We are studying the great depression at this time that I am writing this post. As we slowly move through the study we realize we must study further back in time to understand the people that lived during the great depression. I am mostly talking about people that were adults during that time in history.They had already lived through difficult times before the great depression. recessions, world war 1, the flu pandemic and just when they were possibly thinking life was getting better, the stock market crashed, banks closed, many people lost their jobs. Many of those that did not lose their job had to work with decreased pay. What money they had left they need ......

The year 1932. Rose is a thirty five year old school teacher in a country school. She is unmarried and lives at home with her parents and family in a rural area in the state of Iowa. Rose has not been teaching and we are thinking they have possibly closed her school. We are not sure of the reason why, many states, counties and cities have been having problems paying salaries during the great depression, there is also very bad flu at this time as well as scarlet fever. We continue the diary of Rose.Tuesday, January 26, 1932. Warm, snowed about all day. I ironed. Helen and I sewed. Mama and Harland to town in P.M. Mrs. DeWitt Wilson's funeral.Wednesday, J ......

We continue the Diary of Sarah and her family. They live in the United States in the State of Ohio, the year 1932.We left with last weeks post with this post on Saturday, January 30. Clear and severely cold the coldest weather we have had this winter. Had the usual morning tasks to see to, got my eggs ready for town and then got busy with pies - baked 7 pumpkin pies, 2 peach pies and one cream apple. Baked bread and Kuche but was late with it as I had to await Josephs return from town to get the yeast. Gave the living - room and kitchen a special clean-up & mopping for Sunday. Ernest here for supper and the evening mending. A bath, Harry and Roy& ......

It is seed planting time at our house and I am so ready to do this! Everything here is still grey and brown because we are still in winter so I will add some past pictures of spring and summer to bring some cheer into this post.I have been thinking about the great depression study and the importance of gardening this year and then a memory came to my mind. I realized that most everyone I can think of in my family, that lived through the great depression, had some type of vegetable garden and at least one fruit tree in their yard. Either a small garden or large one, they had a plot to grow vegetables.When my mother came to live with us I planted flowe ......

We continue with the diary of Rose. The year 1932. Rose is a thirty five year old school teacher in a country school. She is unmarried and lives at home with her parents and family in a rural area in the state of Iowa. Rose has not been teaching and we are thinking they have possibly closed her school. We are not sure of the reason why, many states, counties and cities have been having problems paying salaries, there is also very bad flu at this time as well as scarlet fever. Last week we left off with her last post here. Monday, January 18. Good day. I washed . Mama and Harland to town. Harland up to skinners. Mama and Harla ......

We continue the Diary of Sarah and her family. They live in the United States in the State of Ohio, the year 1932.Last week we left off with the reading, Saturday, January 23, 1932. Cold and cloudy again today. Had the usual early morning tasks to see to and helped Joseph off to town. Baked pies, bread and kuche. Dinner. This P.M. I made some cream tapioca, dressed and cut up a chicken, started a fire in the parlor - preparation of cleaning up the room. gave the living-room and kitchen and especial clean-up usual evening tasks to see to. Ernest, Vera and Jimmie here for supper and the evening mending. A bath.I believe that you will start figuring out as we ......

Since we have been studying the years during the great depression I want to talk about meals to fill the belly.This is not a nutrition post or a certain diet post. This post is about what people did and how to get through financially difficult times.My mother did not talk much about the Great depression years but she did say that they were hungry many times and sometimes all they had was a cold biscuit. As I researched food budgets during the great depression years, I found many articles but I had a difficult time finding articles that were not being backed by a food industry, even long ago if possibly even more so. Newspaper articles during this time had articles& ......

We continue with the diary of Rose. The year 1932. Rose is a thirty five year old school teacher in a country school. She is unmarried and lives at home with her parents and family in a rural area in the state of Iowa. The season of winter. We left off last week on Monday, January 11th and the entry on the 11th was Warm, windy day but no rain. I washed & mopped, Adrian and Mildred out. Mama better Grace hung clothes. This weeks reading.Tuesday, January 12th, 1932. Foggy, misty day turned to rain about supper time. Helen and I sewed and Baked. Harland sick headache. I ironed.Wednesday, January 13. Good day but clou ......

We continue this weeks diary reading of Sarah. When we left off last week Ernest was there for supper and Sarah had made Cherry Tapioca.Sunday, January 17, 1932. Rain, Rain, Rain the whole day through and heavy at that - don't know if I ever saw so much water fall in one day. Arose almost 5:20 as usual & attended to the breakfast work - then devoted my time to dinner preparations. We entertained to dinner. Mr. & Mrs. Henry Cooper and fam, Mr. & Mrs. Ellison Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Green and Esther, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Dickey and daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Harry A Sutter & family, Sarah Farmer & Edwin Harbach. The dinner was quite a success in every way. ......

This has been quite a week at our house, the new forum started with the new study. Here on my end there were many technical issues which showed up on your end. We have been trying to iron it all out.The forum front page looked very confusing I am sure but it is cleaned up now and new topics have been added.More topics are coming and if you do not see a topic that is important to you, there is a button up top to add a new topic.Here below are the new discussion topics listed under The Gathering PlaceLace Making & TattingThe LaundryPetsHand sewingHouse Maintenance & cleaningCanning and Food preservationGrocery PricesGardeningRecipes and CookingCrochet, MendingKnittingWeather ......

