Come learn important self-sufficiency lessons from someone who grew up during the Great Depression. We can all learn a thing or two from those who have come before us!
A few years ago, my dad came onto the Pioneering Today Podcast (episode #81) where he shared 17 self-sufficiency lessons from the 1940's and the Great Depression. That podcast was so special to me, but now he's also come on film, taking us on a tour of the Homestead where he grew up, without electricity, without plumbing, and raising almost everything themselves.
Listen to the podcast or watch the video below to be inspired by one of my all-time favorite people in the world! And be sure to tune into the video where he shares an old green bean preservation method that my grandma used to use!
The Homestead is the house that is still standing in the photo above which still doesn’t have electricity. It’s wired, you can hook up a generator or battery but it’s not really wired for electricity.
There is no electricity that runs out there, there’s still no indoor bathroom or indoor plumbing other than the sink that has the hand pump. We refer to it as The Homestead because when he and my grandparents moved out here from North Carolina in the 1940s, they purchased their property and lived there during his childhood years. (But he revealed a new twist on the property in the video above… they didn't actually own the property for years before finally getting a deed!)
In the podcast and video, I also mention how my grandma used to use cornmeal in much of her baking, and she would only use the white cornmeal, not the yellow! So I created a special download for you of my Grandma's cornbread and biscuit recipes, you'll notice her cornbread recipe doesn't use eggs, making it even more frugal and allergy friendly.
The buttermilk biscuit recipe uses real homemade cultured buttermilk (not the fake kind with milk and vinegar… this is the real deal!) and you can learn how to make cultured buttermilk easily right here.
17 Self-Sufficiency Tips from the Great Depression
Without further ado, let's jump in to some of the questions I asked my dad about Great Depression era living, and find out what his answers are…
Where would you live if you knew another Great Depression was coming?
Question: If you knew that there was another Great Depression coming, or worse, where would you choose to live if you could?
Dad: Probably, right here! (In the Pacific Northwest)
What's one thing you would want for another Great Depression?
Question: If you knew another Great Depression was coming, what’s one thing would you make sure that you have before it hits? What would be some things that you would make sure you have lined up or in place?
Dad: Well, I think you should have a cow for milk, butter from the milk, and a pig or two, and chickens. And you pretty much have everything there that you would need, besides growing a garden in the summertime.
For more info on these topics, check out the following posts:
- Raising a Milk Cow
- Raising Pigs for Meat
- Raising Backyard Meat Chickens
- Raising Backyard Egg-Laying Chickens
- 13 Basic Steps to Starting a Vegetable Garden
Using an Outdoor Toilet
Question: Rachel asks, what was it like to use the outhouse during the different season of the year?
Dad's Answer: Very cold! The Sears Roebuck catalog pages got a lot stiffer in cold weather.
Dad mentioned how they used old catalog pages as toilet paper! That was all they had, so it's what they used!
Melissa: With the outhouse, how often did you have to move it? How deep was the hole dug where it was at?
Dad: They moved it around. It was probably moved for at least 10-12 times for I could remember when we lived there. Then they would dig down a hole probably 3 or 4 feet underneath, and then, they’d saved the dirt. Then when we move the outhouse, we took that dirt and put it on top of the remains of the outhouse.
Melissa: Yes, you just cover it up and then moved it around. How often do you move it, like once a year.
Dad: it depends on how many people were using it, and it could be once a year, maybe twice a year
Melissa: So not really often?
Dad: Yeah. And you put lime in it to keep it from smelling.
Protection During Tough Times
Question: Patricia has another question. She said, were there any dangers from other people, or did you need guns to protect your family?
Dad: Well, you always had a gun. And that was for hunting also. And there wasn’t that many people coming through, not like now, but there’s still a few that we considered outlaws. You’d want to protect your family from them, and that was one way to do it.
Favorite Activities
Question: What was your favorite thing to do as a child? Anything that you did get caught?
Dad: Probably going out, and, as my grandson Landon says, having a campfire. We would cook up potatoes and different things. Occasionally, we’d catch a fish and roast it over a fire.
Melissa: So, they didn’t have really the hunting and fishing seasons or restrictions they do now?
Dad: They did what they did without having to worry too much about the Game Warden because it was quite a ways to come to The Homestead. As long as you didn’t waste anything you killed, people didn’t think too much about it. Go ahead and kill it, if you use it, that was fine.
What Did You Do For Fun Back Then?
Question: What did you do for fun back then without electricity or other forms of entertainment?
Dad: Well, we have a battery-powered radio and in the evening we get to listen to the Lone Ranger, and Gene Autry for 30 minutes. The kids were very quiet then, because all you had was the voice coming over the radio. You could hear the horses galloping, and coming through the radio, stuff like that.
We played cards, such as Go Fish and Checkers, different things like that.
Kids Chores in the 1940's
Question: What were your parents' big rules? Did grandma and grandpa have any hard fast rules?
Dad: We had so many chores we had to do every day. One of them was, we had to get wood for mom, for the wood-cook stove, and have kindling for each morning. So when she got up, dad used them to build fire, and cook breakfast. We always had a big breakfast like biscuits, eggs, gravy, and oatmeal.
Melissa: So you always had a pretty big breakfast?
Dad: Oh, yeah.
Melissa: Was breakfast the biggest meal of the day, or did you have a big supper, or a smaller dinner?
Dad: There’s a big dinner, we always had lunch, because it’s always like a pot of beans or stew setting on the stove and they kept it just above the boiling point. A lot of times we just added to it and kept it going for a few days.
Melissa: So you just kept adding to the pot?
Dad: Yes, because there’s no refrigeration, so we’d keep it hot.
Keeping Food Cold Without Refrigeration
Question: How did you keep food cold without a refrigerator or even electricity?
Dad: We had what they call the “cool room”. Instead of having windows, it has screens where the window was, and it would let the cool air in.
Melissa: And that was in the kitchen or outside the house?
Dad: No, it was on the outside wall, usually at the end of a row of cupboards. Now, some like Grace Owen, Howard Stafford's grandma and grandpa, they had theirs in the kitchen and you just open up the door, like in the cupboard. Usually, the one on the end or next to the wall.
Melissa: On an exterior wall?
