Depression

[MossRoad]

Don't get me wrong. I like bacon. I like bread. I like bacon on bread. But cold bacon drippings in bread?

 

[AlanB]

Don't get me wrong. I like bacon. I like bread. I like bacon on bread. But cold bacon drippings in bread?

It all just depends on how hungry you are.

 

[MossRoad]

It all just depends on how hungry you are.

I understand that completely. My mom and dad both grew up in the depression. They and my grandparents on both sides of the family have told me many horror stories about survival in tough times.

But these folks were eating this stuff in the 80's because they actually liked it, not because they had to. Blech!!

 

[SnowRidge]

Recession: Your buddy is out of work.

Depression: You are out of work.

Calamity: Your wife is out of work.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

grandpa tells unbelieable stories about the depression...

eating greens which were dandelions....

neighbors passing around a hambone to boil it in water....then drink the broth and pass the bone on to the next neighbor.....

he said it's bad going to bed hungry OR cold but there's nothing worse than going to bed hungry AND cold......

trying to burn walnut shells for heat..

he often wonders how his father didn't kill himself- strong work ethic with five little kids and a wife starving and freezing.....and no work

many, many more stories....

they managed to save up some money from war time production to buy a farm and just a few months later, uncle sam called......he's still VERY bitter about it....mad at the government, mad at the rich kids that didn't seem to have to go, mad at ******, etc...

he's spent his whole life preparing for another depression; never going in debt, saving money, stockpiling coal, buying about 20 tractors (that run), lots of implements, tools out the wazoo, welding metal handles in most of his rakes and axes, etc.......

 

[MossRoad]

Recession: Your buddy is out of work.

Depression: You are out of work.

Calamity: Your wife is out of work.

You got that right! For years I have had enough life insurance to cover my wife's living expenses and my children's college education should something happen to me. However, my wife and I finally thought about the "what if something happens to her?" scenario. We have had a lot of female relatives pass away leaving behind their husbands. My wife makes as much as I do. If either one of us goes, the other loses half their income. So we got some insurance on her, too.

 

[MossRoad]

grandpa tells unbelieable stories about the depression...

eating greens which were dandelions....

neighbors passing around a hambone to boil it in water....then drink the broth and pass the bone on to the next neighbor.....

he said it's bad going to bed hungry OR cold but there's nothing worse than going to bed hungry AND cold......

trying to burn walnut shells for heat..

he often wonders how his father didn't kill himself- strong work ethic with five little kids and a wife starving and freezing.....and no work

many, many more stories....

they managed to save up some money from war time production to buy a farm and just a few months later, uncle sam called......he's still VERY bitter about it....mad at the government, mad at the rich kids that didn't seem to have to go, mad at ******, etc...

he's spent his whole life preparing for another depression; never going in debt, saving money, stockpiling coal, buying about 20 tractors (that run), lots of implements, tools out the wazoo, welding metal handles in most of his rakes and axes, etc.......

My mom said they raised rutabagas, chickens and rabbits. They fed the greens to the rabbits, then ate rabbits, rutabagas and eggs for almost a decade. That's about all they ate, she said. Needless to say, as a kid, I never had to eat rabbits or rutabagas because she was sick of them. But we ate a lot of chicken. She said they were too valuable to eat in the depression because of the eggs and chickens were like a luxury food to her.

 

[milkman]

That's right, didn't eat the chickens, take the extra eggs to the store and traded them for thread to patch clothes.

 

[Bird]

I, too, heard lots of stories from my parents about the depression, but I guess my family was among the luckier ones. My dad's parents farmed for a living so they produced most of their own food, and my mother's dad was a bookkeeper who stayed employed through the depression. They didn't have much, but ate pretty well. Mother said when her mother saw men going through their garbage can and eating scraps they found she began to carefully wrap any food items they threw out so they'd at least be clean.

But I do wonder if we're headed for another big depression. My wife turns 65 next month and goes on Medicare. Now I thought that even with the Medicare supplement and Medicare Part D for prescriptions, we'd be two or three hundred dollars a month ahead by not paying what we've been paying for her health insurance. Wrong again!!!!! It's actually going to cost us about $15 a month more than we've been paying. But of course we won't have that thousand dollar deductible and 20% co-pay.

Oh well, I figured on keeping the same two motor vehicles a few more years anyway.

 

[SnowRidge]

You got that right! For years I have had enough life insurance to cover my wife's living expenses and my children's college education should something happen to me. However, my wife and I finally thought about the "what if something happens to her?" scenario. We have had a lot of female relatives pass away leaving behind their husbands. My wife makes as much as I do. If either one of us goes, the other loses half their income. So we got some insurance on her, too.

You've got me thinking, now. Always dangerous, that, but my wife now makes close to three times my current income, thanks to the financial shenanigans that have been going on. Might be time to talk to our insurance agent.