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would be interesting to find the address of my ggrandfather's place in DesMoiens and at least on google see what's there now. They departed 104 years ago.
A time or two I've typed an address--or the best guess I can of an address--into MapQuest, then looked the area over on sattellite well enough so I could recognize it, then went to the place on City Data's Google map. Found an old girlfriend's place that way and looks like she really cleaned her ex out pretty good.
A thread on the 1910s and 1920s contained so many posts on the 1930s I take it folks would like a thread on life in the Great Depression. So here it is.
My Grandmother and siblings came to the United States from Germany during the Depression and they did not understand why everyone was so upset.
Even during the Depression they always had more food, clothing and better shelter in the United States than they ever had in Germany.
My mother was eight years old and sent away to live with her grandmother in another state. She didn't even know the lady. She was one of five children and lost her entire everything.
The lady had dementia, ran around naked in the Boston Common wearing only a corset and spending their last .50 CENTS on LIVER to feed STRAY CATS.
People TODAY have no idea what POVERTY really means and I'm sick of hearing about all these current IMAGINARY trumped up [POLITICAL] problems.
Oh boo hoo, you need an ID to vote cry me a river.
You need FREE birth control, legalized POT, abortion of FIVE MONTH OLD BABIES, FREE meals 365 days for a bunch of kids you never should have had, FREE phone service and internet, government pushed mortgages that you had no business "qualifying" for, FIFTEEN DOLLAR minimum wage demand when you can't even get my McDonald's order right, NO BORDERS allowing every uneducated/unskilled/indigent individual into the country and paid for by TAXPAYERS...and there's a WAR ON WOMEN .
Another depression would actually HELP people get their priorities and heads on straight. OR actually using some COMMON SENSE.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 10-26-2014 at 07:31 AM..
I agree, runswithscissors. All this abundance has people's priorities out of perspective.
My MIL was friends with a woman who had come to the Midwest on the Orphan Trains. There were many parentless, homeless children in the cities in the east and the idea was to ship them out to good wholesome farms in he country where they could be taken care of.
People met the trains at the stations and selected which children they wanted. I'm unsure of the requirements. But some of those children met pretty tough fates being used as free labor and being forced to sleep in the barn, etc.
My FIL came from Holland at nineteen in the thirties and gave himself into indentured servitude to a farmer in eastern IA. And he discovered that he could never leave. Every time he thought his debt was paid the farmer would come up with another list of expenses. He said he finally ran away.
I agree, runswithscissors. All this abundance has people's priorities out of perspective.
My MIL was friends with a woman who had come to the Midwest on the Orphan Trains. There were many parentless, homeless children in the cities in the east and the idea was to ship them out to good wholesome farms in he country where they could be taken care of.
People met the trains at the stations and selected which children they wanted. I'm unsure of the requirements. But some of those children met pretty tough fates being used as free labor and being forced to sleep in the barn, etc.
My FIL came from Holland at nineteen in the thirties and gave himself into indentured servitude to a farmer in eastern IA. And he discovered that he could never leave. Every time he thought his debt was paid the farmer would come up with another list of expenses. He said he finally ran away.
Actually when our country was founded, the English had a recipricol agreement with the colonies that a parent in the UK could send their kids here for indenture because they would DIE in the UK with poverty. LITERALLY die.
So say a widower had too many kids to feed, he'd send the oldest here (like a nine year old kid) who had to work for say, 10 years to get freedom and CITIZENSHIP and become a PROPERTY OWNER - something UNHEARD of in Europe.
I saw this on "Who do You Think You Are" genealogy show on NBC. The people started out thinking the parents were horrid until they read the child's story who was ETERNALLY GRATEFUL that that 10 years, while difficult, gave them the best chance at life and were able to contribute to making this the greatest country in the world.
Now if you're telling me this went on in the 30's with illegal slavery, I'm a bit surprised but he stayed, so I imagine it was a better choice than returning to Holland at the time.
It's a shame our politicians and schools have chosen to make the WORST possible point of view instead of really celebrating the HARD WORK and determination that people like your FIL invested in the USA. Just to politically pander for votes and taxpayer DOLLARS.
