I have been doing a lot of reading lately about life during the great depression. There are two completely different perspectives. In some books, The Grapes Of Wrath for example, the depression is depicted as a horrible time with the hunger, the loss and the deprivation given the face of real people. In other books like The Worst Hard Time, it is portrayed much more as a time of hardship but also one of good times, a time many people consider the best of the lives. I expect both perspectives are accurate based on individual experience. No one event is the same for all people at all times.
This led to a conversation with my husband about the future, what we expect to happen and how it is likely to impact us and more importantly, how it will impact our children and their children. Neither of us expect the the end of the world tomorrow. We do expect a gradual, or maybe not so gradual, reduction in our standard of living. We expect energy to get dramatically more expensive and food to tag along. We expect jobs to become harder to find and benefits like retirement and healthcare to no longer be a given. We believe we are dreadfully vulnerable to a great many scenarios that would change the trajectory of collapse to a far more dramatic shift from one life style to another. Any international conflict that interrupts our energy supplies is a game changer for food and heat for the average family. Rationing may be achieved by price with a lot of people faced with the choice between food and gas, mortgage or health care for the first time in their lives. That is already happening to many but it could easily become the norm. We prepared so we are able to feed our children while we transition from the life we now enjoy to one that is very different.
One of the major differences between the way Bruce and I think about these changes and that of some of our friends and even our own kids is our histories. Bruce and I both grew up poor. Not poor like I didn’t get a car for graduation but poor like no electricity or running water. Poor as in a true problem putting food on the table. Bruce was country poor and while young, I was city poor but we both come from families that knew how to make do and do without. It was not always fun but it was an education that has served us well.
We can envision a life without so much stuff and not be frightened by it. It isn’t necessarily worse, just different. If our lives had been defined by excess, that might not be the case. Sometimes I look around and marvel at all I have been blessed with and I could weep with gratitude. Most of the world would consider me wealthy. I have a lovely home in a safe community. I have water that gushes from the tap, heat that comes with a flick of my wrist. If I get sick, health care is a phone call away. My pantry is full. My land produces. My kids are safe. No one in my family is fighting in a war. I can go to church if I wish, vote as I please, say nasty things about elected officials and the police will not come bashing in my door in the night. My life is charmed.
I am not sure where I am heading with this rant. I love my life. I love sitting on my deck, watching my kids splash in the pool but I know the pool is luxury I could live without. I love lots of luxuries but my life is not dependant upon them. Being poor, even for a while, helps make clear what is necessity and what is luxury. In a different world, a peak oil world, this is a lesson that will be learned by all.
July 22, 2009 at 8:34 am
Beautiful post, Kathy.
July 22, 2009 at 9:06 am
All very deep thoughts. Yesterday we had a deep convo at Sharon’s blog re: class.
I think that many average americans, moderately well off or not are at least two steps away from you. The closest is as you say, coping with doing with less.
There is another and I think much larger one that is coupled with the flawed infinite growth business model of the US, its this:
Americans function either consciously or unconsciously with the assumption that although they may be poor, they are simply “Pre-Rich” and that one day, if they are good patriotic americans, they will achieve the american dream which means they transition from pre-rich to rich.
That particular perversion that has arisen from DECADES of Madison Avenue conditioning is a very hard thought pattern to recognize and then to battle – it will case so many people to have seriously impaired resilience in the coming times.
July 22, 2009 at 10:51 am
I agree, beautiful post Kathy. Your thoughts resonate in my heart, as always.
July 22, 2009 at 11:12 am
I grew up poor too. Though we always had power, we didn’t always have running water. We mostly lived in the country except for one winter we lived in town with my Dad’s mother, because the house we had been living in for the summer didn’t have heat.
Over the years, circumstances gradually improved for us. I can still remember the arrival of a used dryer in the mid 70s. Mom still used the old wringer washer, but to not have to hang clothes on the line in the winter until they froze, then bring the frozen clothes in and bend them over the clothes horses… now that was luxury!
My husband and I started out with very little to call our own, but we’ve built a life together and again circumstances improved, so that now we live a very comfortable life.
But like you… those years taught me that I can survive and perhaps more importantly that I can be happy. Because no doubt, those were tough times, but I also carry many happy memories mixed in with the not so happy.
July 22, 2009 at 11:58 am
I loved your post and couldn’t agree more. If you haven’t already read “The Orchard” you should. It tells an inspiring story about working against the odds during the Great Depression. One of the few books I will read over and over.
July 22, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Such lovely comments. I treasure every one. I have never read The Orchard. I will put it on my library list. Reader’s Digest put out one calledWe Had Everything But Money. I found it a good read. I also like the Depression Cookbook series.
July 22, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Excellent post!
It made me think of how so much of the “Western” culture is about life-in-excess today. So many families’ lives are defined by excess now, whether in the US, here in Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, most any developed “first world” nation really. And not just excess in terms of typical material possessions. It goes for food, information, entertainment (ie. “reality” shows), lawn size, vehicle size, house size, and more.
From our perspective in how this relates to our family: My wife’s parents were poor growing up. And she and her siblings weren’t well off growing up either. But now they all have successful careers, and her parents live with us in their retirement so they can enjoy safety, security and their lifelong savings.
My dad’s an immigrant from Ireland, and my mom’s a first generation Canadian to Irish immigrants. He had next to nothing, and she came from a surviving but not hugely well-off farm. Together they worked their way into the relatively comfortable lives they have now. So for my sisters and I growing up we were middle class, but my parents ensured we didn’t live in excess. Instead of video game systems (or even cable TV for a while), which were the rage when I was a kid, we got books and clothes. Instead of expensive clothes, we were enrolled in sports and I became an Air Force Cadet, and so on. Now we all have successful careers too. I think my parents did their best to instill in us an independence from the seductive though that material possessions equaled personal value and worth. I did experience poverty at one point in my life, while living in Virginia, and like others have said, that experience solidifies in you a sense that “I can survive and perhaps more importantly that I can be happy” (thanks for the quote SuperMomNoCape).
But now, my wife and I have 6 nieces and nephews. It is nice that none of them personally know adversity, poverty, and pain. But their lives are rather easily defined by excess. And you can already see an attitude of entitlement and complacency in all of them that I fear is setting them up for a skewed perspective on the world and on life that will hurt them in a peak-oil type of world.
My point is, as parents, aunts & uncles, grandparents, etc. we should be very aware of exactly what the cost of spoiling kids really means. The excuse that we want to give to them what we didn’t have as kids sounds virtuous, but it isn’t any longer when that means they have a life of excess in every way imaginable.
July 22, 2009 at 2:33 pm
A really important point!
July 23, 2009 at 7:34 am
My husband and I grew up poor as well, and he has worked very hard to do better, be better and give our kids more. We never went crazy with them and gave them everything, but we are comfortable. I have to wonder if prehaps we (as a generation) have given our children too much. At any rate, I think it is coming to an end. After all our hard work, we are having to figure out what we will do to pay the morgage if he gets laid off, if the 401k isn’t there at all. I guess it’s a good thing we grew up poor and know what doing without is like.