LIFE AFTER THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 30S

Life at home in the 30s

Those of us who are still alive, having lived through the 1930s, have a very different set of values than most now.  People struggling without jobs and money in 2011 do not have the same coping skills with which to survive to survive.  Families are not as responsible for one another and are often too geographically distanced to assist..

Products are no longer made to last and, inevitably really must be replaced.  You can't go to your back acres and cut the wood to heat you for the winter.   Electric bills are astronomical as compared to household bills as they were..  The same is true for groceries. People bought unmodified foods that were locally in season, or canned,  A higher percent of people lived on farms in those days than today or had enough yard to grow vegetables and can them top last the winter..

We didn't have the pollution and toxins to which we are subjected today., thus not so much illness.  It was not that life was better, it was that it was simpler and we could survive on much less.  Death was accepted as inevitable and not always as a failure of doctors.  We didn't know what was going on in the world until much after things happened and resolved.  Not everyone knew everything that was going on other than a few major legislative votes and local news, much by word of mouth or the radio.
But before we get lost in a false nostalgia.  Though is was simpler, life expectancy was far shorter, so people didn't have as long to be really old and feeble. For those who long for 'the good old days', it is likely most would not be willing to give up their computers, cell phones, and time and energy-saving appliances.

There is no wish I have to be young again.  Life is to be lived once only.  We learn and grow and by the time we get old, we get tired.  Whereas we once had the urge to climb mountains, we now look around at the mountain of stuff we have accumulated in life that we will leave for others to 'climb'..