Growing Up During The Great Depression

Many years ago when the Great depression affected the economy and that is known as a big part of history, and a big part of me, especially before my Grandfather passed away he told me as many stories about how he served in the war and how when he was a child and was in the great depression. Now my Grandfather was a man that would keep EVERYTHING i mean like from yogurt cups to boxes with nothing in them. Now i use to ask my mom when i was little why does he do that and she explained that it was because of how he was raised they didn't have anything and when they had anything they would keep it because they could use that one day. That was the one thing i would hear from him over and over “ i can use that one day.” or “ I can use that for something.”

The fresh morning air was cool against my face. Father had been gone for a while now, he had been called by his work for some “serious business.” As my sister Aliah, and I played in the pond by our 2 story house, we heard a faint muttering of Father’s pick-up.

Many consider the Great Depression a tragedy but few actually know the ways in which it actually affected the people who lived through it. One way it affected the people of the time is the hopelessness it brought. During the early 1920's many men returned from the "Great War" jaded and angry. The same effect was seen in most people during the depression. It was this hopelessness that spawned modernist literature and thought. Another way the depression affected the everyday man was the loss of homes. Many homes were foreclosed during the depression and this left many homeless. In fact the "Okies" were people left homeless after farm foreclosures. The last way the depression affected people was the broken homes it caused. The number of father's leaving their families rose dramatically during

The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.

It's been a while since I wrote to you, but life has been a struggle lately with the Great Depression hammered down to our nation. People losing their jobs, their house, even their loved ones. I continuously hear story about people commiting suicide because they can't feed their family, or because the depression of being a liability. The rate of people living off the street keep increasing, some survived with their newspaper blankets, while some life were taken away by the cold. No one talk about "hope" these days, as if there is anything to be hopeful about the situation. My business definitely took a hit because the amount of people who can afford to buy stuff keep disappearing. There is no question that I have to close my shop if that will

‘The hardships of the Great Depression in Australia were not shared equally.’ (Anderson et. al.,2012)

Between 1854 and 1929 there were about two hundred thousand children who were either orphaned or abandoned by families who could no longer care for them. These children needed new families to care for them. The children traveled west mainly to rural areas in the Midwest by train in search of new homes where they could live and work. The children generally were a year old to seventeen years old. Most were separated from their brothers and sisters, and some never saw their siblings again. Thus began the “placing out” movement.

Former President Calvin Coolidge said, “In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope- nothing of man” and to some extent it was true. Americans lost all hope in life entering a deep dark tunnel with no light in the end. The Great Depression was not something that appeared out of thin air; it grew over time like a tumor and eventually plagued America with an excessive disease. No decade was more terrifying in the twentieth century than the 1930s. The stock market crashing, due to people buying stocks on load, the debts from WWI farmers and consumers in deep debt, and

The 1930s was one of the most challenging times in US history, where the Great Depression caused millions of Americans to suffer through hardships because of the economy. Many people were out of work and unemployed, and the government at the time, believed that the best option was to stay out of its affairs, leaving the struggling people hung out to dry. It was not until Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, that the state of the country began to change. And that was due to the creation of the New Deal; a plan to alleviate the state of the country, providing help through increased government spending and programs, that led to its eventual recovery after the second World War.

The Great Depression had a huge impact on society and many economic causes to go along with it. But, what mattered the most was how they got through it. Upton Sinclair once stated, “The remedy [the Great Depression] is to give the workers access to the means of production, and let them produce for themselves, not for others… the American Way.”

The Great Depression was a horrible time in American history, with as much as one-fourth of the population out of work. One of the hardest hit areas of the population was the agricultural center of the United States in the area that would come to be known as the Dust Bowl. The problems that the people of the Dust Bowl dealt with however were not a result of the Depression as a whole but instead were the result of a combination of bad farming decisions and a horrible drought. Even though the timing makes it seem like the Dust Bowl experience in the 1930’s was a part of the Great Depression as a whole it was a totally different disaster that was occurring at the same time. The experience of the families that lived in the Dust Bowl during the 1930’s cannot be described in any way but as horrible, depressing, and almost hopeless.

“No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no grasshoppers are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers and stockmen and their wives and children, who have carried on through desperate days and inspire us with their self-reliance, their tenacity, and their courage” (qtd. In Lookinbill 89). Thus spoke President Franklin D. Roosevelt during a broadcast campaign in Washington, D.C. in 1936 (89). By the early 1930s the nation was in the grips of the Great Depression (“We are California” 1). Millions of Americans were without food and shelter, and as well suffering to grasp hope when it comes to extreme poverty (1).

This act was created in 1974 there are many events that could have impacted the need for such a policy. One event that impacted the need for the RHYA is the Great Depression. The Great Depression led to about 400,000 young boys being homeless. Another important event is the Vietnam War, though it was coming to an end around the time that the act was passed, it lasted for many years and effected the family structure of American households. The draft caused by the war made a lot of families turn into one income families, which could have made teens need to leave home before they were old enough to support themselves in order to leave more resources for the rest of the family.

Any one who reads John Steinbeck would know, every day was a struggle for those who lived during the Great Depression.

Living through a significantly rough time period can be difficult for many families. Those that lived through these tragedies bring back many impacted and emotional stories of their loved ones. My grandfather, Roger O. Schafer lived through The Great Depression. The memories that they bring back make us think about the scenes they must have witnessed. There were many responsibilities my grandfather had to learn quickly to help out his family during this destructive time. Since my grandpa had to encounter many different tragic times within his lifetime, I believe he’s a better knowledgeable, successful individual. Especially with the excruciating events he had to face, only to better himself and his life. Additionally, along with many other