Dad: Yes, it had the screen in it and it would let the cool air in, and that’s where they put the butter and the milk. Although, we did have, over at the backside of the homestead house, we had a hole dug and there was water that stood in the hole. We would set the milk and stuff in the hole to keep it cool.
Keeping a Milk Cow
Question: Did you have your own milk cow that you guys milked?
Dad: We usually had two or three milk cows. When one was dry, getting ready to have a calf, the other one you could milk. You just changed back and forth so you'd have fresh milk all year long.
Melissa: So basically, you’re getting fresh milk everyday?
Dad: Oh yeah.
Melissa: You just used the milk that you’re usually gonna use for the meal time, or turn into butter, and what was left will go either in the cool room or out in the little hole with water to keep it cold?
Dad: Yes, and the same way with the lard, although, you just butcher the pigs probably once a year and rendered that down into lard. (How to Render Lard). We used Mortin salt and salt-cured (How to Salt Cure Your Own Meat) a lot of it.
We had the lockers at Rockport, in the general store, you had lockers that were refrigerated, and you rented a little cage-like thing in the big room of the locker. Then, when you go over to get your mail, if you needed meat, you go and get a package or two out of the locker and bring it home for dinner.
Melissa: They had electricity and refrigeration there, so if you needed to store something big like your meat you just kept it in the locker?
Dad: Either that or we'd can it. We ate a lot of canned meat.
Melissa: Grandma canned a lot of it?
Dad: Yes.
For more info on these topics, check out the following posts:
Shopping for Groceries in 1940
Question: Today, a lot of people just run to the store whenever they need groceries, sometimes even every day. How often, back then, did grandma actually go to the grocery store and go grocery shopping?
Dad: Well, our basic things for going to the grocery store were for flour, salt, sugar, and lard. Stuff like that. But when we butcher the pig, then we rendered the lard and it was good for gravy and different things. She usually bought groceries in bulk, like 50 lbs. of flour, 25-50 lbs. of sugar, etc.
Learn how to make jam like my Grandmother with this low sugar no store-bought pectin Strawberry jam recipe
Frugal Recipes from the 1940's and Great Depression Era
Question: What kinds of food did grandma make a lot of during those times?
Dad: She made a lot of cornbread and biscuits. Occasionally she would make what we call “light bread”. Other than that, until I started school, and when they finally got a cafeteria in Rockport school, it was quite a treat to get a piece of, I guess you call it, factory-made bread.
Melissa: Right, so when you say light bread, you mean like a yeast bread that rises. It’s like the right kind for sandwiches. She didn’t bake that very often, was it because she hadn’t purchased the yeast and yeast was an expense?
Dad: Yeah, and it took more time. Homemade had no additive to keep the shelf life. It was just easy to make so many biscuits, say you have 6 or 8 people that’s gonna have dinner, that’s what’s easier to keep than bread and not let it spoil. You have to be very careful of the food that you throw away, all of what came off the table went to the pigs.
Favorite 1940's Recipes
Question: What were some of your very favorite things that grandma cooked?
Dad: Ah, rice pudding! It just melts in your mouth, rice pudding!
Basic Food Menu in 1940's
Question: What was an average meal that grandma would cook. I know you said you liked biscuits, and gravy, and eggs. What were some of the typical lunch items, that you’ve had when she does not do the sandwich, what will you have for lunch, then?
Dad: We always had biscuits, there were beans, like I say it’s always on the pot, boiling. Occasionally, dad, he was quite a fly fisherman and he would catch trout and you know whatever is handy, we cooked up.
Melissa: So when you have a pot of beans, do you mean like green beans or the shelly beans, or dried beans or both?
Dad: Well, we can have green beans, if we want, we opened a jar. Mom always canned a lot of green beans, and the shelly beans, she was pretty good at that.
Melissa: Pretty much, what you ate for lunch was not really a different meal. It is pretty much the kind of food you cook for dinner or supper, what you call back then.
Dad: You might want to say leftovers.
Melissa: Lunch was more leftovers from day before.
Dad: And biscuits like from breakfast. They were still good at noon.
Melissa: So she just made double batch of the biscuits or cornbread or whatever from breakfast to carry over until lunch?
Dad: Well, we didn’t have cornbread for breakfast, that was always for supper or dinner.
Melissa: Pretty much, you had a bread item, be it cornbread or biscuits or something like that with dinner or with breakfast?
Making Biscuits 1940's Style
Dad: I remember she never used the bowl to mix up the flour in, for the biscuits.
Melissa: Oh, really?
Dad: She would just make a hollow, a little spot inside the 50-pound sack of flour and she would pour the milk, and stuff the buttermilk right in that and mix it up. She made the batter right there.
Melissa: Right in the bag of flour?
Dad: And then she’d take it out, put them out, with what she calls, the spoon bread and she would put that on a pan that was set on top of a stove. Of course, biscuits, they’d go into the oven and bake. Same way with pie crusts, she would just pour whatever she’d mix up there to make a pie crust, she would pour right in on top of the flour, she’d roll the cloth of the flour where it was in…the sack and she roll that back, and it was like a little bowl itself.
Melissa: She just put it right in there instead of having another bowl to wash. Oh, that’s cool. I didn’t know that. You haven’t told me that story before.
Dad: I can see her, when she mixed it up, she’d wash her hands, then she would dig in there. She made a hole up, and then the flour, she mixed it up. When she felt that she had enough milk in her dough and it was mixed up well, the rest of flour is there.
Melissa: And she would just bake it up.
Dad: And she would pick it up, and probably we have a cupboard. She aways calls it a cupboard, and it had a sifter in it. You could put the flour in the sifter, because a lot of the flour then wasn’t as refined as what we are used to today. It have different, maybe kernels and stuff on it and you turn that sifter and it would sift the nice and fine stuff. Then you would take that sifter out and dump it out and give it to chickens.
Melissa: Oh, OK. I know grandma is quite particular about her cornmeal, she only used white cornmeal.
Dad: She said the yellow cornmeal was for cows, and ducks.
Melissa: Yeah, I remember her saying that.
Dad: Yeah, she had her way of thinking and you wouldn’t change it.
Melissa: Do you think white cornmeal is better because of its texture or does it taste different?
Dad: It has a different flavor. I prefer the flavor and taste of the white better.
