Catherine Dunlap (Mom) has some thoughts on our current state of pandemic being:
Money or Health?
Earlier today I read a comment supposedly by an elderly gentleman suggesting that we old people have seen worse so buck up. Well, I am of those older people at closer to 94 than 93 and do remember the Great Depression and all things since. So, I shall put my two cents worth into the conversation. Born in 1926, my entire early part of life was either depression or war. Yes, I do remember it, and we did make it through, and we will make it through this pandemic too.
However, let me say this a new experience and one I really could not have imagined so think we should talk seriously about economy versus lives. The depression was hard but most all of us were already poor with some more so than others. There were even some who continued to have their regular jobs and were as we said “better off” than others. My Dad was the clerk for our one room school at Aims and I recall he wrote a check against insufficient funds. Still not sure how that worked but we went to school.
It was hard and we were fortunate being on a farm where food was grown and preserved and milk and meat were available. I do remember having bacon and salt and pepper sandwiches for lunches sometime and all of the peanut butter stuck to the roof of our mouths.
During the depression the dust bowl also occurred, so many came here to the West coast in hopes of a better life. The saying was one could tell if they were a bit better off if they had two mattresses on the top of their vehicle. There are in every circumstance those who abuse the system - but not too many did it with toilet paper. There were still mostly outhouses. Catalogs were our connection to the worlds goods that were available if we got any money. They also provided a secondary use in the outhouse.
My Dads business during those years was selling wood. He hired wood cutters and one story stands out of hardships endured. One day a car pulled up by our house with six people in it all very young. There were two brothers married to two sisters with the sisters two younger siblings with them. None were older than 21. They had driven from the Dakotas looking for work and someone in Springdale sent them our way. Dad hired them and they moved in a building we had that was ten feet by sixteen feet. (Later that building became the start of our house and is currently my bedroom...a story for another time.) This small building had been used for a chicken house and various storage things prior to that time. It was not finished on the inside...just four walls, one door and one window as I recall. A small stove was installed and water was available outside. They all lived there but the oldest young couple did sleep in a bedroom in our house. The others all thrived there for the duration of the Depression until war came and jobs began to open up.
So, while hardships prevailed we all survived and have a lot of happy memories from that time. As for me now, I prefer staying isolated for the sake of peoples health and lives rather than the efforts to prevent an economic downturn by risking those lives.
This time is very different and so having lived through many trying times I do not want to minimize at all the stress and concern that is prevailing. None of us have done this before because the last really really severe pandemic was in 1918 and all I know about that was what my parents shared and it was very difficult. We have many safeguards as a result of the Great Depression Era so lets go for saving lives....not the rush to get the economy running.
Money or Health?
Earlier today I read a comment supposedly by an elderly gentleman suggesting that we old people have seen worse so buck up. Well, I am of those older people at closer to 94 than 93 and do remember the Great Depression and all things since. So, I shall put my two cents worth into the conversation. Born in 1926, my entire early part of life was either depression or war. Yes, I do remember it, and we did make it through, and we will make it through this pandemic too.
However, let me say this a new experience and one I really could not have imagined so think we should talk seriously about economy versus lives. The depression was hard but most all of us were already poor with some more so than others. There were even some who continued to have their regular jobs and were as we said “better off” than others. My Dad was the clerk for our one room school at Aims and I recall he wrote a check against insufficient funds. Still not sure how that worked but we went to school.
It was hard and we were fortunate being on a farm where food was grown and preserved and milk and meat were available. I do remember having bacon and salt and pepper sandwiches for lunches sometime and all of the peanut butter stuck to the roof of our mouths.
During the depression the dust bowl also occurred, so many came here to the West coast in hopes of a better life. The saying was one could tell if they were a bit better off if they had two mattresses on the top of their vehicle. There are in every circumstance those who abuse the system - but not too many did it with toilet paper. There were still mostly outhouses. Catalogs were our connection to the worlds goods that were available if we got any money. They also provided a secondary use in the outhouse.
My Dads business during those years was selling wood. He hired wood cutters and one story stands out of hardships endured. One day a car pulled up by our house with six people in it all very young. There were two brothers married to two sisters with the sisters two younger siblings with them. None were older than 21. They had driven from the Dakotas looking for work and someone in Springdale sent them our way. Dad hired them and they moved in a building we had that was ten feet by sixteen feet. (Later that building became the start of our house and is currently my bedroom...a story for another time.) This small building had been used for a chicken house and various storage things prior to that time. It was not finished on the inside...just four walls, one door and one window as I recall. A small stove was installed and water was available outside. They all lived there but the oldest young couple did sleep in a bedroom in our house. The others all thrived there for the duration of the Depression until war came and jobs began to open up.
So, while hardships prevailed we all survived and have a lot of happy memories from that time. As for me now, I prefer staying isolated for the sake of peoples health and lives rather than the efforts to prevent an economic downturn by risking those lives.
This time is very different and so having lived through many trying times I do not want to minimize at all the stress and concern that is prevailing. None of us have done this before because the last really really severe pandemic was in 1918 and all I know about that was what my parents shared and it was very difficult. We have many safeguards as a result of the Great Depression Era so lets go for saving lives....not the rush to get the economy running.
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