The Great Depression

GRANDMA'S HOUSE

Grandma's house", those were magical words for us. We would go skipping down through the field and there we would be.There always seemed to be lots of activity going on there.They had electricity, a radio, an icebox, a sink in the house and a windmill to pump their water. They also had a cistern. A cistern was a reservoir in the ground that held rain water. It was normally about 10 to 15 ft deep, which kept the water that was in it cool. Having an icebox seemed like a big deal to us because we did not have one. Mama said when they were children, in winter the boys would go to the pond and break chunks of ice so that they could make ice cream. They would sit around in their coats eating ice cream. Seems strange to us now. Later on there was an ice house in town where you could go buy ice by the 5, 10 , 15 or 20 lb block. At our Grandparents there were several outbuildings - 2 barns, corn crib, stripping room (used for stripping tobacco), grainery, and a garage to keep their Model T Ford in. They also had livestock. They had horses to pull the wagons and the farm implaments. Mules were also good strong workers. They did not raise beef because at that time freezers were not available for the home. I don't think that there was any other means of preserving beef, but pork could be smoked or salted down. Hogs were raised strictly for their meat and lard. Hog killing was a big big day on the farm. Daddy and John used to go help which meant that we had pork for a while.--- The very fattest part of the hogs was cooked outdoors in a very large kettle over an open fire. The fat was drained off then the remainder of the meat in the kettle was put through a press to squeeze out any fat that remained....thus we had lard. Lard was used for making lye soap as well as in cooking........No vegetable oil in those days. Pork was preserved by curing it with salt and smoking it over fire in the smokehouse. Don't remember much about that. I just remember seeing hams, shoulders and sides of bacon hanging from the ceiling in the smokehouse. --- Milk cows were the only kind of cows that were ever raised. Since they had a icebox, they could keep the milk, make butter from it , have buttermilk and still have plenty to drink. In Mama's family there were 6 girls and 3 boys. Two of the boys and 3 girls still lived at home when we were children.Aunt Carrie took care of the chickens . She spent the biggest part of her time on them. There were 2 hen houses and several chicken coops. She kept those hen houses very clean, always scraping the floor clean and putting fresh straw in the hen's nests. She "set" the hens in spring and raised baby chicks. Of coarse we got to play with them. Oh how nice and soft they were. Spring and summer were the only time that we could have fried chicken, because that was the only time that the hens would set on the eggs to hatch them. Mother Nature's way . The young roosters were the ones that were killed to eat, the hens were saved to lay eggs the next winter and to set the eggs the next spring. The older hens were eaten the following winter. "Chicken and dumplings" ,"Chicken & dressing" Yummy !! Oh, Grandpa lived there too. He was a great big man, very tall and just big. He wore a "handle bar" mustache and seemed to tower over us children. He was not around house very much because he was usually working in the fields or in one of the barns.They raised so much tobacco that it took many weeks to strip it and hawl it off to market. The corn had to be shucked by hand and hawled to the grainery. That was a mighty cold job. Grandpa was not only big but was a very strong man...An old man once told me that while the men were waiting to be unloaded at the grainery, they would have contests of strength by lifting 100 pound sacks of corn..."There was no one there who could beat Nat Young" Uncle Joe Young Uncle Joe Young was Grandpa's brother. He had an illness that was not diagnosed. The only memory that I have about his condition was hearing someone say "he had fits." Now I realize that he had epolypsy. At that time there was nothing to be done to treat it. He lived with his parents till their death. After that he came to live with my grandparents, Nat and Gertrude Young and their nine children. --- Well that was just too noisy and hectic for a person in his condition. It caused him to have too many seizures. Soooo Grandpa and the boys went to work and built him a little one room house just under the hill from their house. (This was in the early 1900's maybe l915 or 20.) He lived there and took his meals with the family. When we were growing up he didn't go out into the fields and work with the other men, but he did take care of the garden, and planted separate tomato, corn and potato patches. It took lots of food to feed that big family. There was a little donkey that he used to plow the gardens with. Her name was Fanny. He also used her to pull the sled when he went to gather corn and tomatoes. They were on the other side of the railroad track. Sometimes when we were around, we