Melissa: Yeah! Did she cook grits or just mainly oatmeal?
Dad: No. Not very many grits, I like the oatmeal and she always seemed to have a bucket of raisins around.
Melissa: To put in the oatmeal? She pretty much cooked every meal and most of the food, she was also preserving. And that she’s cooking what she put up herself.
Dad: Absolutely!
Melissa: Was there ever a time that the harvest really failed and you guys felt that you were really low on food?
Dad: Oh, we always had plenty to eat. Because we always had meat, and dad always had 3 or 4 hives of bees for the honey.
Melissa: Oh grandpa was a beekeeper? I didn’t realize that.
Dad: And there’s nothing better than honey on a hot biscuit or piece of cornbread. That was really a treat, and we have a lot of that. We didn’t go hungry. Sometimes our clothes wore a little bit…
Melissa: Like they got tighter or were getting a little smaller… but there was never a problem with food.
Dad: Yeah, no.
Melissa: So fresh vegetable-wise, and until it was time for the garden to come back on, you didn’t really have a lot of fresh vegetables. All have to be pretty much canned or dried. I mean, you didn’t go to the store and purchase the head of lettuce every week for salad or something.
Dad: No, that didn’t come in until the later years. It was a different lifestyle. And you gotta plan ahead.
Melissa: It’s kind of a natural way of preserving it without a fridge.
Dad: And she would make cottage cheese, and different things but I think on the cottage cheese, you have to use a sweet cream.
Melissa: Did she make any hard cheeses, like the aged cheeses?
Dad: Not that I remembered.
Melissa: Just the soft cheeses, so that wouldn’t take as much time or resources.
Dad: And she would churn a lot of butter. She would take the butter over to Rockport to Mrs. Presentien and milk to Ellen Osborne and she would trade that for different things in the store.
Making Dairy Products
Question: So Grandma, how often did she make butter, did she churn every day or would she just save the cream?
Dad: No, not every day. I don’t know exactly how long the butter would keep. But she used buttermilk for biscuits and different things. When she ran out, then it was time to churn again.
Melissa: She’d just make it again as you went through it?
Dad: Yeah. And she used a lot of sour cream buttermilk. And myself, I like the sweet cream much better, especially for cooking with. Dad would take the butter and he would fry potatoes and different things in it.
Melissa: Yeah, well, I think with the sour cream, that, it naturally sours without refrigeration, but it also creates like a culture so it keeps longer, which is probably why she is used it, to preserve it longer.
Dad: Yes, that was part of it.
Raising Livestock Before Feed Stores
Question: Did you guys do your own haying? Or what did you feed the animals? Did you raise your own feed for the cows through the winter?
Dad: Well dad, he worked around. We got a lot from Albin, which is a place I own now…the hay would get a little damp, and when they have plenty of hay, they let people take it because they didn’t want it left in the field to mold and rot.
Melissa: Right.
Dad: Although dad did that, he did cut some hay on The Homestead.
Melissa: Did they hand cut it or use a mower?
Dad: By hand, they would cut it with a scythe.
Melissa: And did you have a big barn that you put it in to store?
Dad: Well, to start with, they stack it outside, like they do back East. They put a pole at the ground and stack around it. And it was like a thatched roof and the water run-off. There was a lot of waste here because of the moisture. Like in eastern Washington, it was dry and you can get away without putting it inside the barn.
Melissa: And here it mildewed more.
Dad: And dad, he built a pretty good-sized barn over there. We put the hay in the barn, which was much better.
Melissa: I bet, the hay will last a lot longer. Did you have the chickens in the coop or they just free range?
Dad: No, no, we have a big chicken pen, and probably, I would say, 10×20 foot chicken house and it had nests in there for the chickens to go lay in.
Melissa: Did you have a lot of predator problems with them, like anything getting in and killing the chickens?
Dad: Well, there were some foxes who would try to get the chickens.
Raising Chickens
Question: How many chickens did you guys keep?
Dad: Oh, probably 50-60 chickens. We always had plenty of eggs and plenty of chicken to eat. If company came, we’d just go out and butcher one.
Melissa: And that was dinner.
Canning & Preserving During the Great Depression
Question: So grandma pretty much only bought staples from the grocery store, then basically your fruits and vegetables would have been just what you guys grew yourselves and preserved?
Dad: It was nothing to mom to have probably, in the fall, she would probably can 300 jars, quarts, some half gallons. It was a whole different thing than what most folks do today, and like fish, she always canned a lot of fish and a lot of canned meat, especially deer meat. It was much better canned, and it is still today.
Melissa: You prefer the canned flavor or texture of the meat?
Dad: Oh, yeah! You can open up a can of deer meat, and you get the gravy in the meat right there. All you got to do is heat it up, and have some biscuits and you got a good meal there.
Melissa: With fruit and stuff, she would just can it and dry it or what kind of fruits, like apples?
Dad: Yes, she canned everything — peaches, pears, apples and prunes, and just a lot of things.
Melissa: Just anything you can get here, then she would just can it to preserve it and to eat throughout the wintertime?
Dad: Right!
Canning During the 1940s
Question: In the summertime, even when it’s hot out, you still had a fire to cook on?
Dad: Absolutely, we canned outside, it was too hot inside. She put a big tub over a fire, and we had this framework with three legs. It stood up so high that you can light a fire under it. She would save can lids from the winter before and she put the can lids in the bottom of the tub and she would set the jars that she was canning down on that. Then she would take towels and wrap it around. So, when it got to boiling they wouldn't rock together and break.
Melissa: She just made her own canning rack and she used towels and canning bands to keep them up off the bottom of the pot? That's great!
Hourly Pay in the 1940s
Question: What was the hourly pay back then?
Dad: Because there was no unemployment, and back then wages – I still remember when dad just made $8.00 a day, and then he got up to $12, and literally, he thought he was getting rich.
Melissa: That was $8-12 dollars a day?!
Dad: Yep! That was a day’s wages, maybe 10-12 hours. There were no 8-hour shifts back then.
Melissa: And that was in the woods.
Dad: Yes, that was in the woods. And they did work. I don’t know what they got when they worked in the shingle mill up at Marblemount when we first came up. We lived up there. And then we moved to Mount Rainier. He was froze on the job, that’s when the war broke out.
