For Every Bad, There is a Worse

My mother who is now 91 years of age came of age during the tail end of the Great Depression. We have much to learn from her and others of the Greatest Generation. If this COVID19 thing persists, I have no doubt but what we will have “socially distanced” ourselves into another Great Depression, perhaps even worse than the last one.  It is entirely possible.  Economies just don’t shut down for two or three months without consequence.

So, I asked her and some of her friends for some tips, some ideas on what it will take to get through the next one. Here’s a review of those ideas:

1. “Waste not, want not.” This came up time and time again. My mother remembers her mom and dad taking in boarders, often filling the house with more than 3 families. Plenty of kids had what she called “sticky fingers.” In other words, plenty of have-nots eyeing the haves. Consequently, she learned early on to not leave stuff laying around, and to use and then re-use what she did have. In many ways, members of her generation were the true environmentalists. Trash heaps were combed over for useful scraps of metal and wood. And, they threw precious little back into the heap. I suppose we should heed this advice now; but still I wonder “why now?” when resourcefulness and squeezing every last ounce out of everything we pay for ought to be the rule.
2. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Roosevelt’s words resonated at a visceral level for the children, the adolescents, but especially the adults of the Great Depression. That certain feeling of despair could surely have been on everyone’s minds. But he managed to remind people that sitting around waiting to die was hardly the right way to respond, and certainly not the American Way. Instead, he implored Americans to remember, at base, that the American economy is made up of hard working people anxious to do just that: WORK. Find something to do. We are coming into summer. There are plenty of things to do.
3. “Have a Garden!” Another one of those pearls that came up over and over again. Whether it was a backyard raised bed, or an urban subsistence garden, or the community patch, people in the Great Depression grew their own foods. By some accounts, one city in the Midwest by the mid-1930s had something like 25,000 gardens. It isn’t that hard. As Michael Bloomberg sarcastically said, “all a farmer has to do is throw some seeds down and water them.” Of course, it is WAY more than that, but the point is that self-reliance is a virtue. We all have it in us.
4. “Pay cash.” Actually, what they said worked for them in the Great Depression was to avoid debt. Not that there was much credit to be had. But the smart ones avoided debt. And they worked the barter system like nobody’s business.  They traded, they were wheelers and dealers. And to this day they have avoided credit cards.
5. “Relocate, if you must.” My mother and her family moved several times in the 1930s. They moved to where the jobs were. We need to think the same way. Some parts of the country will fare better than others. Be prepared. Again, self-reliance.
6. “Know the power of positive thinking.” Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 book, The Power of Positive Thinking, was conceived of and, shall we say, gestated, during the Great Depression. I suspect much of what he wrote came from what he learned in much the same way that I have, by talking to “survivors.” The point is that positive thinking is its own reward. Even without work, with but scraps of bread to eat, if one can remain positive then one can rise above. And then to do that with others, in community, will ennoble all of us.
7. “Be a saver, not a spender, and learn how to shop.” This goes back to what I gathered for No. 4 above, but it is different. It embodies the whole process of thinking ahead, of preparing and then shopping for the best deal you can get. Leave no stone un-turned in the hunt for a better deal. Know the prices of things. Comparison shop. Window shop and dream, but then put a plan to that dream.
8. “Think of ways to make money.” Whether it be mowing lawns or, from my mother’s memories of the farmers of wind-swept Nebraska and South Dakota, learning how to grow a new crop or to start a business on the side, there are endless ways to make money. And since cash is king, take only cash. Know your talents and how they might be “scaled” into other opportunities. Put simply: THINK.
9. “Keep the family and the community together.” My mom can distinctly remember the days when her dad, my grandpa, didn’t have enough money for groceries. And how the local grocer extended short-term credit, knowing all the while that my granddad was anything but lazy. You see, they lived in a community and they knew each other. And later, when the tide was turned, my granddad was quick to reward the grocer with extra business. We see that now, during the COVID19 lock-downs, how people are tipping the delivery boy extra because they know him and know that this business might be all he has today. Teach your family members those values. Be kind to your local community.
10. Relating to No. 6 above, “Even though I knew I could lose everything, I wasn’t afraid,” she said. Fear wasn’t useful. Yes, it had its evolutionary roots – fear can keep us alive – but taken to an extreme, fear will only hobble us and get in the way of all the above Be not afraid.

As the great Thomas Hardy once wrote…

“and yet, to every bad there is a worse.”