1930's We all need reminding

Great pics Pops!

Cesar

Powerful pics.

Makes me feel guilty how easy life is now compared to them.  I never endured anything close to that kind of hardship.

:-(

Very sobering photos! Thank You!

As a nation, we've come a long way,since then, ............or, have we?

Richie

I always doubt that we the people could measure up to the generations that came before us.   We might surprise ourselves and be equal to the task, we might not.  Could we all give the effort that was given on the home front and in the service during WW2?   Could our younger generation  volunteer and do the job our fathers and grandfathers gave after Peral Harbor?   When you see lots of the young kids today, you wonder if they can ever become responsible adults.   I guess time will tell.

There is a great show on PBS stations about the Dust Bowl in the midwest.   This is a great show that really shows the hardships people faced for years.    I'm off the soap box now!!

The human spirit always rises to the occasion, although it may take a generation or more.  I lived through the depression (very young), and WWII.  I don't think my parents and grandparents thought it was as hard as people now do looking back.  The reason is that they never had it on easy street.  As always, as DKR said, "when the goin gets tough, the tough get going".

Anyone can say what they want but IMHO we are truly bleesed today as compared to those folks. They most definitely did not see themselves as the entitled generation that today's younger generations see themselves as\. Sink or swim, prevail or perish, hopefully today's younger generations.  will never have to face such tough circumstances and choices. God bless those who came before us for having the raw courage and tenacity to pave a smoother road for us who have followed.

Kenn

I will remember this the next time someone talks about "the good old days."

My father was born in 1898.  He had a nice Nash automobile before I was born that went up on blocks about a year into the depression, never to be run again.  I remember the rusted hulk.  We didn't have another car until 1943 or 44.

I understand the thought of this post and I apologize up front for my post.  But, the depression is not over for many Americans. 

If you visit our streets today you will see similar images of those posted above.  There are many lives living on the fringe - 46.2 million.  Including 1.5 million veterans.

No need to apologize, it is easy to overlook the misfortune of some Americans when you don't come face to face with it very often.

I think about the unfortunates we don't see or hear about. The homeless, the rural poor..living in a land of plenty, or so they say. Nearly thirty years ago, I went down to Mexico and there was a woman wrapped in a shaw sitting on the curb with a three year old along a littered street, trying to sell trinkets out of a box. I thought of the Depression, and that for some, it never ended, and it's all around us in the places we don't frequent. Sobering tragic and real..Kids without food..especially kids..that gets to me. Somewhere down the line, we lost a larger sense of community until a catastrophe happens. Even though thats great that folks care..how quickly it's all forgotten about. What we don't see, we put into the back of our minds. Thanks for posting this.

Unless you are hungry and homeless yourself at some time, the comparison is pointless intellectualising.  I hope I never get that cynical.

A good friend runs in the public defenders office here.  She says some of the people that panhandle around town claim they can make over $100 in 3-4 hours of "work" per day.    We have one intersection leading to the interstate with nothing around it.  Sometimes you will see the panhandlers car setting a few hundred yards down the road all by itself!  I'm sure lots of people don't realize this.

This knowledge makes me drive by feeling I should help, but not for somebody that refuses to work like everyone else and tries to live off the system.  The few times I do help, I have driven to a fast food place and brought the homeless guy that needs food a sack of cheap burgers, but no $.

I recall my Grandparents being very frugal and making a lot of things themselves.

One Grandmother was still baking bread every Thursday on a wood stove until in her 90's. We were always taught to leave things as good as you found them or better.

Today's young folks don't have that ethic, and not eveen many of the not so young.

Last winter, I recall seeing a guy with the sign, "Need money to go home" at a central intersection in the city. After a few weeks he moved out to the intersection at the local Wal-Mart, New piece of cardboard, different coat, same message.

I happened to catch him at the start of a heavy rainstorm, he ran into the parking lot, unlocked and got into a late model BMW. Not what I expected.

Gotta wonder about these guys nowadays.

Unless you are hungry and homeless yourself at some time, the comparison is pointless intellectualising.  I hope I never get that cynical.

So well said.....

For every scam artist there are the real unfortunates and stereotyping the homeless as exploitive is just an exercise in making a tough problem overly reductionistic and myopic. Thats it for me, I am outta here.. 

I have to repeat DKR's saying:  "When the goin gets tough, the tough get goin."  There is no way anyone suffers today with all the government programs.  This is a toy train forum, so I wont say more.  BTW, Russell, I was a USAF M/Sgt over 50 years ago.  Got a law degree and USAF would not commission me as a reservist, so I went in Army JAG.  Loved my 10 years in USAF.

Not that I completely agree that "no one suffers with today's government programs,  but they will, in ways you can't imagine,  when the dollar collapses and the dole dries up.  There isn't going to be any scrounging to make it work, all our cars, tools, appliances,  everything,  rely on electronic components made in China. The FDA has made it essentially illegal to grow your own food.  It may not happen in your lifetime,  but I'm fairly confident that I'll see the U.S. economy collapse in my lifetime.

When things were tight in the 70s all I had was hot dogs and government cheese for months. I complained and my Grandmother caught wind of it. On my next visit I was served a Crisco sandwich on very stale, very plain, homemade thick crust bread, along with stories of what the depression was like for her. I stopped complaining. 

To those who think our Gov. catches all who fall, you are mistaken (don't feel bad, I thought it was covered too). Help varies from state to state and actually finding which agency for what is often a joke in itself. If todays economy does a collapse like that of the great depression, I fear the overall result will be much worse. I don't think todays American society is self reliant enough to handle it and I fear the populous turning on one another in desperation to uphold personal status quo, rather than lending a hand to others.

Whatever issues I have had with the Catholic Church over the years, we have found that Catholic Charities does a superb job getting help to people who need it.  There is virtually no money lost to "overhead" . . . .

RL NYC, Thank you for your comments.

I paid my dues to " the Poor" by working eight and a half years as a caseworker in a Fraud stamp (food stamp) office.  My pay was poor and nowhere near as much as a good beggar makes.  I helped very few needy people.  The great majority were professional moochers who made a career out of gaming the system.  I have very little sympathy for "the Poor" since they choose to live that way despite any effort to help them.  I only help those with whom I am personally acquainted even if it is not deductible.   Odd-d

My dad used to say, "The only thing good about the 'Good old days' was that they were old". He was born in 1910 and lived through the Depression. He remembered for working in factories before unions and you'd be fired if you had the audacity to ask for a raise. They were making $25 a week. They didn't have central heating. Had ice boxes with ice in them. If you got an infection, you either recovered or you died. You had coal furnaces and had to take out the ashes. Need I go on. With each improvement in living standard, he and my mom took full advantage and never looked back. You didn't need health insurance because if you got a serious illness medicine could do nothing for you... rich or poor. It's only now in the USA that a rich person can survive whereas people with less means aren't so lucky. In the 30s that wasn't the case. 

Pfft, I'm 34 and I grew up in a house with a coal furnace that required both taking out the ashes, and keeping the hopper full with coal from a bunker under the front of the house.  (Of course as a child I was sure a monster lived in that bunker room.)