An Essay On My Great Grandmother

Living during the Great Depression was very challenging for many people. There was a definite difference in how people lived. Some were struggling to survive during the difficult time of hardship in their lives. Others were forced to survive on their own and often separated from others with feelings of loneliness. In addition many others were afraid of the unknown circumstances revolving around the economic during the depression.

    The great depression was a time where unemployment was at an all time high and to add on to it people in the great plains faced another problem the dust bowl. In the great depression many kids from all over the country were told or felt like leaving their home because of hard time that have faced their homes because the money was scarce. So they road the rail looking for work and trying to make money for the family. These were kids that were faced with hardship and having to worrying about where their next meal was coming from, they didn't know were they were going or what they would spend the night.

The Great Depression went from 1929 to 1939. It was a very long and difficult time. Everybody was affected. It was a long and difficult time where everybody was affected. Nobody had jobs so kids didn’t have the money to go to school.

The Great Depression brought hunger, homelessness, and hardship to millions of Americans. One quarter of the country was unemployed, and over one million families lost their farms. People struggled to make enough money just to buy food to stay alive. Even bakers could not buy their own bread. The government did little to stop the suffering.

At the worst point of the Great Depression there were million people unemployed in the U.S. Unemployment rates for African Americans and Latinos were higher than most americans. Without jobs there was no money coming into the households and for this reason many people could not pay their mortgage, some were enticed from their homes and lived on the street, in their cars, or in hoovervilles. Inside the home family life was bleak, many people put off getting married, raising large families, or having families at all. Thousands of people held off going to college and almost all women were ashamed to reveal their hardship. The physical and emotional health of the people was shattered, adults stopped going to the dentist and doctors because they couldn’t afford it. Poor diets and lack of milk consumption led to malnutrition, diet related diseases and other serious health problems. Some people even lost the will to survive, the suicide rate rose 50%. The stigma of poverty never left some people and habits of saving everything developed. Racial violence increased by unemployed whites looking for the same jobs, huge numbers of people with Mexican descent were deported. For the farmers it wasn’t any better, most could manage to still feed their families, but crop prices kept falling and farmers kept losing their land. They couldn’t pay their debts and in turn 400,000 farms were foreclosed between

The Great Depression affected many people and families in the 1930s. They had to deal with many different challenges and hardships. These families had to face hunger, unemployment, and some even with being homeless. Some families crowded into a small apartment or house with other families. Others lost their homes and moved into a tent in a Hooverville. To help with fathers being laid off from work, mothers would sometimes go out and look for work. In other cases, teens would travel by freight train or hitchhiking to find a job that they could send money home with. More often the husband would leave his family in search of a new job. This left family relationships torn up. The family would miss their father, but if he were to return without a job things would sometimes get worse. The fathers would feel like failures and would mope around the house. Thus leading to irritated wives which lead to more fights between them. Some fathers

People who lived through the great depression had a rough time. Families had little food or money. It didn't rain for months. Public people were hopeful through the whole thing it would rain. The coal mines shut down, therefore, nobody had jobs. It also was a drought during the great depression. The only money that anyone would get was when fathers would cut hair for the boys in the neighborhood.

“Growing up in a time when all you worry about is if your family will be able to make it through to the next day is definitely a very scary and difficult time to live in” (Vonder Haar). My great-grandpa had this to say to my grandpa about growing up during the great depression. For many people in America from the 1930s to 1940s, life was a constant struggle. The people living in the Midwest, especially St. Louis, knew much too well how difficult it was to live through the great depression. When great-great grandpa first came to St. Louis from Germany he purchased a farm. From that point on, my family struggled to maintain the farm that would still exist today. Many people were affected by the great depression. Throughout the time period before

Growing Up As a Child during the Great Depression Life during the Great Depression was very rough on the people that were affected. Living during the Great Depression was not fun at all. Finding work during the this time was a very difficult task. Growing up as a child during the Great Depression, made it harder on the people who were affected further in life. LIFE BEFORE THE GREAT DEPRESSION People during this time thought that everything was going to be alright and nothing horrible would happen.

Imagine that you are working hard all day, but can’t get a job. You have sweat dripping from your face from turning over fields, because it hasn't rained. You are trying to support other family members to do their best, but it does no good. This is how most people were during the Great Depression. The Great Depression hurt the men, women, and children of the time.

During The Great Depression, farmers worked hard to produce crops and livestock. “Prices began to drop quickly and the farmers struggled to produce even more to pay their debts, taxes, and provide for their families.” (Morain 1) Farmers grew their crops and kept a garden to provide food. In many families, the “children would stop attending to school to help out on the farm.” (“Life During the Great Depression 1) Most farming families had been renting their land and machinery, so when the Depression hit they couldn't afford to pay for the equipment anymore. Only one in ten families had electricity and running water. “If they lived in the middle portion of the country then they were being hit with the Dust Bowl.” (Reinhardt and Ganzel 1) On top of not having money they

with no roof over their heads. This along with everything else, took a tremendous, emotional toll on society. Some even saw no other options than ending their lives. The Great Depression had an emotion drenching and ground breaking effect on the generation to go through it.

It is difficult to imagine the horrors of the Great Depression. Many people had to live with nothing for at least 10 years. Parents had to do all they can to support their families. This Depression affected the whole world, yet it had a greater effect on the U.S. During this time the Great Depression had a great effect on Americans.During these times, many could not buy their daily items, many had to live with never using these items again. They had to get rid of clothes, sweets, electricity and got their water from wells. “ People began to cut down on their expenses and to go without new clothes, furniture and other goods” (Hayes). Cutting down these expenses caused businesses to fail. After cutting back on items and items used daily, people learned to live without these items, “ Looking back, I find it amazing what we went without”

Family pressure during the great depression was unlike any the U.S. has ever seen. Everything about families changed in the 1930s. Couples during the depression delayed marriage, and at the same time the divorce rates dropped because people could not afford to pay for two households. Birthrates also dropped and for the first time in American history below the replacement level. Income was closed to none in all families; regular income had dropped by 35% just in the years Hoover was in office. Families had a lot of stress; some pulled together and made do with what they had others pushed away. People turned to who ever they had, family, friends, and after all else the government. Although there were rich people in the depression as well

At just over five feet tall, she was the kind of woman that you saw on the street and knew to move out of her way. Her demeanor was strict, her hands tied with thick blue veins, criss­crossing over her thin, frail fingers.