Melissa: So he was froze out, so he wouldn’t leave his job or he’d be drafted?
Dad: Right, they made the piling and stuff for landing ships, stepped on the shores over there and he was a good timber faller. He was froze on the job there. When that ended, then we moved back up here and went to The Homestead.
Melissa: How many kids did grandma and grandpa have at that time when you guys moved over into the Homestead? There are only two rooms there now.
Dad: Well, it did actually have 3 or possibly 4 with the attic.
MKN: Oh, back then there were more rooms!
Ways to Earn Extra Money During the 1940s
Question: What were some ways to earn extra money during that time? If work wasn't very steady, how could a family make ends meet?
Dad: Upstairs we had some extra space and mom would keep boarders from time to time. Uncle Ralph, boarded with us, too… mom’s half-brother. She took in people and got a few bucks that way. Maybe $20/25 a month and she did the washing and cooking for them.
Melissa: So what was a yearly salary back then?
Dad: I don’t think there was any… just what you could earn.
Melissa: So grandma would sell the eggs or take the butter to help barter for groceries and stuff, and taking in boarders. But, as a whole, back then, the women really didn’t work. They were staying home, right?
Dad: That’s right! They had a full time job, just keeping the house going and canning, and taking care of the milk and different things. Although mom didn’t milk much. I mean, that was my job and one of my other brothers that is two years younger. And dad, he kinda oversaw the milking.
For more info on these topics, check out the following posts:
- How to Make Money Homesteading- Cash from Your Farm
- How to Use Homesteading Skills to Make Money
- Community Sufficiency vs. Self-Sufficiency
How Old Were You When You Married?
Question: I’ve got one more question here, this one is from Lisa. How old were you when you got married?
Dad: I was 18.
Melissa: Well same here, I followed in your footsteps. And how old were you when you guys had your first child?
Dad: 18 or 19.
Walking to School
Question: How far did you have to go to get to school? And how did you get there?
Dad: When we lived at The Homestead, we had to walk to Rockport, which is about a 3-mile-walk. We had to cross on the ferry.
Melissa: And the creek, there was a creek that ran across the driveway.
Dad: Yes, it was there. We had to cross it on the way.
Melissa: And you guys didn't thump each other on the way?
Dad: I’m sure there was some of that. That school house would sure look good though when your pant legs just froze half way to your knees and there was coal fire over there. We would stand over the heat register there, and we would let the warm air come up our pant legs.
Melissa: Until you were thawed out!
Dad: And in the later years, I did operate the ferry, off and on, until they put the bridge in.
Clothing During the Great Depression
Question: How many outfits or shoes did you have? I mean, now, we’ve got closets full, but back then…
Dad: Well, we usually had a new pair when school started, and the other pair that you had were work shoes.
Melissa: So, you just had two – your nice pair and the work pair.
Dad: You got your butt warmed when you got up there and your new shoes got dirty and scuffed.
Melissa: I can imagine grandma, whooping you!
Dad: And we usually have boots in the wintertime, rubber boots.
Melissa: Obviously, you ordered the shoes or went in the store to buy…
Dad: Sears Roebuck's.
Melissa: The toilet paper catalog!
Dad: And Presentine’s usually had shoes, and Frank McGovern's had some, too.
Melissa: What about your clothes, did she order them?
Dad: She made a lot of them, especially shirts. Pants were usually bought.
Melissa: And most of the items you got them from the catalog, too, or was there a store you'd go to?
Dad: A lot of times we'd order them, yeah! And sometimes we got them down in the little store in town.
Washing Clothes Without Electricity
Question: Did you have to wash clothes by hand, or did you have a washing machine?
Dad: When dad finally found the little motorized washing machine, he really went around for that. It had a little ringer on it and had a little motor underneath and that was a big improvement from using the scrub board.
Melissa: I bet. Because when you do laundry, obviously, with just a tub, and water and soap and scrub board, how often did you wash? Did you just have a wash day once a week?
Dad: Whenever there was a pile of clothes there to wash. There was a line hung upstairs, there were two chimneys up there. They’re still there, and some of the lines are probably still up there. And mom would hang them up there. There’s a wire stretched across in the living room around the stove. And she would hang clothes we'd need to be dried quickly. If we needed a pair of socks, then she would hang socks on it, or a pair of pants, and they would dry quickly.
Melissa: Now we just open a lid, press a button, and throw our clothes in there and away she goes. I like to line dry our clothes in the summertime, though. I prefer line-dried myself.
Was Life Better in 1940?
Question: If you look at the average society as a whole, do you think that the way of life back then was better than it is today?
Dad: Well, I do. We didn’t have kids then sitting on the… what do you call them?
Melissa: A cellphone?
Dad: Cellular phones and different things, the kids have something to do. They kept their minds active. They didn’t have the trouble that they do today. There were no drugs, not like you see today. I guess you can say, there were no drugs, but there was alcohol and cigarettes.
Melissa: Do you feel that families were closer as a whole because you were working together or not necessarily?
Dad: I believe so. It was a good life. You might say it was a hard life, but it was a good life. If you want heat, you got your firewood up during summer time, and stock them in the woodshed.
Melissa: Now, we’re spoiled. We've got automatic wood choppers and chain saws, back then everything was done by hand. It was the hand that cut the saw or axe.
Dad: To start with, yes, and then later on dad got a chainsaw. It was a lot easier with the chainsaw. A lot of the guys would put it off and get into the woods during summertime because they felt they could go up there with chainsaw. Back then there was a lot of old growth lying around, because when they logged, they only get the best part and you could go up there, and in about 3 hours you could cut a pile of wood.
Melissa: Hey, Pioneers. Welcome to episode #312. Today's episode is a very special episode because I am bringing my dad back on to the podcast. But this is from the video that I just released very recently on YouTube that many of you have caught. It's quickly becoming (laughs) one of most popular videos for a good reason.
Melissa: So this is where I actually got my dad to come on camera, which I have been trying to do, I'm not kidding, for years. But this is Great Depression-era living, including towards the end, lost off-grid preservation technique for green beans. So this actually lends itself very well to audio, which is obviously this podcast format.
