When you first learned about the Great Depression

When I was in Ms. Slusser's class in 5th grade in Rancho Romero Elementary School back in early 2002 (during which time I was struggling to overcome the psychological aftershocks of 9/11), me and my classmates were reading the book Bud, Not Buddy when I heard of the term Great Depression. At that time, I didn't know what the term Great Depression meant, and I was wondering if it referred to a geologic depression (dip) or prolonged mental depression, but when I read the Scholastic book Disasters: Natural, Historical, Environmental, Future in late 2002 after moving to Newport Coast in southern California, I came to realize that the Great Depression was no geologic depression but instead an economic recession. Still the Great Depression can also be thought of as a period of prolonged mental depression because so many Americans in the first few years of the Great Depression felt mentally depressed over having lost their jobs due to the Stock Market Crash. Still, my experience reading the book Bud, Not Buddy made clear to me that the economic dimensions of the Great Depression were too advanced for me to comprehend as an elementary school kid. Therefore, as an elementary school kid, when did you first hear the term Great Depression or recognize that it was an economic recession?

a reply to: Potlatch

I am easily at least twice your age and like you, my first introduction to the words "Great Depression" came during my elementary schools years.

Mind you some of my entertainment was centered around depiction of depression era life. Kids shows like "The Little Rascals," and other such entertainment showed people coping with having pretty much nothing in the way of luxury or excess. People looked upon the Great depression as a 'thing that happened' and will never be allowed to happen again.

In fact because of the timing of my birth, I was part of the first generation to "put that behind them" and urban folks suddenly stopped 'gardening for food' and 'canning, pickling, or preserving' pretty much anything. The idea of saving tinfoil for repeat use, or equivalent practices, were to be laughed at.

My grandparents and their peers often lamented the new 'wasteful' ways of the world... But then, as culture and technology grows and changes, this seems to be the way of the world.

People take a lot for granted nowadays...

BTW - check it out

Question: What's the difference between a depression and a recession?

(Different sources, different answers...)

Answer: "The difference between a recession and a depression is that a recession is much more severe and longer lasting."

Answer: "A depression is significantly worse than a recession and much rarer."

The differences are telling... as in they tell us the "investment" perspective of the definer.

My grandparents said the Great Depression was an awful time. So many people were starving, and that it was good that it couldn’t happen nowadays, with all the government handouts for the unemployed

My grandmother made albums throughout her life and one was a trip the took to Wisconsin from Washington state, with a side trip through Canada.

One note was the high price of eggs in Canada-ten cents a dozen! There were ration stamps in the album along with family pictures along the way and more notes on prices of food and gas at the time.

She was born in 1885 and remembers when balloons were invented at the age of three. She was travelling with family from Oregon to Washington at the time-in a covered wagon.

It made the past a very real thing for me-almost as if I'd lived through it.

Dbl. post

a reply to: Potlatch

My uncle said the class was asked if they have heard of 4-H when he was in grade school (1940s). That day, the principal sent a letter home with him saying that he disrupted class when asked what it meant. My grandfather asked what he said. He repeated what he had always heard: Harding, Hoover, Hard Times, and Hell. My grandfather knew the source was himself and said it'll be OK, he'll contact them.

I learned about the Depression from my grandmother and parents... that my grandmother refused to eat shellfish because that's all they had to eat a lot of times... stories of my dad scrambling on the rocks/beach to catch them.

I also learned that living on a large farm, my mother barely felt the Depression... life went on much as usual. Unlike my city-born and bred father.

But "waste not, want not" was very much drilled into our heads by all!

which one there where 2.

the first one was in the late 1800s and led to the first great war (ww1) the second came shortly after and led to the next great war (ww2)

i had a history teacher who took us through the mechanisms for both in secondary school (11-16) so that was in the late 70s early 1980s

understanding the linkage between great depressions and greats wars is imperative if we are to understand where we are today as the fear of war, or conspiracies about war risk masking the real linkage between economic crisis and wars, revolutions and revolts..

in the same way looking at france its easy to see the linkage between now and the day of tiles (pre revolution) or the linkage in england between now and the english reformation.. for the usa it looks like now and a certain mad king with dementia.. but i'm far less ofait with usa history to make the claims i do about specific european countries..

double post

a reply to: Potlatch

I had a brief idea of it from movies and the likes before I got an actual formal education on it, being from the UK that education wasn't exactly detailed and was more based around WWII and the global ramifications of a stock market collapse.

I'm a similar age. Tbh I probably learned more from reading old encyclopedias and playing games like railroad tycoon.

We can't eat money anyways so the meanings of the word and where it's applied doesn't really matter all that much. The result is the same. The feeling of hopelessness when the reality is there's plenty of potential.

Foragers, farmers and fishermen did alright back then. The food ain't fast but it beats waiting in line, which must absolutely suck when everyone else is waiting too.

I'm sure I learned about it in school, but it really hit home with me, when my Step Grandfather died.

They had cupboards in the breezeway my grandma wanted cleaned out.

Literally cases and cases of Tuna and Tomato soups. And a whole closet full of TP.

Grandma said he went hungry a lot during the depression, and swore it would never happen to him again.

I wish I would have learned more from him.

a reply to: Potlatch

I don't remember learning about the great depression at one go, I remember hearing about it many times growing up as my grandparents lived it.

One scene stands out.
My grandmother opened a can of spam that she was going to make for us. She grabbed spoon an then ate every last bit of gelatinous fat from the tin. My little eyes were shocked yet knew not to say anything. I asked my mom about it and she said only people that have known starvation would understand.
My mom told me a story that my grandmother made a fish dish. There was only "sauce" left in the bowl but my grandmother wouldn't let anyone throw it away and she poured it on rice and that is what she ate.

a reply to: chiefsmom

My mother must have picked this up as well. She keeps a very well-stocked pantry because, if nothing else, she will never go hungry. I picked up that particular trait and also keep enough food on hand for quite some time. On my dad's side of the family, they were farmers, so they were used to tough times, although I don't know that my grandmother has ever thrown away a piece of aluminum foil.