would get to ride on the sled. But then we had to help gather the corn and pick the tomatoes. We helped him to keep the potato bugs off in the potato patch by carrying a little container of kerosene down the potato row and knock the bugs off into the container. Uncle Joe also killed the chickens on Saturday afternoon in preparation for Sunday. Grandma would cut the chickens up and soak them in salt water over night. When he was having a seizure we children were told to go home. ~~~ During winter months Uncle Joe's little house was a favorite place to go and have popcorn. Aunt Lucy or Aunt Carrie would go down with us and pop the corn on his little potbellied stove. His house was interesing. He had Coca Cola calenders hanging all around the walls. In those days the Coca Cola calenders always had pictures of pretty girls on them. He also had a trunk, wardrobe, bed and just a straight chair. He always leaned back against the wall in his chair and sang folk songs to us and smoke his pipe. There were tobacco twists hanging on the wall. He used them to make his own blend of pipe tobacco. ~~~ Uncle Joe was quite a guy. He was killed on the railroad tracks while picking up coal that had falled off the coal cars of the train. He was just around the bend and the engineer did not see him till it was too late. Uncle Joe had lost quite a lot of his hearing, therefore he did not hear the train coming. When they cleaned up his little house, they gave us his big black umbrella. I was 14 years old. Halloween During the years that we lived on our grandparents farm, the only means of transportation we had was to ride with someone from their house, and it was most always Aunt Theresa.. Before World War ll, people would dress up for Halloween go downtown and parade up and down Main Street. ( now 2nd Street). People dressed up in every conceivable costumes...I remember one man dressed in a pair of long red underware with bathroom tissue streaming behind him, and he was carrying a "thunder mug". We would mostly just dress up in old clothes and wear a mask. Once John dressed up like a girl and wore one of Ruth's dresses.. We had lots of fun out of that. - - When World War ll came along, there was a law passed that prohibited anyone from wearing a mask...All the fun was gone from Halloween for us. Sometime during the next few years during they war, the idea of "Trick or Treat" was born. I was too old for that but Ruth and Donald got in on it. Christmas Christmas was not a very happy time for us either. We never had a Christmas tree that I can remember and Mama made no effort to bake anything special during our younger years living in the country. I can't remember a Christmas tree at my Grandparents home either. I do remember that they always made jam cake for Christmas. Guess times were so hard, no one had the desire, I don't know... We always hung up one of our stockings with our name tacked above it.. In our stocking we usually got some hard candy and maybe some fruit ( oranges and apples.). I remember that it seems like Daddy always would crack open a coconut. We all wanted some of the milk from it.. I remember the Christmas that Donald was a baby. He was born December 10th and Daddy took some of us older children to the Goodfellows Christmas program which was for poor families. We received a little box of dolls that were very very small....By 1936 Dad had a job with the state highway department and we got nice dolls that Christmas. They had lovely dresses and their eyes closed when laid down. Ruth's doll was not like Catherine's and mine. She cried because her dollie would not close it's eyes. The Benders had a Christmas tree when they were kids, it was part of their Christmas present. To make it more special they were not allowed in the livingroom until Christmas morning. - - Joe says that his dad would go out and cut down a cedar tree and they strung popcorn to trim it with. His sisters cut out paper dolls to hang on it. Judging by today's standards I realize that our holidays don't sound very exciting, but to us they were exciting because we had so very little, it really didn't take a whole lot to make us happy. The 1940's Moving to Town Early in l940 our family moved from East Hiway 60 into Owensboro...We rented a house on 5th and Leitchfield Road. We were so excited to have electricity and running water in the house.What a luxery to have a bathroom in the house..Wow! In September of 1941 Mama's older brother Edward died from the heart disease that he had had since birth. He was 41 years old. His body was brought back to Grandma's house after having been at the undertakers for 2 days. My grandmother always thought that the cardiologist from Louisville who had treated him, had his heart sent there for medical purposes. They asked the family for permission, but Grandma refused. Because they took so long in getting him ready, she assumed that it was done without her permission. Whether they did or not they never knew. That is the last time that I can remember a wake being held in the home. Septemeber 13, l942 my Dad was