Melissa: But if you wanna actually see the homestead house where my dad grew up, then you're gonna wanna make sure that you head over and check out the video. So you can go to the blog post that accompanies this episode, and the video is actually embedded in there. You can go to melissaknorris.com/312, the number 312, so just numerical there, melissaknorris.com/312 'cause this is Episode 312 where you can actually watch that video.
Melissa: Now, if you have been a podcast listener for a while, thank you very much, but you may have already listened to an episode with my dad. I have my dad on the podcast, it's actually been years ago now, but he did come on and do a podcast episode with me. And so if you wanna hear that one, he tells different stories. I asked him some different questions, um, and that type of thing than what you're gonna hear on this one.
Melissa: So this is definitely not a repeat, um, though he may talk about a few of the same things. But episode #81, oh, my goodness, you guys, episode 81 was that past episode where he was on. I cannot believe it's been that many episodes ago. Wow. Well, time certainly does fly.
Melissa: But I just wanted to let you know as you're listening to this episode, that it did come from the video in case there's some places where you're like, "What?" Uh, because we're talking about something specific that is in the video. Though we did our best to edit this so that it would flow very nicely, as you may be listening to it obviously as a podcast episode.
Melissa: But I have to say out of all the videos and the content that I created, aside from that previous episode that I did with my dad, I feel like this is the most important video or the most special video that I have ever done and probably likely ever will, um, on a personal level because it's my father. But not just because of that, but because we are preserving firsthand accounts from that era where a lot of that information and the stories have been lost from the firsthand accounts.
Melissa: And one of the most touching things was how many of you watched this video and told ... I'm gonna try not to cry. (laughs) You can hear it in my ... I can feel myself. I can feel tears coming to my eyes. But how many of you watched this video and you were as touched as I was, even though it's- it's not your dad, and it's not your family's history. Because so many of you, it brought you back to people and times that you have lost or they have- have passed on. And so this episode was not only a bridge to my past and history, but for many of you it was a bridge to your past and your history as well.
Melissa: And so just for all of you who sent me messages and told me how much it touched you and how many of you told that it brought tears to your eyes, just know that I felt the very same way. In fact, when I got done filming this video, I actually came back to the house and I cried in a good way and a happy way.
Melissa: Because I knew ... Not knowing, and I, and, you know, I still don't; I have no idea how many people this will end up touching or watching it, but I just knew that we had just captured something very special. So without further ado, I want to share that with you.
Melissa: So my dad was born during the Great Depression. He was a child during the Great Depression, but it really didn't change the way that his family and the way that he grew up even after the Depression ended. They were still fairly poor and had to depend upon everything that they put up themselves and raised in order to eat.
Melissa: And I have wanted to get my dad to come on camera to share his stories first person with you guys rather than just through me, and a few years back was able to get him to come on the podcast. But I've not been been able to get him to come on video. He is, um, (laughs) ...
Melissa: He doesn't use computers. He doesn't use a smartphone. He is as old-fashioned as you can get, but I finally got him to agree that we could go on video. So I'm hoping that once he sees the cameras, he still lets us get this on video, so I'm on my way.
Melissa: We're gonna go pick him up and take him over to the original homestead that he lived at as a kid. Except we have to see that the creek isn't too high 'cause we've had a lot of rain, and that it's actually passable. So I'm hoping, one, he'll come on camera with us, and, two, that we can get over there.
Melissa: So we've always called the place the homestead.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So what year did you guys ... Be- because when you first came here from North Carolina, right, with Grandpa and Grandma, you guys didn't first come to the homestead, right? Didn't you guys go somewhere else at the very beginning?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, we lived at Marblemount for quite a, or a year or so.
Melissa: For a little bit. And then during the war, weren't you, wasn't Grandpa at a mill that he had to stay at? Was that down at, around Mount Rainier?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah? And so that was during World War II that he had to stay there, and if he did then he wouldn't get drafted in? Is that right?
Tommy (Dad): Right.
Melissa: About how long were you guys down there?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, probably a couple of year. I went to school down there. I started to school down there in, uh, when I was, uh, six years old.
Melissa: So once the war ended, then you guys came back up here and you settled at the homestead where we're going right now.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah. And I used to walk from the homestead to Rockport to go to school.
Melissa: That's a long ways. Do you know how many ... How many miles do you think that is?
Tommy (Dad): It's about three miles.
Melissa: About three miles?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: And how many miles ... How far back do you think the house is from the road right here on the gravel road? How far do you think that is?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, it's close to a mile.
Melissa: Is about a mile?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So when you guys first moved in here, was that highway even here or was that just a small little road?
Tommy (Dad): No. No, no. It was just a ... Seattle City Light, uh, called it the transmission line or ...
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): From Rockport. They only had three wires, cable, on the wooden, uh, posts that- that went to Seattle.
Melissa: Oh, wow. And Seattle from here is about, oh, it's about two hours. I'm not sure how many miles it is.
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: But it's about a good two-hour drive.
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: There wasn't even the bridge. It was just the ferry at, until ...
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: 'Cause the bridge didn't come in until quite a ways later.
Tommy (Dad): '61.
Melissa: Is when the bridge was put in? So prior to that it was all just on the ferry.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. I used to run the ferry there. And then I drove a- a gravel truck for the County for s- eight hours, and then I run the ferry till midnight.
Melissa: You didn't get much sleep back in the day, did ya?
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: No?
Tommy (Dad): You had to do a little bit of everything to make ends meet then.
Melissa: Am I remembering right? When I was ... Didn't you say when you were little and there was the other families living out here that you had a little, you opened a little store or something out here?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. It was set right up on the bank there.
Melissa: And so what'd you ... How old were you then?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, I was about 14, 15.
Melissa: So you've always been an entrepreneur.
Tommy (Dad): (laughs)
Melissa: So what did you have in your store?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, a little bit of everything.
Melissa: Was just a-
Tommy (Dad): Candy mostly. Pop.
Melissa: (laughs) So did you just buy it from the other store, and then you just would sell it here?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, they give me a special price.
Melissa: Oh, you were a charmer too. So you charmed the store to get it at wholesale, and then you sold it he- over here, huh?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. They, at one time they was one, two, seven families lived in here.
Melissa: Now, did they own all pieces of the land?
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: And then Grandpa bought the land from them later? Or he just ...
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: Grandpa owned the land and then they had- had that land?
