I started thinking about how easy we have life these days. How "depressing" things are in our nation right now. Then I started thinking about the "real" Great
Depression and what times were like back then. Farmers working daylight to dark plowing fields with horses - backbreaking work. Men working 6 days a week while women washed clothes in a tub of water and children had no shoes. How
ungrateful I feel. If anything, at this point in my life, I truly wish I had less. I no longer feel the need to have new furniture, a new car, the best clothes. If anything, this economy has taught me that I could live with so much less and probably be happier than I have been in the past.
Proud men of the Great Depression having to stand in soup lines...
and men having to stand in line to get food rations for their families...
and women "pea pickers" who worked grueling hours and working conditions in order to survive...
From today forward, I'm going to think every day about our parents and grandparents who lived in these conditions and held their heads up proud and survived what we can't even imagine. I will be
grateful, want and need less, and remember those who lived The Great Depression.
The best things in life aren't things...
We just got rid of cable and Jake said he wouldn't mind if we never get it back. In some ways it's refreshing to shake up the routine and wean ourselves off of things we thought we could never live without.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you; it IS refreshing to focus on how bountiful our lives are and it has nothing to do with stuff. We are all very, very blessed.
ReplyDeleteHeather, you guys will be surprised at the real QUALITY time you spend together without TV as a distraction.
We lived on a farm during the Great Depression, so we always had enough to eat and my parents never let us know how little (or no ) money we had. We were happy kids, played and somehow they scraped up enough money to give me a bike when I was nine. At that time the depression had been going strong for 11 years ! I had marvelous parents----we went dancing at the Grange Hall on Saturday nights every couple of months, went to town shopping ( a real treat ) where Mother always bought me a hamburger----a HUGE treat.--5 cents. ( she never had one. ) Some times we went to a movie ----- 10 cents, (I think she had to save up for that on a tight budget ) Dad always found something else to do ( I realize now they couldn't both afford to go). In the summer we had picnics on the lawn, tea parties with my dolls ----walked in the corn fields, swam in the irrigation ditches-----. It was ok. But others didn't have it so good in the cities. My Father had lost his job and that's why he sold our city home and moved to the farm.
ReplyDeleteEveryone can live more simply and find ways to enjoy what we do have.
I keep it in perspective because I know my dad's family lost everything in the Great Depression. He grew up in eastern Idaho, in St. Anthony. They managed to keep the house and that was about it. Dad still won't eat chicken because it reminds him of the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteYea, all-in-all, we're a very lucky generation of rather spoiled brats who think we can't do without everything we want. We will never appreciate the good in life if we don't occasionally have to live through the bad.
ReplyDeleteHi - I'm a fellow HSer who found your blog via Mayberry's. I just wanted to say thanks for some perspective. I can't stand how the media is likening this moment to the Great Depression; it's hardly an accurate comparison.
ReplyDeleteWelcome! Nice to hear from a new blogger, especially another HS sort! I agree, but it sure is easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves unless we try to take a minute to remember the REAL Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteThat's so true. People today feel sorry for themselves and don't think they have enough if they have "small" houses, old furniture and modest cars. They want the 5 bedroom 3-bath with granite countertops and a master bedroom suite with the spa bathroom. This post is a good reminder for me to be grateful for all I have - even if the kitchen does look like it is stuck in the 70s, lol.
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