The Great Depression was arguably the hardest economic since the Dark Ages. The things people had to do to survive that era serve as a reference point for modern-day preppers and survivalists. The Greatest Generation that survived those desperate times left behind a legacy of lessons we continue to learn from today.
Most preppers are well-versed in Depression-era families who kept a big garden, raised chickens, and created recipes that maximized every calorie they could get their hands on. Yet there are some lesser-known things they did during the Great Depression that might surprise you.
They Organized Seed Exchange Libraries
During the Great Depression, my grandmother and many Midwestern suburban housewives shared seeds from each other’s gardens. To be a member you brought in a big bounty of seeds you harvested from your own garden.
You could then “Check Out” 8 to 10 small envelopes of other seeds the next spring. My Grandmother coordinated all the families in the neighborhood. One would be responsible for providing the winter squash seeds, another had tomato seeds, and the lady around the corner brought in her zucchini seeds.
It was a strategy that was humming like a well-oiled machine by the time World War Two happened and people started keeping Victory Gardens.
For those who are serious about growing a survival garden that will get you through tough times, I strongly recommend The Self-Sufficient Backyard.
This resource offers invaluable insights and practical advice on transforming your backyard into a self-sustaining homestead. It teaches you how to create a year-round self-sustaining garden and begin living independently.
Wildlife Was Fair Game
My father used to talk about how you rarely saw wild animals during the Great Depression because everyone was eating them. We’re not talking about hunting season, where men wait in the forest with a high-powered rifle ready to take down a deer with absolute precision.
We’re talking about guys popping out of the reeds to club a blue heron. People trapped every squirrel in the neighborhood, and clutches of duck eggs were fried for Sunday brunch in the spring.
When you couldn’t afford the cost of meat in the stores, any source of protein you could get your hands on was fair game. This also meant paying attention to the habitat and activity of non-traditional game animals in the wild, at the park, and in your own neighborhood. Because if you didn’t eat them, you knew for sure someone else would!
Organized Neighborhood Meat Lockers
During the Great Depression, if you harvested an animal, you used every part of it or gave what you couldn’t use to someone else. It was also an era where most people went to church where they absorbed sermons about things like the Golden Rule and the importance of being your brother’s keeper.
This inspired some neighborhoods and local parishes to sponsor a community meat locker.
People would donate meat from chickens or pigs that they harvested, and the leftover bits would be contributed to the meat locker for anyone who needed them.
You can learn here the simplest method for butchering and preserving pigs, poultry or any other livestock for a whole year without refrigeration, just as my grandparents used to do.
Sometimes groups of families would pool their money together to buy a lard hog or a fattened turkey. Then they would divide it based on how many shares of the meat each family invested in.
Some historians speculate that this was how meat raffles or meat draws started. Only to become more popular during the rationing years of World War Two.
Families Invented Haunted Houses
In the early days of the Great Depression, many people lost their homes or abandoned them to seek work elsewhere. Children would explore these vacant houses, getting injured and sometimes starting fires.
To discourage them many communities started hosting haunted houses. The scary props, costume ghosts, and fake monsters popping out to scare kids created a mystique that abandoned houses were scary and dangerous.
Created Extended Family Communities
Farms and estates that were owned free-and-clear were often insulated from bank foreclosures that were so common in the early days of the Great Depression.
Related: Are you a Community Member or a Lone Wolf Survivalist?
Many adult children returned to the original family farm.
They would turn a disused calf barn or a chicken coop into a makeshift dwelling.
Then they would work on the family farm or take up other enterprises like bootlegging.
Used Distilled Heads for Medicinal Purposes
Even after prohibition was repealed many people continued to distill their own spirits. The so-called “Heads” that first came out of the distillation process often had high levels of low-quality, low boiling point alcohol compounds aldehydes and ethyl acetate.
While they weren’t safe to drink, they could be used as antiseptics. Some bootleggers would even sell these antiseptics to local families or offer them to doctors on a house call to reduce their bill.
Made Clothing from Flour & Potato Sacks
During the Great Depression, dry goods like potatoes and flour were often sold in large fabric bags. It didn’t take mothers long to figure out ways to create simple outfits and dresses for their kids.
To their credit, flour companies recognized the trend and started selling flour in fabric bags with decorative patterns. This allowed little girls to have the pretty dresses they dreamed of while stretching the family budget even further.