We are starting two new diaries today for our 1930s History study. I write the diaries as they are written, misspelling and punctuation included. Both of the diaries, the diary writers are from Iowa, no relation that I can tell. The diary of Rose is the year 1932 and the diary of Emma is the year 1933.The diary of Rose is a one year diary. The space is very small to write and I have to use a magnifying glass with my bifocals. The writing space for each entry is 2&1/2 inches by 3/4 inch. Rose is a thirty five year old school teacher in a country school. She is unmarried and lives at home with her parents and family in a rural area in the state of Io ......

If you are new to this blog, we have just started a History Study of the Great Depression. You can join in at any time or read along. My husband Charles and I have been doing history studies for years and living more like the past because we feel that it makes sense. My blog is not just about this study but living a simple life and how to do things the old way.It has been quite a flurry inside our home this week with the new 1930s study started. The new study will settle when we get all of our ducks in a row so to speak. Anyone can do this study of learning all we can about the home in 1930s and learn about how the great depression affected the family and home life.The firs ......

This is second post on Sarah's diary. January 10 - 16I am posting ahead on Sarah's diary since some of you are following Sarah's dairy at home during the study with cooking and household work. I will be posting ahead so you have time to plan and shop for groceries for the next week should you want to cook or bake something that Sarah is making. Also so you can make your weekly household schedule ahead of time. Keep in mind to follow her days, because her dates are two days ahead. Let Sarah's diary be a guide but fill in what is needed for your household. Many people are simply reading along Sarah's diary and we all can enjoy learning more ......

I want to introduce you to our two new Study Diaries.Emma's diary is a five-year diary and the entries start in 1934. Rose's diary is a one-year diary from 1932. The three diaries we will be following are Sarah, Emma, and Rose.We have already started Sarah's diary and after much thought about this, I will post Sarah's diary separately on another day than Rose and Emma's diaries. Emma is a recent widow, and has been without her husband for one year and 4 months when she started this diary. Even though there is only a small space to write each day, Emma packs it in and she has a very busy life. I picked this diary because it is very interesting ......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!Here we go, 1,2,3,..... Jump!Hum, that looks different, what happened to the clock? That doesn't look like our clock.Why are we already in the New Year? Oh that's right, we are going around the world starting with Christmas Island / Kiribati.What happened to our hats? It looks like we have woken up somewhere in the 1930s.... Humm... What a strange day this is....What is that on our table?..... Reading a note.... You have earned the game Mancala since you have been doing so much math lately with all the figuring out kilowatt hours, pay scales and what it costs to turn on your stove. Thought you would like to enjoy something more fun this year ......

We are beginning the Diary of Sarah and her family. They live in the United States in the State of Ohio, the year 1932.In Sarah's writings she addresses her husband as Father. Many people did this in the past, when children address their father as Father often their mother will start addressing her husband as Father. Sarah commonly will say usual morning tasks, I think about my own morning tasks after brushing my teeth and washing up, I get dressed and don my apron. There are many small things to do in our home in the morning such as turning on the kettle, preparing the food for the doggies and feeding the feral cat, Mr. Bingley, while the water is ......

I want to say first that my post will get shorter, these are too long right now but so much information just like always when we start a new study year. They will become normal soon. LAUNDRY TIMEIt is time we start talking about the nitty gritty. Here are few things about laundry that some of you might not know. I didn't know until I got deep into research. I will start by explaining laundry in the early 1900s. Many of us have heard stories about the struggles and hard labor of doing laundry long ago, and it was very laborious. But there is another side about laundry other than the large cast iron pots over a fire and hours of laboring over lau ......

Burr it has been cold!I just wanted to let everyone know that the new forum is up and the new mailing list where you can get a notification when I do a new post. The Forum is located in the menu section on phone or tablet etc. On a computer look at the top bar where it lists living like the past or cooking from scratch and just below those you will see Forum, next to Old Well.For the mailing list it is also in the menu section and at the bottom of a post. The forum is for everyone to post a comment, you can talk with one another, I can talk with you, (message, type) and also post pictures if you want. I hope you like the new changes, I am not good wi ......

I am tickled about the excitement about this new 1930's study, this study will be different because we are going back further in time and further away from knowing how it was in the home during these difficult years. Above is our Portiere to help with our cold weather.It was not difficult for everyone, some people did not lose their jobs but many did. Some very wealthy, lost much money and became destitute, and some struggled to hide how bad off they were by trying to remain in the society level they once were. Then strangely, many people went on with life, shopping, going to movies, and living life as they had always done. Surely it had to aff ......

We continue to get our information together for the New great depression study. I am trying to get this information out to you as fast as I can and it may seem to be a lot but we need to know to understand the time. We also have to look into the 1920s because this is the time they would have purchased many of the things they had in the 1930s.For those of you that are packing away items in your home that would have not been in the 1930s, I will be posting on things we might need to know before the study starts. If there is something that you cannot find in your research, please email me to ask and I will see if I can find the answer for you since I have a lot ......