struck with a heart attack that took his life. He was in the kitchen helping Mama fix lunch, when he collapsed on the floor. He was taken by ambulance to Daviess County Hospital where he was pronounced "Dead on Arrival". Needless to say, our life as we knew it before came to a sudden halt. Our mother was so devasted that she could barely function. We had no money in savings and no home. Our landlord came to see Mama and notified her that he was giving us one month's rent. After that we needed to move. It so happened that Mama's brother Edward who had passed away the previous year had left a small 4 room house to my grandmother..She asked the renters to move so that we could move into that house...it was only two blocks away. Catherine was 15 yrs old, I was 13, John was 11, Ruth was 9 and Donald was 6. It is easy for us now to see how very difficult it must have been for our mother. There was no Social Security, no aid for dependent children or any other assistance that I can remember. I do know that the welfare department paid for dental work and for Ruth and Donald to have their tonsils removed. But as far as food, the only help I can remember came from St. Vincent Paul Society at St. Paul's Church. We were given a check for $5.00 each week and we were able to buy enough groceries to fill John's wagon with sideboards on it. We had no meat, but if we had - we had no refrigeration to keep it. We received some food stuffs from Grandma's place. They sometimes brought us milk, potatoes and eggs. In summer we were given fresh vegetables. We not always had what we wanted to eat, but we never were hungry...ate lots of potatoes, milk gravy, beans and cornbread. Mama cooked oats and rice for breakfast and made grits. All nurishing food, but not very fancy. Catherine once sold her doll to a neighbor to buy something she wanted at the grocery. As soon as each of us were old enough we found little jobs to make a few cents. Catherine did some babysitting and ironing for a neighbor, I worked at a beauty salon, keeping the floor swept and washing towels as well as other little jobs that needed done. John sold "Liberty Magazines" and newspapers, but Ruth and Donald were just too young to bring in any money. Mama cleaned house for a lady who was a good Christian person which helped her so much.. The lady was very helpful in talking with Mama about our father's death and how to deal with it. Since World War 11 was in full swing by this time, it was easy for women to find employment, but Mama somehow just never seemed to fit in at the work place. She was contantly worried about her children "running the streets". So finally, she stayed home and we tried to earn enough to live on....It was a long old road, but we worked hard and with the Lord's help, we all grew up to be good and decent citizens. World War llSunday, December 7, l941, Mama was spending the day at Grandma's house...(She had ridden up with my aunts after church.) We still did not have a car. I stayed home with my daddy...I was roller skating on the front porch when he came out and told me that America had been attacked at Pearl Harbor --- I was 13 years old, almost 14. From that day on, our lives would never be the same. The country would never be the same. Our whole way of life changed that day...Everyone's waking hours were consummed with thoughts of the war. Our fathers and brothers would be needed in the armed forces..Fortunately for us, our dad was too old to be taken, but our uncles went. Many of our friends and neighbors either joined or were drafted. We had already been in the war in Europe for some time, but this was different. Our "Homeland" had been attacked !!!...Goodness...How could this have happened? Our Dad followed every day of the war, listening to news broadcasts and reading the newspaper. Walter Winchhell was one of the war correspondents that everyone listened to...Ernie Pyle also was a correspondent who went right along with the troops who were fighting in Europe and wrote a column in the newspaper every day. He went through many battles. He didn't tell about the war as such, he told more about the boys. Little stories about their how they spent their time when not in battle. Later on he went to the South Pacific with the Marines. These type of stories endeared him to the people back home. I know that Grandaddy Bender read his column religiously and imagined George in every battle. ( I did not know the Bender Family at that time.) On September 5, 1944, Ernie Pyle wrote his last column in Europe. He returned to the U.S. for health reasons, but was unable to stay away for long. Shortly afterward, he returned to the Pacific where a Japanese machine-gun bullet killed him on the island of Ie Shima on April 18, 1945, at the age of 44. I remember so well when the battle of Midway Island was the first battle that we won in the Pacific and it was considered the turning point of the War with Japan. My dad let out a "hoop and a holler". Up until that time, Japan had won every battle. As far as actually any news on film, it was only shown on the "News