Tommy (Dad): Well, uh, your, uh, great-grandpa, er, gra- uh, great-grandpa, he, yeah, never owned any land in here.
Melissa: Oh.
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: So who owned it? It was just like a leasing agreement or rent or how did that work?
Tommy (Dad): It was, uh, squatters.
Melissa: Really?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Oh. I did not know that.
Tommy (Dad): And then I, uh, uh, had, uh, surveyed 40 acres all the way around here, all around this property here.
Melissa: Oh.
Tommy (Dad): And then I finally got a deed for it.
Melissa: Wow.
Tommy (Dad): You can go on the upper end if you want.
Melissa: Wanna go ... And then we'll just circle back to the house?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Okay. So when all the other families were living over here back in the day, did you guys just kinda like help- help one another? Or everybody just kinda had their own garden and their own livestock? Or did you guys share resources? Or how did that work?
Tommy (Dad): Well, like when we lived here, they was a Chapin cabin which I'll show you where it stood. And, uh, that was the ... And then there was the honeymoon cabin that was behind us back there.
Melissa: Okay.
Tommy (Dad): Where you took a left.
Melissa: As we went awen- where, right, it would've been over there?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah. And then right on the, just back of that little tree right there.
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): That little apple tree, uh, that's where the Chapin cabin, uh, was built, and it was seven-and-a-half-foot logs stood on end.
Melissa: Oh, really? Instead of being laying down horizontal they were upright?
Tommy (Dad): Right.
Melissa: Wow. Now, was that ... Did they build that while you were here or when you guys came here it was already built?
Tommy (Dad): No, it was already built.
Melissa: It was already there.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: And that was right here on the knoll right behind the tree?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Right where those ferns are.
Melissa: Now, were there other houses out here?
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: Or was the Chapin one the furthest one out?
Tommy (Dad): They was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven houses that, uh, was occupied before we moved in.
Melissa: Okay. So when, by the time you guys moved in here at the homestead house, how many of those homes were there still people living in when you guys lived here?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, about three.
Melissa: Okay. So like the Chapin cabin was one?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Now, with the way that the river's changed since then, has the river moved this way? Or was this about the way it was back then that you had all of this forest and stuff?
Tommy (Dad): No, it's moved this way.
Melissa: So you, there was actually more area to hunt than there is now.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: On this piece.
Tommy (Dad): Then you'll take a left here.
Melissa: Left?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Okay. Well, back then didn't- didn't Grandpa like during the winter months ... Like, trapping was still a trade at that time, right, when you were little? Did Grandpa do trapping?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Him and Ralph, er, uh, Buchanan, they, uh, walked in. It was a nine-mile walk into Illabot Lake, and they went up there and trapped marten.
Melissa: Wow.
Tommy (Dad): A good pelt, uh, then on marten, uh, would bring about 80 bucks.
Melissa: Wow. Really?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Well, that was some good money back then.
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: I mean, 80 bucks still isn't something to sneeze at, but back then that go- I don't even know what the equivalent would've been. Well, aside from the hunting and Grandpa doing the trapping, what ... Did you guys do very much like foraging or wild harvest? Like getting food from the forest? Or was it more just what you cultivated in the garden?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, we raised, uh, three or four pigs a year, and, uh, we had, like I sa- told you before, we had four or five milk cows and we staged them so we'd have fresh milk all the time.
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): And then we raised our own beef. We had a locker in Rockport, and you could rent a- a, oh, a little space about, oh, 4 x 3, and, uh, that's where you kept your meat.
Melissa: So you could actually just rent refrigerator space in a cooler locker at ...
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Was it part of the general store or a different ...
Tommy (Dad): No, no.
Melissa: Or was there power on this side of the river at that point?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Just not to every ... Everybody just didn't have it yet.
Tommy (Dad): Right. It went up the Marten Road there.
Melissa: Okay. And so then if you were further out than that, you didn't have- have access to it.
Tommy (Dad): Mm-hmm (affirmative). Things were quite a bit different then.
Melissa: Do you think for- for better or worse or just different?
Tommy (Dad): Well, I think it was for better. It was a hard times then. I can remember when Dad, uh, he worked for about five or six bucks a- a day.
Melissa: A day.
Tommy (Dad): A day.
Melissa: So that's less than a buck an hour.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Well, you guys back then because you said you had ... Didn't ... You guys had chickens too, didn't you?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: Big chicken coop?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. We basically raised everything we ate, except salt, sugar, stuff like that.
Melissa: Yeah. So now, did you ... Did Grandma grind her own cornmeal from the corn? 'Cause I know Grandma did a lot-
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: ... more with cornmeal and cornbread. She'd somewhat flour biscuits and whatnot, but she didn't really make a lot of bread itself.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: So you ... She did buy the flour and cornmeal too then.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. And she would not use yellow cornmeal. She said that was cow feed.
Melissa: (laughs) So she'd only use the white?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Boy, went Grandma had her mind set on something, that was that. So the house never, this house never has had electricity other than there's a little bit of way we could hook up to a battery, right?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah, you could, uh, put a generator right on those wires and light that. But you'd have to change the, uh, bulbs in the ... See, it's got DC bulbs in it now.
Melissa: Okay.
Tommy (Dad): And, uh, I had it fixed at one time so you could just pull in and plug in to the front of the car.
Melissa: To go off the battery.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So it, yeah. There didn't, there's never been any electricity lines out here then.
Tommy (Dad): Uh, the County says it was built back in the, uh, 1900.
Melissa: Oh, okay. So it's 120 years old.
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: There's not many of them around here still standing.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. I'd put the metal roof on it.
Melissa: So originally it had shake, a shake roof on it?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. See, uh, and then the, uh, right over the hill there, uh, there was a- a hole dug and Dad fixed it up pretty good. It was water, and it was about so deep. And that's where Mom kept the milk.
Melissa: Was right over this hill here?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: So it's kind of like a little springhouse then, like a dugout springhouse 'cause it had the water in there.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah, that's right.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Is it locked?
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: No? We can go on in?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, you can go in.
Melissa: Well, she doesn't even stick. Pretty smooth opening.
Tommy (Dad): (laughs) Huh?
Melissa: I said, "She opened pretty smooth."
