Chapter 3 Sound Portrait - Depression Girls

Susan: We continue our story with Mae, Bea, and Treva, and how living through the depression has affected their lives today. Although food was scarce during the depression they always managed something to eat.

Mae: Oh my goodness, we had a lot of beans, uh, we had a lot of mush, uh; we didn’t have much meat, potatoes in different ways, she would fix them in different ways. And, she was a good cook, she made biscuits. I can remember one time, my grandma lived up the street from us, and uh, and she used to make bread rolls. And, on my way home from school I would stop in at grandma and grandpa’s and she would be baking those bread rolls. So, I would eat bread rolls with apple butter. (laughs) And, by the time I got home I didn’t want anything to eat (laughing). But, she always fixed something that would fill the whole family. And, she canned and she had a garden and she canned in the summer. And, we always had vegetables that she would can. And, uh, we had some meat she cooked, uh, she would fry bacon and she would use the bacon grease for seasoning, I kinda remember. She used to make a lot of gravy, because my dad liked gravy. Uh, green beans and peas and of course then, uh, we had summer vegetables. Green onions and radishes but, to can it would be green beans and peas, uh what else, uh variations of vegetables she would can. Oh she couldn’t freeze them because there was no such thing as freezing them. Everything was canned.

Susan: Sodium silicate was also used as an egg preservation agent in the early 20th Century with large success. When fresh eggs are immersed in it, bacteria which cause the eggs to spoil are kept out and water is kept in. Eggs can be kept fresh using this method for up to nine months.

Mae: Oh, that was something my mother used to do, she used to buy eggs when they were plentiful and inexpensive and she would put them down in a crock with a solution that they called water glass. And, it would keep now we didn’t use them to fry or cook like that, but she would use them to cook with and so we always had eggs.

Susan: Treva’s memories of what they would eat.

Treva: Oh, she cooked, like I said, we had our own garden our own pigs and chickens. And, dad raised the nicest sweet potatoes, yellow jersey, oh they was so good. But, she would have chicken pot pie, chicken noodles, roll out the noodles and make them. We had good food. We had pigs butchered oh I don’t know. She cooked mostly what my dad liked. There was nothing dad didn’t eat that she didn’t cook.

Mae: We used to have a lot of chickens

Bea: Oh we had chickens and we had chickens and we had pigs, too. We would butcher them in the fall of the year and dry the meat up and use it all winter. Mom used to make pies, uh, filled pies and uh, Harry he always liked them. He always liked them butterscotch pie he would say mom when are you going to make some of that good stuff.

Susan: An inexpensive meal that would fill the bellies.

Mae: I can remember they used to have a lot of times, they had several children in their family, there was three adults, three children, and mother and dad. And, of course they were in the depression too and used to use they would put, and bread was like 5 cents a loaf, and, it was like a twin loaf a twin loaf of bread. And, they would put the bread on a plate like two or three slices and they would put sugar and cinnamon and they would cover it with coffee.

Treva: Oh we did that.

Mae: Yea, that would be there meal.

Susan: A sweet story that Mae remembers about her dad.

Mae: One year, uh, he made a batch of root beer and he put them down in the basement, and I don’t know what he had done wrong but something happened. And, it all exploded. (laughing) We could hear POP, POP, POP, POP and it was all the bottles exploding. (laughing) He had a capper and I don’t know if it was something wrong with the capper you know the caps didn’t go on right or what. But, anyway it all exploded. (more laughing).

Susan: Tune in to more chapter of the story of Mae, Bea, and Treva living through the depression.