A lot of modern-day preppers draw inspiration from the Great Depression for proven survival methods that worked during the hardest of times. We’re all well aware of the value of keeping chickens, pigs, and other animals. The importance of growing a garden from heirloom seeds that can be kept every year. There are certainly enough Depression-era recipes out there to make a cookbook.
Yet we also can’t lose sight of the social ingenuity that occurred during the Depression. Neighborhoods coming together to share seeds, and pool resources to afford meat. Dance competitions where you could eat standing up, with a chance to win some of the proceeds. Even communities creating haunted houses to teach kids about the dangers of exploring abandoned buildings all speak to an important community element of survival.
We need to consider that homo sapiens didn’t rise to the top of the food chain thanks to our big, beautiful brains. Our abilities as a social species were an important element in every survival of the fittest step we took along the way. The community strategies of the Great Depression highlight the value of social engineering as part of a comprehensive survival strategy.
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It all sounds desperate but we will follow the same historic patterns as before. Many of the public is dumbed down through Marxist indoctrination from public education. The older generations didn’t have the internet or smartphones to be indoctrinated by social media of our alphabet agencies. Foreign interests are using social media to also steer our public to their operations.
We use to have a well educated population of commonsense, basic education, most of the public could read, write their names to be functional.
Now the generations after WWII, Vietnam, Desert Storm are back repeating past history. As public schools don’t teach American and world history as the previous greatest generation was educated in.
We are at the crossroads of repeating history at least from the 1970’s era of president Jimmy Carter as the stars line up in a similar fashion. The survivalist of that era were in basically the same conditions as we are in with Obama and now Biden.
But as far as we know Carter was not influenced by foriegn bribes, like Biden has from China and Russia.
So have we advanced any different from the past history we are experiencing in this decade?
OH, oh, let’s not forget the forgotten war, the Korean War. The vets coming back from that war was considered a police action. The VFW at that time period did not consider those vets part of the VFW members.
They were the first before the Vietnam vets got a shitty welcome back from their war.
America had foriegn influenced hatters of war protesting since America began. But the recent history is the Vietnam war protesting many have known of. Foreign state governments have tried to influenced several past and recent rioting.
People are really dumb these days to not notice what is going on in our country, they are asleep, like in the movie of “They Live”, blindly see nothing.
Social media has softened people to be couch potatoes then realist.
God is watching.
Carter had his heart in the right place, but was not adept enough to run a country. Reagan was the next and last true America loving president. He was smart enough to hire for his cabinet “only people whose acceptance to the cabinet would be a step down position from their current jobs“. I’m paraphrasing of course. Every president since Reagan has been corrupt to the core.
Well said, Max…I recently discovered my 11yr old granddaughter can not read cursive, only printing. My son said she could and was indignant when I questioned him about her abilities, come to find out she can write her name in cursive and that is it. “But grandpa, I got a cell phone…I have the whole world in my hand!” The truth is schools do not educate anymore, forget being held back because you failed every subject. Truly the dumbing down of America.
It is good though that you are able to see your granddaughter. Many people are not able to on a regular basis.
My advice, impart to her what you can as long as you can, only as she will willingly absorb it. My granddaughter lives a whole state away, and is not ready for a whole lot yet as she is very young. Pray for her every chance you get, and love her as often as you can.
When I was in school (50s/60s), we were not just taught American and World History. We also learned our city’s history (Detroit) and state history (Michigan). These were taught in grade school. American and World History was expanded upon in high school as was Civics. History and Civics were my favorite subjects. Its a shame how little kids these days know of their histories.
Do people here really know what is happening to our country?
We got a massive illegal problem ready to bankrupt America in the social welfare and healthcare arenas.
The massive terrorist gotaways are making a massive invasion army on our American soil. We have paid union too many wage increases that we have not kept up with actually maintaining our utility structures, the electrical grid will eventually collapse on it’s own due to poor maintenance.
We have illegals that must be returned as the 14th amendment is being used as a crutch for the anchor baby thoery of whole daisy chained families living on the taxpayer’s pennies, nickels and dimes to be welfare freeloaders. Americans can not afford their own American lifestyles.
The politicians don’t care as long as we taxpayers pay their salaries and let the politicians get rich on insider trading while we citizens go broke.
This is a Christian nation that is being taken over by Islamist who should never have crossed our open southern border.
The Chinese own many businesses as politicians sell out our country without our say so. Chinese owned American farmlands, meat processing can strangle our ability to eat and be free.
Why are Chinese nationals all of recent times flooding across the open border. Is Taiwan the target or the USA first to go?
