The Great Depression was a sad time for everyone in the United States. This is the story of just one woman, Wanda Miles. She was my grandmother, and was only five years old during the Depression. Though she still has very graphic memories of what happened.
Wanda lived in Murray, Kentucky in a family of five. Everyone in her family was a farmer, so they didn't have many problems with finding or losing their jobs. The children helped the family by doing chores around the house and on the farm. In her time, not many children went to school because there weren't many jobs available for people with high school or college diplomas. There was not a regular rate of pay for farmers. Their income was based on the quality and quantity of that year's crop. They thankfully also weren't affected by bank failures because Wanda's family didn't trust the bank, and they never had enough money to use it in the first place. .
The main entertainment of that time was Sunday morning church, and the teens would get involved in church activities. "Sunday mornings, we all had to get up extra early before church. During church we would always sing hymns, and our momma would make sure that we would always have a penny for the collection plate." After church they would go home and eat dinner, which consisted of vegetables that were grown in the fields, like potatoes and turnips. Church also, along with the government, provided help for the needy, the churches by offering food and shelters, and the government by building roads. Wanda also remembers there being soup lines, community gardens, bread lines, and food riots. .
Though many groups and organizations tried to help it often wasn't enough. There were times when Wanda remembers going to bed hungry and cold. When the children got sick there were home remedies, such as drinking sugar and whisky for a cough, or "sit and wait." In Wanda's time 30 cents would buy groceries for a month, and a doctor's visit would cost an entire dollar.
