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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Money money money...
  • Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:40:31 -0500


On Sep 21, 2008, at 7:23 AM, Don Bowen wrote:

The fabled stock market crash of Oct 1929 is always thought of as the
beginning but the real problems happened when many banks started failing in
the early 30s. The steep downturn was in 1932 when many people thought the
very existence of the USA was in jeopardy. . . . Recovery was well underway by the late 30s but it was a very anemic recovery.

I was born in 1936 and by the time my brain started remembering things it remembered the tough times of the late thirties and forties. Stuff like one very modest toy for Christmas, Mother-sewn clothes, and "Clean up your plate!" When I was ten my parents bought a small home on an acre of good dirt at the edge of Beloit, Wisconsin. That acre plus effort provided almost all of our food save flour and seasonings. In addition to chickens, rabbits, a hog and a steer, summer food came out of the garden and winter food came out of canning jars and basement storage.

I phoned Mother yesterday. She recounted how she went to a lady they knew who had some money and how they worked out a purchase mortgage that was doable. Dad made very modest wages but they paid off that debt, a certain amount each pay check. Ten years later they sold that house and bought our farm. My memory of it is that we did better on that one good acre than we did on the 172-acre farm.

The house they bought was next door to where Mother grew up. Grandpa built the house. He lost his job and lost the house and died before I was born.






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