Why should one meathead in the oval office use executive orders to bring down America?
Can’t the public say enough, an fight back legally to say hell no?
When do we take back America or is it too late?
Today most flour sack material is non existent as packaging has changed with modern society’s needs. The environmentalist coalition has stuck their nose into our society’s social ills, manipulating their brand of humanism on us.
We don’t want to go back to bathtub gin making and prohibition of the 1920 mindset either.
America wake up and pray to God for what we will need to take back America and take back our farmlands from the CCP Chinese foriegn assets taken.
Prosecute the people, politicians and corporations that have and are selling out America to the highest bidder.
God bless America, please!
What’s wrong with bath tub gin?
People are doomed to follow , not change
sad but true
unless a man or woman are born again or eyes opened and can really see the truth or need to change ways of upbringing or programming , thinking or habbits they will never see or be able to change
set in ways , thinking patterns and accepted views , based on surroundings and acceptance by others
to see clearly it is imperitive to stand back , review , see all aspects , think about it for a time
Time is a criticle issue in the thought process
and a multitude of view or counsel , with a clear background
a clear headed view : you are the company you keep
with only 1-5% of people able the lead and take the criticism of other s , this is why
So as a man or woman thinks , so they are , ways of thought process , training
Most , and I mean Most leaders who achieve great things are drop outs in the education areana , due to thier ability to think for themselves and stand alone , and go against the tide s of mass idiots who just follow , like sheep going off the cliff of life , sinking with the ships of fools , and doing what ever the absulute fools tell them to do .
Mass , Mobs, Groups , fool who just want to be accepted and loved .
But that is because they have a deep need for a loving savior . Jesus Christ , God s provision for all mankind , Salvation to all who would , seek out God, trust his word , obey his ten commandments , believe in him , and have faith no matter who says otherwise .
The True Standing alone
Check out the latest biden achievement with condelica rice at the helm .
really great , following evil and cant even control himself , great example of a fool being led to the slaughter . NO CLUE what is going to happen
All those who think they are going to hunt wildlife for food are mistaken. Most hunters will clean out the animals faster than they buffalo hunters did back in the 1800 era. That was a sad time for America and the Native American’s food source. Shame on the elitist for their tasty delicacies of snobbery.
We now have the homeless and illegals spread all over this country do eat us out of home and country today.
Show trials of Alex Jones the harbinger of what Trump is going through.
Alex Jones of Info Wars was a prior test bed of liberal lawsuits to close the 1st Amendment freedom of speech. They continue to harass Trump in fake legal actions to stop a presidential candidate in election interference and gag orders from a corrupt judge.
Yes Sandy Hook comments by Alex Jones, recently said he was wrong but he was telling a truth liberals did not want.
The lawsuit was for Trillions of dollars then reduced to billions and he has to sell his assets of Info Wars. Just think what would happen if the corrupt of many tiered legal system would do to us. In a similar situation of the legal fraud court of justice that Trump is going through as the Marxist want us to shut up and submit to their cause of control and movement.
The government agencies have been weaponized against us legal and Native Americans to be second class citizens. To the new illegal replacement citizens crossing the open border. We taxpayers pay while illegals get to play, LAWFARE is racist.
God bless us.
Huh?
Nancy if you don’t understand that message? Please stay in your granny’s basement.
Just read it again
That’s what I did and then I understood
Must Vote Trump 2024 to save our America! WE CAN Take America back my friends. Tell EVERYONE TO VOTE or we will surely lose our country. 🇺🇲🙏
Not just Trump. We must vote straight ticket to give him Congress and the Senate, then hold their feet to the fire. He will only have 4 years to get our country headed back in a constitutional direction.
Let’s Go Brandon!
Bidenomics is America last, MAGA is America first!
Which you vote for in 2024 November elections?
God bless!
RFK 2024! F#&K BIDEN AND TRUMP TOO!
Hybrid vehicle sales are surging, but really there is no real used car sales of EV’s and hybrids as the replacement batteries are worth more than the old vehicle.
The EV batteries need to be replaced at a higher cost and an environmental health hazard in dumping toxic chemicals. The chemicals like lithium materials are being hard to find and mine for those battery components.
Yet the world’s national use and are going back to gas, oil drilling. While America is held hostage by the political environmentalist of foreigners.
China is reaping profits to build their economy and military while our Bidenomics economy is being drained.
Wind mills, solar panels and unicorns are dreams of the lunatic progressives in the White House currently.
