What Was It like to Live during the Great Depression in the US?

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The stock market crash of 1929 didn’t cause the Great Depression by itself, but it is a powerful symbolic starting point to the greatest economic disaster of the twentieth century. On that dark day in October 1929, fortunes were lost and fear of financial insecurity rose throughout the United States and the world. In 1932, the low point of the Depression, as much as a third of Americans were out of work and even more people were unemployed in other countries. The stock market reached its lowest point ever and wouldn’t rise to its pre-Depression levels for almost twenty years.

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[Ninnjette-]

My grandmother was 5 years old, when the great depression started. Even when I was little in the 90s, I never seen that woman throw any food out in my life. She would put any leftovers, in the freezer. She canned her own food. What she went through as a little girl, carried with her all the way into her 70s. She would tell me stories, how she couldn’t even afford a pencil for school. She found her father hanging in the barn. Her stepmother was abusive. She had to drop out of the eighth grade, to raise her two sisters and brother. She had it rough.

[kortyEdna]

Coming out of facing alot, I knew two things about the stock market: It caused the Great Depression, and the fastest way to make a million on the markets was to start with two million. And then the Great Recession happened only a few years later. So yeah, I wish someone had better explained it to me earlier in life. Having a good entry and exit strategy will make you succeed in the stock market.

[LoughBellis]

I'm not kidding when I say that the market crash and high inflation have me really stressed out and worried about retirement. I've been in the red for a while now and although people say these crisis has it perks, I'm losing my mind but I get it Investing is a long-term game, so focus on the long run.

[susanb.]

Is history repeating itself?

My grandfather was born in 1901. He never gave up many of his "great depression" ways of doing things. I'm 74 and beginning to struggle financially, as many of us are. I am fortunate, however, that my grandparents taught me so many ways to be frugal. I was raised on beans and rice, still enjoy them, and at least 2 meals each week are meat-free. A hot water bottle filled with hot water will warm you during those winter nights but fill it with ice water for those summer nights. The biggest takeaway from grandpop...you really don't need nearly as much as you think you do.

[Riggsnic_co]

Preparing for the Impending Great Depression: Strategies for Thriving During The Great Reset. Wondering about the right timing for stock investments? Curious about the timeline for a complete economic recovery? Puzzled about how some individuals are generating over $450k in profits within months in the current market scenario? These questions have left me perplexed.

[kimberlyperrotis]

My grandmother lived through the depression as a young married woman with children. She became a hoarder for the rest of her life, every magazine and item of Tupperware was a treasure. My grandfather, her husband, was a building contractor and a lot of that work dried up, too. It must have been incredibly hard during that time. The family began to recover when my grandfather got steady work buildings ships in the US Navy yards in Oakland, in the buildup and during WWII. My grandmother got a job in accounting at Sears, too. I remember the day when, finally retired, they paid off the mortgage on their last home in the late 60s, it was such a happy one.

[FlexibleFlyer]

