An Interview with My Grandmother

What was life like in growing up post Depression?

The Depression was very much still active.We bartered and raised gardens for survival. Neighbors helped neighbors can and grow food. My daddy borrowed money to plant seeds for his crops. My mother sewed all of our clothes from the cloth that came from buying flour.

Did both of your parents work a job?

Daddy was a sharecropper which gave us a home and a percentage of the crops for the family.

Mother was a housewife, worked at a pencil factory

What animals did you keep to serve the family?

Cows for milk and pigs for meat.We canned the meat.We kept chickens for eggs and some for meat. Ate meat on Sunday, but sparingly during the week. The people who lived in town often didn't have any meat because if you couldn't raise it, then you didn't eat it.

What did you grow in the garden and what did you buy from the store?

We had a garden and it had to feed us through the summer through until the next growing season.

Lettuce, radishes, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, blackberries, green beans, corn, sorghum, peppers, etc.

We bartered with neighbors for veggies.

We had food stamps for sugar, flour, coffee, and a few other things. It wasn't just us though. Everyone at the time had food stamps because poverty was so widespread.

What kind of presents did you get at Christmas and birthdays?

We got an orange and an apple, and were very excited about it. We didn't see oranges that often in the store because we didn't grow them around our area. Mother made a coconut cake every year. We got hard candy, but it completely depended on the crops and if they brought in a profit that year.

Were you required to go to school?

Yes. I walked 3 miles to school. I went to a one room schoolhouse through 8th grade. Graduated 8th grade. I didn't go to high school. It wasn't required back then.

What about church?

We attended the Church of Christ in Columbia.I was baptized in a creek. Every Sunday we would have a big potluck dinner with family while the kids play.

What activities did you do for fun?

Ball, hopscotch, play cards, music

Did your family have a radio?

We did have a radio, and we listened to WSM every Saturday night. It played the Grand Ole Opry. It was a big deal to sit and listen to it as a family.

What books did you have?

We traded books with other families because we couldn't afford to buy new books like people do today. There wasn't a library to go to at that time either. Every family had a bible.

We never had a vacation. You didn’t spend what you didn’t have. There were no credit cards to use. Boiled water from the well. Nothing went to waste.

I found this discussion with my grandmother very enlightening. It showed me the we can live and even thrive on much less than we think. She remembers this time of her life fondly, and said she never thought of herself as poor. They enjoyed much more time together as a family. She said she appreciates some of the advances in technology like the dishwasher and things like that, but that she actually believes during those simpler times, things were easier and they depended more heavily on God to provide. They were grateful for the small things in life, and didn't need much to feel joy and thankfulness.