America has clean coal reserves and oil reserves to become a powerhouse we were before Bidenomics killed the golden goose of freedom.
Deport, report, deport, defund the 14th Amendment paragraphs, add a new passage all anchor babies are Illegitimate to become legal citizens by birth of illegals crossing our borders.
Did you know birth tourism is a profit center for the healthcare system?
The Chinese have birthed their future vacation babies to be eligible for social security, medicare and welfare benefits from us Americans.
Think u would b surprised by ur statement that EV’s r selling
In China the 2nd largest car company that pushed EV’s lost 4 billion with 1000’s of EV’s in parking lots not sold
They have the vehicles but if people don’t want them > can’t make them buy !!
Lithium batteries don’t just cost $30-40,000 to replace, but in China r catching fire, in every circumstance including when just parked not plugged in, & even while on a delivery trailer on way to dealership
Now factories r going up in flames as owners try to recoup money back from the Failed EV experiment 🙁
So even b4 customer has an EV, they r crashing (mechanical), catching fire,as well as driving off with inadequate support structure (auto driver).
Factories r burning down with all that poisoned toxic smoke just making the Environmentalists cry.
As with high efficiency gas & diesel cars with hydrogen & other efficient options being provided
Tesla is lucky to have a good share of the market as it’s more so China made cars that r going up in smoke
Sometimes locking driver inside as with electric motor & battery failure & windows that r almost unbreakable
China uncensored etc have story at least once a week about Chinas EV failure
Let alone Solar panels in China with over a million panels sent to dump
From not selling to failed water & other projects that ended up in disaster after a few storms took majority out. 🙁
Windmill & Panels r fine for backup or special circumstances but trying to substitute into main line production was a bonehead writing on the wall stunt.
Sure when a major breakthrough comes along like Fusion over fission for example
Is when to up grade
All this point, rich got richer, that’s it
Oh well all the politicians, they deserve there mention
Hopefully PM’s like Trudeau & his Liberal cohorts can reminisce from there 6×8 foot cells as well
As with his carbon tax mandates on Cdns is going to put Liberals in 3rd place next election in Canada
Ofcoarse, Canada is investing still big time in EV’s & Lithium batteries
Liberals r so corrupt
Conservatives r campaigning on stopping WEF participation & being a Cdn MP
One or the other, as over half of sitting Liberal party is also a WEF member
That is going to stop after next election
Guarantee it Lol 🙂
Our head of Health is a top sitting member of UN – WHO as well
Why Canada got shafted during COVID, when r govt leaders r also involved with WHO
One or the other , it has to stop
Migrants >> 2nd country rule
U leave ur country do to hardship > 1st country u go to is country that u get Asylum with!!
Forget this pick & choosing
Squawking hard done by & showing up with new clothes & jumbo suitcases !!
Compliments of the Soros, Schaults, & naturally Chinese investment toward bringing down the West
To sum up >> the West started getting scammed in 90’s & Soccialist almost got there way
I think it’s going to get rough before it calms back to normality
But, good guys always win
We pay the price
But, further will b ours
(Once we get control of our Criminal & Court Systems again
&
Dismiss all of the Socialist Woke teachers & Community leaders that snivelled into important positions throughout our Communities
&
Let’s give our Police back the power to Stop & Search as a start to reclaim our Cities & Burbs.
Love u guys from the Great White North 🙂
The Europeans are going to the right, conservative as they have seen illegal migration of getting a free ride is over.
America is getting the same treatment of illegals crossing the open southern and northern borders by progressives who use other people’s money. Yes it is our American money being used up for people not coming here legally.
Shame on you low information voters that have caused part of the mess we are in currently.
Sanctuary states like California are giving money, funds for illegals to own a home and work in government employment, what could go wrong?
Whose country is this for?
