by SunshinePrevails

Created on: August 02, 2008

Times have been hard for so many people in the past few months; especially since the gasoline prices have continued to rise.

Even if you do not own a automobile; the crunch has affected every family in the
United States. The trip to the supermarket is a real challenge for people that live from paycheck to paycheck. Seems that every trip to the grocery store reveals higher prices.

I can feel my heart sink as I witness young families, who at the checkout counter find themselves picking and choosing what they can leave behind because the lack of cash.
I become aware of their plight; the desire to have good food for their family, but end up purchasing only what is necessary to survive. Foods that will fill their bellies, but neglects the nutrition required for a healthy diet.

We cannot know the despair the people of great depression throughout the 1930's endured; we can only imagine. However; I have to wonder if a depression now would be far more tragic.

In the 1930's families, on the most part, knew how to live off the land. Many of them had gardens for vegetables, animals for meat, chickens for eggs, and some could hunt and kill wild life to supplement their diet.

Families in the 1930's understood how to make meals from what the possessed. The children knew that food was put on the table to be eaten, not to waste. No one ask for something different. Everyone ate the same menu; for the same kettle. They ate what was before them, and were grateful for what they had.

Even though the times were hard; the families sat at the table together as a family. They shared good table manners, and if it was served to them, they ate it.

After the meals; the family shared the duties of clearing the table and washing the dishes. And in most cases, Mother was blessed to rest while the children did the work of cleaning the kitchen.

Afterwards; they family gathered in the family room which was know as the living room or parlor. People did not have den's in those days. Only the elite had indoor toilets. Everyone had what was affectingly know as bath with a path, or more commonly know as the outhouse. And the Sears & Robuck catalog was a real commodity. Many were not so fortunate.

Every family had their own method of hygiene in the outhouse. And I might add, some were truly creative. Perhaps; in a future writing I will elaborate further.

The outhouse came with its own obstacles. In the summer time, you had to always be on the look out for a wasp nest, or a yellow jacket nest. It was not uncommon

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