the other, vividly remembers his mother saying, "just because times were hard, wasn't reason to abandon others in need." To this family, the church was a rallying point for "poor folk." [Derek A.] In one family, the father farmed and the mother worked for a white woman "as hateful as wet cat." She often had to work on holidays such as Christmas for half pay. The family would eventually lose his land, reinforcing the father's convinction that the banks took black lands first. [Mye'sha J.]

Hoover and Roosevelt

• By 1932--"the cruelest year," many Americans were blaming Hoover personally for the Great Depression. Hoovervilles--cardboard shacks--began to appear all across America. Hoover carts were automobiles pulled by mules or in some cases, two wheeled vehicles pulled by a horse.[Dena W.] As one women remarked, Hoover promised to put people back on their feet--he did, "he put them to walking." [Summer W.]
• FDR, on the other hand, gave Americans hope. Many listened to his fireside chats [Marshall G.], reassured by that they had "nothing to fear but fear itself." [DeAnn L.] Even hidebound Republicans could not help but credit Roosevelt for the many noticable improvements in their communities, new schools and roads for example. [John R.]

New Deal

• Many benefitted from the jobs created by New Deal programs such as the WPA (Works Progress Administration). One man found a job working for the local school system keeping the grounds in order. [Dena W.] The WPA and other New Deal relief efforts were not meant to provide permanent jobs, instead they provided temporary employment, at what were in many cases, makeshift jobs. One man and his son worked with the WPA for fifty one days and then was off for two months. [Chris W.] While constructing roads and parks, WPA hired local people, paying a farmer with his team of horses and wagon $2.50 a day. [Michelle B.] One woman was paid regularly by NYA (National Youth Authority] for turning in her assignments. [Daniel K.] One man rode his bicycle to Louisberg where the WPA paid him to sweep the streets. [Melissa F.] WPA also put unemployed writers, artists, and actors to work. One Marion NC man managed to get hold a a piece of WPA depression art, a Granger tobacco box. It was his prized possession. [Jeff D.]
• Not everyone approved of these New Deal programs. Derisively referred to as "we poke along," [Chris R.] or "We piddle around" [Jonna B.], many thought such programs were not very helpful in getting the country out of the depression. Many Americans were also suspicious of government handouts or could not understand why so many people need assistance. [Bethany Kl.]
• One man left home for the first time to work with the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). He, like other young men 18-25, were sent to CCC camps generally operated by the Department of War. They lived in barracks holding fifty men each. The first couple of months he worked building new roads. When the weather got bad, he was sent to the mountains to clean up the forests because fires had destroyed a lot of trees. He cut down damaged ones and planted new ones. [Nadia W.] In another case, one man remembers the CCC coming to town like an army with their barracks, trucks, uniforms, building roads and bridges, clearing the forest, and most importantly, giving the local high school girls something to get excited about. [Ralph E.] A sand dune built outside his beach home is a constant reminder of the work done by the CCC. [Will C.] Many got an early lesson in protecting the environment while working with the CCC. [Heather L.]

Helping Hands

• Most people, even during the darkest days of the Great Depression, were willing to lend a hand to help their neighbors or strangers. After all, as most Americans realized that while they were having a rough time, so was everyone else. Parents tried to hid the hard times from their children. Even if they never made the struggle obvious, it was there. [Kate Y.]
• Houses where people could find a meal were often marked with an arrow [Grey B.] or in the case of one Raleigh woman, with a cross in her yard. [Michelle B.] Families often found hoboes at their back door offering to work for food. To them, these men were not bums but honest people that had been hit hard by the depression. In fact, one family member maintained, the term hobo comes from the "ho" or work such as-hoeing the garden and "boe" from boys. [Rachel H.]
• One mother packed two lunches, one for a girl in her daughter's class who could not afford to bring her own. Her father offered his medical services in exchange for a carton of eggs or some non-monetary means of payment. The family donated clothes and delivered food to the poor. [Will C.] In Reidsville, women worked together to sew clothes for the needest families. [Jennifer C.]

Lasting Impact

• The Great Depression made a profound impact on those who had lived through it. Many had a greater appreciation of what it was like to be without a job or money. They would be careful with money for the rest of their lives, doing without if they thought they couldn't afford it. [Kate Y.] One woman bitterly remembers how she was taken out of school, and made to work endless hours for little money. She still thinks about how hungry she was most of the time and how she resented having to wear something that said "flour" or "sugar" on it. She remembers standing in a bread line, afraid that they would run out of food by the time she got there. She truly feels herself to be a "child of the depression." [Roya Q.] A few have attempted to put the Depression behind them, not wanting to remember how rough her family's life was then. [Summer L.] It is even more difficult to convey to others what it was like during "hard times,"-- "you had to live it to believe it." [Kevin L.]