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So was the- the woodstove always right here? I mean, there's ...
Tommy (Dad): No. Uh, the-
Melissa: Where- where was that originally?
Tommy (Dad): ... The chimney that's there was right about here, and this was a bedroom.
Melissa: Oh.
Tommy (Dad): And then they were three bedrooms, uh, going in ... I put that door in.
Melissa: You did?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: So where originally, how did you enter into that bedroom?
Tommy (Dad): Uh, you had a door in the kitchen there.
Melissa: That went into there instead?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: Okay. So then that part you opened up to be as part of the living room later.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Right.
Melissa: Okay.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah, and then, uh, there was two bedrooms upstairs. Well, actually, one. It was all-
Melissa: It was kind of like the main, uh, a main attic there?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So the wood- then originally the woodstove went right here, so this was just the living room part.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: 'Cause that was a bedroom, and then there was this part.
Tommy (Dad): Well, at one time this was the kitchen.
Melissa: Oh!
Tommy (Dad): And then, uh, Dad changed it 'cause Mom, she got tired of people coming through the kitchen to get to the living room.
Melissa: Oh, okay. So then you guys flipped it.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: I see. I didn't know that. Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Oh?
Melissa: I'm getting a good history lesson here.
Tommy (Dad): Hmm.
Melissa: If I ever get my house plumbed for propane instead of electricity, I think this stove would look really good in my kitchen.
Tommy (Dad): Mmm.
Melissa: Don't you think?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Probably would.
Melissa: Probably would. Probably look pretty good. I got that on camera. That's on record, y'all, so ...
Tommy (Dad): (laughing)
Melissa: So did they have to put the chimney in or there was already a chimney back here?
Tommy (Dad): No, that was already here.
Melissa: Okay. 'Cause though they already had two- two stoves for the house.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Grandma did all the cooking on a woodstove? Or did you have ...
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. It was a-
Melissa: Yeah. Everything was done by [crosstalk 00:19:08].
Tommy (Dad): ... She had a big, uh, stove. It was called, uh, Kalamazoo.
Melissa: Oh, really?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. And it had a 10-gallon water tank on it.
Melissa: Oh. So that was what ... How you- you could just heat your water from right there?
Tommy (Dad): And that's what we took a bath in.
Melissa: Was from that 10 gallons of hot water?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. So ...
Melissa: And wasn't that your chore? That was your chore, you kids, is to have all the kindling and stuff ready for Grandma in the morning to cook with?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah. We had to carry the wood in.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Which was through that door.
Melissa: Now, when you were growing up, obviously you guys didn't have television here.
Tommy (Dad): No.
Melissa: 'Cause there's no electricity. But you did listen to the radio, right? So that was kinda your only form of entertainment was- was that.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Or just your imagination? Right?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah, the Lone Ranger and different ones.
Melissa: The Lone Ranger?
Tommy (Dad): Old Tonto. (laughs)
Melissa: Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. They, uh ...
Melissa: Did Grandpa have, did you just listen to it by battery? Was just battery operated 'cause there wasn't electricity at all.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. No.
Melissa: Yeah. So it was just battery operated. So you probably only turned it on, right, when you knew a specific show was coming on, for the most part to conserve the batteries?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Well, we got about, oh, half hour in the evening we could listen to the radio.
Melissa: Yeah. Hear that Landon? Half hour of entertainment only.
Landon: 'Cause it ran on batteries.
Tommy (Dad): (laughing)
Melissa: He's not in agreement with this. I think that was pretty good. (laughs)
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, one time, uh, Dad didn't come home, and he was, he was, uh ... Mom said, uh, she come in. That was my bedroom in there.
Melissa: That one was? That room?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah, and Mom's was right there. They was a door right there that went through. And, uh, she said, uh, "Your dad didn't come home last night." And, uh, I said, "Well, what- what does that mean?" "Well," she said, uh, "your horse didn't come home either." So I went out looking for it, and they was probably two foot of snow on the ground.
Melissa: Oh.
Tommy (Dad): And, uh, I got out to where the highway, uh, 530 is now. I could see something black down there, and, uh, course they was, like I said, two foot of snow. And I kind of, I knew enough that, uh, bears and stuff did not come out in, uh, wintertime. They hibernate.
Tommy (Dad): So, uh, I- I kept looking down there, and then I got brave enough till walk on down the, uh, little gravel road to see what it was. And Dad had got the horse down, and it was curled around him. So, uh, I got him up and, uh, I- I finally got him to walk home.
Melissa: Got the horse to come home?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: So the horse curled around him is what saved him because he got the horse [crosstalk 00:22:25] and-
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah. He was just as warm as could be.
Melissa: Wow.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): And the wind blowing over top of him, and he was sitting curled up re- uh, r-right on the belly of that horse.
Melissa: Right. Yeah. Yeah. How old were you then? Remember?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, I probably was 12, 14.
Melissa: Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Is it still solid enough to go up the stairs upstairs? Or not?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, you probably could.
Melissa: Yes.
Tommy (Dad): All you gotta do is open the door and go up there.
Melissa: So your bedroom was downstairs here for the most part that-
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): And Mom, she kept boarders here. And they slept upstairs.
Melissa: Oh. So that was the way she made extra income was that she, people came and boarded here?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Is there where you guys hung the leather britches? For the fall for the beans? Or was that downstairs?
Tommy (Dad): It was downstairs.
Melissa: Was downstairs. So this was just pretty much bedroom space or if you had boarders for sleeping.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. They was a- a bedroom, I mean, a bed here and then one on that end.
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): That's where the guys slept.
Melissa: Oh.
Tommy (Dad): It's hard to believe that, uh, we lived in here. (laughs)
Melissa: Yeah. Where did Grandma store all the canned goods, like when you guys put up all the food for the winter?
Tommy (Dad): Well, that was a rent house out there.
Melissa: Oh, this was?
Tommy (Dad): And there was ties all the way around like, uh, on that wall?
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): And, uh, then, uh, they was ties across the front here. And the, uh, windows, double-pane windows was, uh, on the opening out there.
Melissa: So that's where she kept all of the- the food at then.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: The majority of it. Gotcha.
Tommy (Dad): See, that's cement in there.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Cement floor.
