The Great Depression through the eyes of my grandmother
Anne Stewart and Jack Brock grew up in Bryan’s Mill, Texas. Both of them were from families of eight children, but because they married so late in life they only had one child, Martha Dell Brock McCoy. She is my paternal grandmother. Having resided every day of her seventy-seven years in the quite town of Bryan’s Mill, her recall and memories of the Great Depression are vivid and ever present. Throughout my life I have heard stories and references to hard times. However, while sitting in her home asking question about the Great Depression, she was able to freely express here memories and this most difficult chapter of her life.
While large farming families were advantageous, being an only child made surviving the Great Depression much easier. At that time my grandmother did not perceive her life to be one of deprivation, but looking back she realizes it was. She had no idea what major part of history she was living at the time. Poverty is measured by the goods possessed by other people. Nobody possessed anything during that time in her community, so they were spared the news of their impoverished lifestyle. It’s not quite as painful reading about it in the history books.
Self-sufficiency best describes how her family obtained their meals. Martha Dell’s parents were fortunate in that they were able to grow or raise all their food except flour, coffee, and sugar. Everything they grew was either canned, dried, or pickled in order to preserve their rations throughout the harsh winters. Cows were kept for milk and butter, while chickens were kept for eggs and their meat. Pork was the prevalent meat during the winter with every part of the hog being used. Even the intestines were used to stuff sausage and paunch was cleaned, cut in strips, battered, and fried for what her mother called “fried oysters”, fa those days it was unheard of to throw leftovers to the dogs or to leave meat on the carcass. Not only was ham one of the dinner time favorites, but her daddy would also sell a ham to his cousin, who was a lawyer in Texarkana, for ten dollars. This money was used to help pay the taxes for the upcoming year. When corn was gathered in the fall of the year, Martha Dell’s father would choose the best ears for the crop, which were carried to the grist mill for grinding to make cornbread. She proclaimed the cornbread and buttermilk were a daily meal in those days, which she despised. Meat was only served to them once a week when the preacher came, and this meal always included a dessert. Many had ribbon cane patches which were used to make syrup. This was always a favorite when served with hot biscuits.
She was easily entertained with games such as red rover, jacks, and dominoes. She saw these games as a means of forgetting about one’s hard times. Dances were held in the community, but she was never permitted to attend them. Their greatest form of entertainment were plays performed by the community actors in the auditorium that the county constructed. A three-act play was performed for an admission of a dime. This always rejuvenated the spirits of the townspeople. People traveled for miles to watch the plays in Bryan’s Mill. During intermission, a quilt that had been quilted by the families in the community was raffled. This money provided school supplies for the Bryan’s Mill Schoolhouse that she attended.
For my grandmother, the saddest part of the Great Depression was Christmas time. As all children have done for all ages she hoped and dreamed that Santa might bring her a new baby doll. However, she awakened to several sad Christmas mornings when her gift was used clothing. My grandmother recollected that, for her, those Christmas mornings are her saddest memoir of the Great Depression.
Martha Dell’s mother was the postmaster of Bryan’s Mill, and her father was a rancher. All the money they saved was kept in the socalled safe Naples Bank and lost during the Crash of 1929. There was very little money to be made for years, but if there was any surplus money it was buried in fruit jars or hid somewhere due to the distrust in banks.
Education then had some of the same principles as it does now. That is, one could go as far as you wanted if you had the brains and tried hard enough. In her school, there were three classes to each room and one teacher. An advantage about school to Martha Dell was that it was the warmest place in the winters, including here house. Wood for the large upright stove, which heated the school, was provided by the families in the community.
Of course, most couldn’t afford college so many of the graduating young men would join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which was started by President Roosevelt, whom her father felt was second in line to God. The men would build parks, do reforestation, and help with flood control. They were paid one dollar a day, which was sent directly back home to the families.
Bryan’s Mill was reflective of the entire country. Unemployment soared to 50% among Black Americans and 20% among the white population nationwide. By 1932, overall manufacturing was only 54% of what it had been in 1929. Life was literally at a standstill with 250,000 less marriages in 1932 when compared to 1929. Even Babe Ruth was forced to take a $10,000 pay cut for the 1932 baseball season.*
The Survivors of the Great Depression learned so much from it that many still live a frugal lifestyle. I see my role as one in which I must learn from this conversation with my grandmother. Her generation is not yet convinced that there could not be another crash.
On the other hand, my generation, inundated with a very excessive lifestyle, has no concept of deprivation, much less hunger and unemployment. It is my generation’s responsibility to learn to save. Many of us are truly reaping the benefits of what these poor people saved for us, and yet we are unprepared to live below our means. The paycheck-to-paycheck system is self-destructive, and this is another reminder of the accountability that must become a way of life.