The episode I saw that on was the one with Reba McIntyre.
The Rob Lowe episode was good, too. They're actually ALL fascinating. Even though the celebrities can occasionally get annoying LOL.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 10-26-2014 at 09:12 AM..
My mother was eight years old and sent away to live with her grandmother in another state. She didn't even know the lady. She was one of five children and lost her entire everything.
The lady had dementia, ran around naked in the Boston Common wearing only a corset and spending their last .50 CENTS on LIVER to feed STRAY CATS.
People TODAY have no idea what POVERTY really means and I'm sick of hearing about all these current IMAGINARY trumped up [POLITICAL] problems.
Oh boo hoo, you need an ID to vote cry me a river.
You need FREE birth control, legalized POT, abortion of FIVE MONTH OLD BABIES, FREE meals 365 days for a bunch of kids you never should have had, FREE phone service and internet, government pushed mortgages that you had no business "qualifying" for, FIFTEEN DOLLAR minimum wage demand when you can't even get my McDonald's order right, NO BORDERS allowing every uneducated/unskilled/indigent individual into the country and paid for by TAXPAYERS...and there's a WAR ON WOMEN .
Another depression would actually HELP people get their priorities and heads on straight. OR actually using some COMMON SENSE.
People are going to have sex no matter what. Better to have birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies because abstinence certainly does not work.
Marijuana is far less pernicious than alcohol or cigarettes while having abundant medicinal properties. It should be legalized. The war on drugs has drained resources and destroyed generations of men and women.
Women should have the right to do what they want with their bodies. They are the ones carrying the child. If they don't want it, they should not be forced to carry it. It should be their choice.
Everyone should be entitled to a basic level of subsistence, which should include food if they cannot support themselves.
Having access to the Internet and a phone is pretty much a necessity at this point. Most jobs cannot be applied to without the Internet and without a way to be contacted regularly you are not going to get a job. This isn't the world of the 90s where you could walk into a business and get a job face-to-face. You pretty much have to go through websites now. The only businesses I have seen that do face-to-face hiring are small businesses and there certainly aren't many jobs in those to go around. And they rarely pay well.
When people are making the minimum wage or only just above it and are unable to afford the basics of life, that is a problem. Between a dearth of jobs and jobs that pay well, what are you to do? And it isn't always possible to get multiple jobs, especially when so many minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs demand that you maintain wild schedules of availability.
I'm with you on preventing illegal immigrants from entering the country even if I sympathize with their plight and understand their motives.
And there is certainly a war on women. Your attitude towards women and abortion is one such aspect of that war. But there is far more than that. This country has a long way to go to achieving equality between men and women.
I'm utterly fascinated by the way folks lived in decades gone by. My mother recalls picking up chunks of coal along nearby railroad tracks with her father, and to her it was a game, but the coal they collected was needed for the furnace.
I'm utterly fascinated by the way folks lived in decades gone by. My mother recalls picking up chunks of coal along nearby railroad tracks with her father, and to her it was a game, but the coal they collected was needed for the furnace.
My uncle used to talk about doing that and my friends and I did that too when we were 12 or 13. We would then go build a fire in the woods and sit around an chat. Coal really is a great fuel on a frigid Ohio winter day.
When I was in the Navy many years ago, I had a chat with a guy who enlisted in West Virginia as a teenager in the 1930s. He said he had never worn shoes before, and when they issued him a pair of boots, he walked backwards for half a mile just to see his footprints. He said he went home on Leave after boot camp and told his friends the Navy was giving away free shoes, and they all went down to the recruiter to sign up. He may have been pulling my leg a bit, but his story did point out the extreme poverty that many people were experiencing in those days.
My FIL came from Holland at nineteen in the thirties and gave himself into indentured servitude to a farmer in eastern IA. And he discovered that he could never leave. Every time he thought his debt was paid the farmer would come up with another list of expenses. He said he finally ran away.
That was actually more common in certain parts of the country than people think. Basically a legalized form of slavery. Look up "peonage", which continued in parts of the Deep South well into the 1940's.
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