Reels" in the movie theaters before each and every movie. Many people went to the movies just to see the news, hoping to get a glimpse of a loved one. The mail that was received back home was a very small letter called "v-mail". The boys had to write short messages that were typed in very small print, thus taking up much less space than a regular size envelope. Sending and receiving mail was a very important part of the moral of our troops. AND they were censored. Many times, so much of the message was cut out, it was difficult to make sense of the whole thing...I remember seeing a letter that Aunt Theresa had received from Uncle John, it had so many holes in it, that she couldn't make sense of it. The war had a great effect here at home (on the home front) ... Factories were immediately revamped so as to build trucks, jeeps, tanks, and all sorts of weapons and ammunition as well as ships and airplanes...Clothing factories stopped all production and started making uniforms and all sorts of items needed for our troops. Shoe factories made shoes, boots and any other leather items needed for the military..We back home received shoe stamps...in other words, shoes were rationed. Can't remember how many pairs we were allowed per year, but it wasn't enough. Shoe repair shops were a booming business. Gasoline was rationed to just so much a week unless you were living on and working a farm. Obviously, our country needed all the farm products that could be grown. People were encouraged to create a little vegetable garden in their back yards. These "Victory Gardens" as it was reported, raised 40% of the vegetables needed for our country during that time..... Another way of cutting down on the use of gasoline was to lower the speed limit on the highways to 35 miles per hour !!...Also tires were made of synthetic rubber as were shoe soles and the erasers on pencils. ( Of coarse I would remember that, as I was in school. It was worse than not having an eraser at all.) Many items at the grocery store were in short supply, such as sugar and soap powders being among them. Oh yes, cigarettes were extremely hard to find here at home. Every meal that the troops received included 2 cigarettes. Guys who didn't smoke, traded theirs for other items, such as candy etc... Every thing we did was for the "war effort". Anything to help the cause. Patriotism was upper and foremost in everyone's mind. "V for victory" was often heard on the radio programs....War Bonds were sold to help finance the war. We in school could buy war stamps for 10 cents or maybe 25cents. They were put in a special book and when the book contained $18.75 worth of stamps, it was exchanged for a $25.00 war bond. The bonds were only redeemed after 10 years for the $25.00. Many radio shows ended with these words, "bye bye and buy bonds"....War bond rallys were organized and movie stars traveled the country making personal appearances at these rallies. Two out of 3 Americans bought War Bonds. I don't remember much about the post war agreement in Europe when the Germans surrendered. There was a lot of controversy between Russia and The USA concerning how to divide Germany....There was East Germany and West Germany with Berlin divided even though it was located in East Germany. VJ Day The Day War With Japan Ended I don't remember exactly what I was doing on this memorable day, but most likely Catherine and I were working at the Dime Store. My brother John says that he was working in the tobacco field with Uncle Carl. He said the cars going along the highway were honking their horns and waving to them...after a few minutes of this, Uncle Carl said, "Junior, we better go to the house and see what's going on". Of coarse John jumped on his bike and headed for home - just about a 5 mile ride. That night we all went downtown Owensboro, where all celebrations were held at that time. Hundreds of people were in the streets, 18 wheelers were going along honking their big air horns. Everyone was soooo happy. George Bender told me that he was in the hospital bed with a body cast on and couldn't get out of bed, but most everyone who could walk out, did so. When it started getting dark, he realized that no one was going to look in on him, but finally a nurse appeared who was checking the wards. She brought his dinner to him and told him about all the celebrations that were going on. Joe Wedding was on a ship in the South Pacific. They celebrated the best they could knowing that this meant they would soon be going home...But Joe did not get discharged until the men with families had been sent home, which is the way it should have been........I am thinking of all the paper work that that whole war created. With no computers it must have been tremendous. The Paddle Wheelers The Paddle Wheelers were a big thing in our time. It had been that way for many many years until the railroads came into being. Most of them were equipped with a caliope and when you heard that music, you knew that a "showboat was a comin". Click to hear the caliope To visit my Home Page, Click below. MY HOME PAGE