My parents both lived through the Great Depression. My father's family were Sicilian immigrants with 15 children.
They lived in a cold water flat with no heat other than from a small stove in the dining room that burned coal. The railroad men would throw out a shovel full of coal to the children when the train went by. The boys were up on the third floor---the attic---with newspapers on the windows to try to insulate the windows. My father said the thick layers of ice never melted until early May from the windows on the north side. The family got by with having a garden, bartering, and working---my grandfather worked 2 jobs during the week and one on the weekend. My grandmother was illiterate and took in laundry and sewing. For my mother, things were just as hard. She would walk with her father to the dump in another town about an hour's walk away to find "treasures" that my grandparents could repair or mend----and then sell. My mother used to scavenge clothing thrown out because of missing buttons, a torn hem, or torn lining in a coat. My grandmother would clean the clothes---washing and ironing---and then do the repairs. Twice a year she would open the basement to the neighborhood and anyone interested in "shopping" for men's, women's and children's clothing and clean and in good condition.
My mother said people began lining up at 5 in the morning so they could be some of the early shoppers. My grandfather sold small appliances that he repaired---toasters, irons, etc. and tools. My grandparents were not too proud to go to the dump, and those dump finds kept the family in some money during the Depression. Let's say my mother and her sister were voted "best dressed" in high school. My mother used to wear a full length mink coat to school, and her sister had dresses and coats that were the envy of even the teachers for the clothing's style and workmanship. Families and friends stuck together to get by during this period, and no one was too proud to offer help or accept it. People were really a "neighborhood" then. And, on the street where my grandparents lived, there was a mixture of Poles, Italians, Swedes, Armenians, French Canadians, and didn't speak English that well, but their children all went to school, got an education, and were invested in the community.
I can't imagine people today going through what my parents and grandparents did during those long years. People had backbone then----not the spineless wonders we see today who would never go picking through the discards at a dump or growing their own vegetables to put food on the table. Those stories of deprivation were engrained in me early on in life. I never forget the stories that my parents told me----my father sat with two of his younger brothers (ages 3 and 4) who died from tainted milk, and my mother was with her brother (age 4) when he died from a bowel obstruction. As long as I and my brothers live, we will never forget our parents' stories. Through their eyes we had a first-hand look at the Depression, and our parents make sure we learned our lessons well. That was their mission in life.

[PrepperPrincess]

My grandma was born in 1925. I always wish she had stories from the Great Depression but her father was fully employed the entire time, they were always debt free and their house was paid off. She wanted for nothing. Only thing she remembered somewhat different was that she got made fun of for only having one pair of shoes…that’s it….while many were in rags without any shoes. She was always crazy for bogo sales even if she didn’t need the second item and always clipped coupons. Never canned, never gardened, always had “help” cleaning her house and doing her laundry in old age. Never hung dried clothes or did dishes without a dishwasher. She died a multi millionaire and stayed in a super fancy apartment until she had to go to hospice for a couple months, then quietly passed away during Covid (not because of Covid) at the age of 94.

[ericmadsen]

If the great depression has taught us anything it would be to band together to help each other.

[dagobello]

Right now it feels like the roaring 20s. Everyone driving cars which cost well over 40, 000 and mortgages over 2, 500 or even over 3, 000 a month. Not sure if this is sustainable.

[LuisTheMexican]

during the depression my father went to work for the civilian conservation corps helped my grandma {widow} feed his family .He never abandoned them . My father was my hero .

[pseudopetrus]

Great respect for those people who made a living how ever they could in that tough time. They were survivors, we can learn from that!

[Flashbackphantom]

My grandma remembered it well as she was born in 1925. When she was a kid, she told her teacher of how she and her family didn't have enough money for food, so her teacher went to the store with her and bought a full paper bag worth of groceries for her to take home. ❤ As she got older and had kids in the 1940s and 1950s and then later becoming my grandma by 1992, she would always make great depression type meals like noodle dish, German potato salad, and lime jello with peas in it.

[mariebarnes]

I see many similarities to what is happening today in May of 2023,
On the positive side I see helping eachother out and coming closer together as a good thing! Trusting in God needs to be 1st place!

[tammyforbes]

My grandpa said it wasn’t no big deal to him and his family cause they lived on a farm and was already poor didn’t matter what happened in the city to them they didn’t rely on money to survive!

[honestlyyours]

One of the best, and I think, most realistic movies chronicalling life during the "dirty thirties" was "The Grapes of Wrath". My father, who grew up in a farming family during that period, really identified with the farmers' plight in that movie. Henry Fonda deserved an Oscar for his performance in that movie.

[ronaldmccutcheon]

My parents lived through it. Mama never threw away anything.

[diggermanmay]

I grew up during the end of this, a lot of people are going to get a big shock soon!

[TennesseeTrio]

I love all the comments sharing their memories from the time - thank you all!

[armandrodriguez]

I can't imagine today's young being able to deal with this level of suffering.