Fortunately, I grew up with two grandmothers who were young women and mothers in the Great Depression. I heard their stories straight from them and asked questions. I also wore dresses and ‘sunsuit” rompers made from those flour sacks as did my little sisters. I was witness to the swapping of seeds, quilting parties and many of the other practices from the Depression era. I filed that information away in my memory for future use. Fast forward to Y2K. My own grown children laughed when I began to stockpile dried beans in 50 gallon drums in my garage along with flour, sugar, salt and canned good. Oh Mom, they said, you’re being ridiculous. But I have always kept a “hard times” panty in my garage, or in a closet, and they have always benefitted from it. When there is need, I can fill up a couple of shopping bags with staples that will help stretch the grocery budget. I also taught my daughter how to cook on hot rocks in a campfire, how to cook from scratch, not the prepared, prepackaged, or frozen stuff. Now, in my 70s, I’m assembling a library of survival books containing useful information on how to live without electric power, gasoline engines or the internet. I hope they won’t need it, but it will be there if they do. I bought a property that is big enough for them to go full ” Walton’s Mountain” and paid it off. So if and when the need arises, they can refugee here, and grow vegetables, harvest wood, replant trees, keep a few animals and sustain them. There will be the books that will tell them what they need to know and how to survive, and what to teach their children. Maybe adversity will teach them to forget about money and to pool their skills, strength and talents and to be their brother’s keeper. After all, home is the place where they have to let you in.
Am glad people can pay off their home and land. Back in the depression period a lot of people had loans to the banks and many banks closed on these people than working with them. The future banks too big to fail that Obama bailed with taxpayer’s money. The last big company Obama bailed out was Chevrolet, these corporations and banks should have gone under than contributing to our national debt. And the endless wars that added to our debt.
Even if we paid off our land and homes, the state can get us for not paying property taxes and the IRS, Income Removal Service can find some BS regulation in their tax laws to confiscate our property.
The government takes and spends our money on giving illegal’s the opportunity to buy a home for their family and daisy chained relatives here.
Debar, I hope your kids appreciate you. I like a well stocked pantry. It can soften the bumps in the road.
I’m grateful that earlier generations in my family had common sense, and some elders made it a point to pass along what they knew to the younger folks.
Making do takes care of most things, IE clothing, bedding, toys, some tools. But food is food. My folks in Oklahoma made it through the depression by wise selection of crops that were fool proof. Black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, Hard corn,(not sweet corn) for the summer. Cabbage, beets, potatoes, winter squash, turnips for the winter. They raised a few hogs and had chickens, sometimes had a milk cow. Everything was cooked with lard. It wasn’t fun, work was from can to can’t for men, a woman’s work was never done. There was a reason people only lived to be 50 or so.
I learn something new everyday. Thanks for the new info Claude.
A silver lining to consider.
The feral hog population will significantly reduced.
Al seems rather intriguing interesting and doable but the fact is that this time when America gets hit she is going down no bouncing back in twenty thirty years. Doesn’t seem to be many preppers who are Christian that understand the times and Bible prophecy! The world is clearly entering the twenty six hundred years old “end of days” prophecies. The church age is ending and the “Time Of Jacobs Trouble” is here. Many nations will be completely reduced of all humans!
In Germany during ww2, clothing was the easiest thing to barter with or sell. Keep it in mind.
It is a shame about the educational levels these days. Parents must get more involved.
My 7-year old granddaughter attends a hybrid homeschooling program (2-days of bricks and mortar school which mainly concentrates on STEAM subjects, and three days of traditional homeschooling that covers most of the rest). I have been her primary babysitter since she was 7-weeks old and between her parents and I she can read at an incredible level for her age. Her vocabulary is extensive and her math skills exceed her peers. The STEAM classes she gets have already introduced kids to Newtonian physics in Kindergarten and first grade. She is also lucky to have close relations who are well educated and have extensive life experiences to share. I’d could write paragraphs on that subject.
She will start to learn cursive in third grade (she’s in second now). Her latest side learning project with me is getting the basics of HAM radio. She wants to be a scientist (exact type yet to be decided) and an astronaut.
I work part-time as a truck driving school instructor. This June 6th as I was filling out the daily record, I thought out loud “ today is D Day”. One of the 20 somethings said “what is D Day?” I was so disgusted I told him just google it and walked away. How disgraceful.
As said before, I thought these were survivalist’s posts. Then all of a sudden, everything is about conspiracy politics. Let’s get back to what this is supposed to be about, and leave out the politics.
I remember my mother sending a swatch of flower sack with Dad and I when we went to the store or feed store. That was in the 1940’s. I hunted woodchucks in the summer as a big one would weigh over 20 lbs. I hunted from age 11 to today at 88+, then for anything except songbirds, now any of the 3 deer species here in Texas. We fished year-round in streams and lakes and lakes in the winter when the ice was 3 or more inches thick. I will never turn down horse or sheep meat. I’ll try goat someday. We raised chickens, hogs and rabbits. Beef was for rich folks. I ate shrimp when I entered the Air Force in 1958, lobster came later . Different times than now, but it may return as things are going now.