Persons in their 60s and 70s generally grew up during the Great Depression years of the 1930s and the World War II years of 1942–45. Because they were young, they probably didn’t realize that the cohesive force in their families was the mother.
When the stock market crashed just a few months before the thirties began, a panic swept the nation. Persons who had money in banks wanted their money out. But banks don’t keep funds in the vault; they lend it to businesses and to families wanting to buy homes.
With no money to pay the depositors, the banks tried to foreclose on loans; however, nobody wanted the properties. So countless banks failed, leaving many people with no funds. Industries with loans had to close because there was no money to pay their employees.
Dads Everywhere Lost Jobs
Of course, there were many stable businesses without heavy debt, such as the paper mill and the railroad, but orders slacked off for everyone, so layoffs and reduced hours were common.
In over a thousand homes in the Tyrone area, suddenly Dad had no job. Or his hours were cut. It happened everywhere.
Role of Moms Was Crucial
This was where — all across America — Mom’s role became extremely important. It would have been easy for the mother in a family to grouse and complain to the father about the fact that he was out of work, and wasn’t bringing any money home for her to feed and clothe the family.
But, universally, the moms in America didn’t do this. Instead of ridiculing or nagging her husband, she encouraged him because he typically was feeling badly about being unable to support his family. Moms said, “We’ll make out. I’ll patch the kids’ clothes for another season, and we’ll stretch the food to last. We’ll be O.K.”
Making Things Last
Moms grew more food in the garden. They stretched the soup and served a lot of potatoes and other “filling and inexpensive” fruits and vegetables such as apples, cherries, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, and beans.
Hand-me-down clothes had to last — and were patched. Moms proudly said that their kids might not have new clothes but the clothes always would be clean. Ingenuity was common as flour sacks and old clothing were “redone” and kids were outfitted in presentable clothing.
Kids Didn’t Realize
Kids who were growing up in this period usually were blissfully unaware that things were tight. First, because all of their friends were in the same situation. All families were affected. Those who had a working father in the family usually had greatly reduced income. So every home shared the same necessity to conserve and live on less.
Corner Grocery Stores
Trips to the corner grocery were for selected things, not for a cartload of prepackaged items. Every neighborhood grocery had charge accounts, and seldom were stuck because people, though poor, were honest. Most of the corner groceries were affiliated with a chain, including Clover Farm Stores, served by the Bayer & Gillam wholesaler in Tyrone, or by Better Stores, Oriole Stores, and Economy Stores of Altoona. Shaffer Stores, of Altoona, operated company-owned stores as did the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) and the American Stores Company (Acme).
Farmers Bartered Foodstuffs
Kids of that era who lived on farms tell stories about how they’d swap food items with other families nearby. One man recalls that his family raised four hogs. They traded one with a neighbor who provided them with milk all year; another traded for eggs; another for beef. So they had food all year. At butchering time they paid off their food exchange.
Living on Five Dollars a Week
It seems astounding to young people today that a family could live on as little as $5 a week. But, thanks to ingenuity and thrift, families did survive this period.
Kids Had a Good Life!
The kids had a happy childhood with lots of family involvement and chores to do. But there always was an amount of time for some fun with the neighborhood gang.
Favorite games involved boys and girls together, such as “kick-the-can,” “hide-and-seek,” or other simple games. “Stick ball” and other games, such as jacks or marbles, helped kids to enjoy their leisure time. For teens, there always was “post office,” or as one woman reminded friends, there was another game called “pony express” — like post office, but with a little more horsing around!
Church Members — All
Families often would gather around after supper for music. If they had a piano or guitar, all of the family would join in singing favorite songs, either popular songs or hymns. And each evening they’d listen to the radio for entertainment. Nearly every family belonged to one of the churches in the neighborhood.
A True Tyrone Story
A woman raised here tells the story of how her father came home one day and called the family together to tell them that they were totally broke. He had lost his business, all the savings, and every penny in the bank. He told them that they had nothing except their home. It was a large home, almost a mansion. But with no market for the home, they were “stuck” and spent the next several years living in two rooms heated by a fireplace. The family survived, however, doing as all others did — by living very frugally.
Another Story
A “Depression kid” tells about his neighborhood: “All of our moms stayed at home except one. I wondered why she went out to do housework and cleaned a store in the evenings. Her husband had a good job at a factory. Then, somebody told me that he had a drinking problem and would drink up his entire paycheck each weekend. As a ten-year-old, this was hard for me to understand, but it happened. So she did the only thing she could to get food for the family.”
No Permanent Scars
The Depression was a quiet time. But the children raised in that era didn’t suffer permanent scars from being deprived. They still had a good home life, and most of this was because, in home after home across Tyrone and across America, the moms “made do” and the kids had a pretty good life. Moms made everybody look good — especially their husbands. The dad who couldn’t provide for the family as he wished never was “put down” by mom.
A Sudden Abrupt Change
Although things did improve over the twelve years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tyroners lived a quiet, conservative, inexpensive life style, and learned lessons of thrift that are hard for today’s younger people to understand.
Then, unexpectedly, just three weeks before the start of 1942, the nation was at war, and children faced the situation where their dad left for the armed forces, and again, it was up to mom to raise the family while he was gone. For many, this was as long as three years. Many moms took jobs in defense plants; the John R. Wald Company employed more than a thousand people — mostly women — at their four Tyrone factories during the war.
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