Will Rodgers once said, "It is a Recession when the other guy is out of work! It is a Depression when you are out of work!"

I was born in 1949, so I was not born during the last Depression, but I live in the aftermath of it, listen to my elders about what they went through during the dark times. And learning how to survive the bad days is still helping me and my family in todays bad times. Back then....

Families did not have televisions, refrigerators, microwaves, dishwashers, washer and driers, air conditioning. small bedrooms, only one bathroom, small kitchens (no dining rooms), very small living rooms. Larger houses where divided into rental units, and you might be living on the 2nd or 3rd floor sharing a common bathroom with other units on the same floor.

All food was cooked from scratch, no frozen food, because few (if any) had freezers. Monday was Pork Chops, spaghetti on Tuesday, became the casserole on Thursday. Wednesday might be some sort of sausage and sauerkraut, Friday was fish, Saturday was Ox-tail Soup and bread, Sunday was a chicken dinner that mother burnt the pin feathers off the chicken she bought on Saturday from the butcher, and put it in the oven before the family went to church. After the Sunday Chicken Dinner, my father would give me a dime to run up to the corner grocery store to buy a pint of ice cream for the five of us.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table doing my school homework, and when my father came home with his pay, my mother and father sat at the same table dividing the money into envelopes for the house mortgage payment, the house insurance, car insurance, life insurance, food, electric & gas bill, car payments and gasoline, doctor bills, clothing, household supplies, and if there was anything left over we might go to see a movie. There was no money for going to a cabin on a lake to fish, or vacation to some other State.

For entertainment we read books that we got from the Public Library, listened to the radio programs on the radio, or played board or card games. I was born in 1949,We did not get a television until 1956 (used). All my fathers cars were 5 years old when he bought them. We were not rich, and we were not poor, but we still learned do without a lot while growing up.

I guess what I am saying is no matter how bad you think you have it now, it was a lot more barren back then. Things we take for granted now did not even exist back then. Most of the stuff you need, you don't really need.

My Grandfather said "Needs, Wants, Gets; are three different things. Sometimes none of them are on the menu, so you do without or make do with what you have!"

~Parnelli