Melissa: Okay. So that was the, that was the storehouse.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Now, I know Grandma did some canning, but you said one of the main ways that you guys preserved the green beans was doing leather britches. Right?
Tommy (Dad): No. Yeah.
Melissa: Or one of the ways? Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. And then she canned a lot.
Melissa: Yeah. So for people who don't know, what's a leather britch?
Tommy (Dad): Well, you, uh, pick the- the green beans and then you- you strung them, and then you put, uh, took a- a needle and a- a long thread and, uh, you, uh, run the needle through the beans.
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): And, uh, then you hung 'em up and dried 'em. And then when the, in the wintertime, uh, you soaked them and they would almost come back to the original color. And, uh, that's what they call leather britches because they were kinda chewy.
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): And which had a pretty good flavor.
Melissa: Yeah. So did Grandma just string 'em up over, like over the- the stove areas where the heat would rise to help 'em dry faster?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So it's kinda like a bean garland, basically.
Tommy (Dad): Pardon?
Melissa: It's like a bean garland.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. And just dr- dried that way. Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah.
Melissa: So where outside, where was the garden spot then from that?
Tommy (Dad): Right over there.
Melissa: Just right out the front?
Tommy (Dad): Right across the road.
Melissa: Oh. It was over across the road in the field?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. But see, uh, when this house was, cabin was built, it was only come to right about here.
Melissa: It did?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: And then that part was added on?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. And I didn't know that until, uh ... See, the- the door used to be here? See that?
Melissa: Yeah. I see that.
Tommy (Dad): Goes all the way down.
Melissa: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do, actually. Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Huh. Who built that on then? It ... 'Cause it was before you guys came here it was built back on.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. You guys didn't add it on.
Tommy (Dad): And they used to be a window right there.
Melissa: Hmm.
Tommy (Dad): And Dad, he, uh, later changed it.
Melissa: Yeah. Sure is peaceful.
Tommy (Dad): And- and if you gotta go to the bathroom, you use that little house right there. (laughs)
Melissa: What'd you guys use for toilet paper?
Tommy (Dad): Uh, catalogs.
Melissa: (laughing)
Tommy (Dad): Sears and Roebuck.
Melissa: Nobody's wanted advertisement for a year. Nothing's changed. (laughs) The Sears Roebuck catalog was-
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Was it? Yeah? Yeah. So there was no toilet paper shortages.
Tommy (Dad): Uh, Montgomery Wards too.
Melissa: Yeah. (laughing) That's funny.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. It's a lot different now.
Melissa: Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): Life. And, uh, it's easier right now. Russ Taylor and I was talking the other days, and he's two years older than I am. And, uh, he said, uh, they never owned a- a car until he was, oh, 20, 25 years old.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): They just had horses.
Melissa: They just had the horses?
Tommy (Dad): Yeah.
Melissa: Did- did you guys have a vehicle? Or just a horse? When you were growing up, must've just been a horse.
Tommy (Dad): Well, we had horses to start with.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): And then Dad, uh, he had a '29 Chevy and, uh, then he upgraded there and, uh, had a- a '31 Model A sedan.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): Boy, we thought we was really going to town. (laughs)
Melissa: You got your upclass then? Yeah?
Tommy (Dad): Oh, yeah. And then he got a '41 Chevy five-passenger coupe, and I've always wanted one. And I would buy one today if I-
Melissa: If you come across 'em?
Tommy (Dad): Look at that.
Melissa: Cottonwood.
Tommy (Dad): Cottonwood.
Melissa: Uh, looks like it's snowing.
Tommy (Dad): And, uh, yeah. I would buy one even today.
Melissa: Yeah. Well, when you guys had the horses, did you have a wagon then? Or did you just ride the horse if you had to go somewhere? But if it was the family, you guys just walked?
Tommy (Dad): Uh, no, we rode the horse.
Melissa: Just rode the horse.
Tommy (Dad): Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): We usually had a team.
Melissa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tommy (Dad): Bess and- and Bob-
Melissa: Yeah.
Tommy (Dad): ... was the horses' name. Yeah, it was a- a different time.
Melissa: Yeah. You miss it?
Tommy (Dad): Uh, it was hard work.
Melissa: Well, I hope that you enjoyed that (laughs) episode, uh, as much as I did. And I want you to know that I am working on my dad to come back and be on camera and do a few more videos. So we shall see if he does so.
Melissa: I wanted to share with you a verse of the week. So this is from Proverbs, and it's Proverbs 16:16: "How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver?" I thought this was a very appropriate verse, being as we have talked about the Great Depression and the war and times where people didn't have very much money or a lot of material things, but how they still had a very good life.
Melissa: And I feel like in this world, there is a lot of information that is shared, but there's not nearly as much wisdom that is gained or shared with that knowledge. I mean, we have knowledge at our fingertips like no other time in history, honestly, with- with the internet, right? But unfortunately, it seems that we have less people who are exercising wisdom with that knowledge.
Melissa: Now, of course, (laughs) I would like to think that if you're listening to this podcast and myself, that that is not true of us. But I also wanna take a moment to reflect and gain that wisdom and insight from others who have went through and experienced a lot more than I have, my dad being one of those people, people from that generation.
Melissa: And so I leave that with you, and I thank you for sharing these moments and stories right along with me. And I look forward to being here back here with you next week, so blessings and Mason jars for now, my friends.
Sign up to receive email updates
Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.
More Articles on the Great Depression
- 10 Things Our Grandparents Reused During the Great Depression
- 6 Things Our Great-Grandparents Did Better Than Us
- Bridging Heritage and Health: Hunting 101
- Time & Budget Saving Tips from the Great Depression & this Homesteader’s Kitchen
- Handmade Gift Bags & Tags from the Great Depression Era
- 5 Life Lessons from the Great-Depression
- Great Depression Era Money Saving Tips w/ Potatoes
- 7 Depression Era Tips to Stretch Your Food Budget
- 8 Depression Era Tips to Save Money Now
- Building a Great Depression Era Pantry
- How to Stay Cool in the Summer Naturally & Old Fashioned Tips
- How to Keep Your House Cool in the Summer without Electricity
- Surviving Winter Without Power & Great Depression Christmas Traditions
- Time Management Skills for the Homestead
- A Military Wife’s Look on Homestead Preparedness
