I got a letter in the mail from my grandma today, and part of her letter described growing up in the Nebraska Sandhills during the Great Depression. What experience and insight...
"I am still working on my organization project and it sure is going slow! I guess I don't know what to do with stuff and it is hard for me, having lived through the Great Depression when I was a kid, to throw things out. I remember that we were issued stamps so one pair of shoes per person was allowed. You could buy one banana for each member of your household-you couldn't get much sugar unless you had fruit to case and my mom had bought lots of jars of sour plums from a neighbor before we moved to Brown County so we could get plenty of sugar which we shared with our neighbors. We made our own fire by burning cow chips in Garden County and lots of cobs both places and my dad also raised hogs back then. We ate lots of rabbits and pheasants and then fish too after we moved to Goose Creek. We had big gardens, had our own milk, creams, eggs and butter-We sold cream and eggs via the barter system. I guess that paid for our groceries. We wore lots of hand-me-downs and were glad to get them. We were lucky to live in Nebraska. I guess we didn't even know we were poor! We had no electricity or plumbing, of course-Had kerosene lamps-our house was "3-room and a path!" I wrote a song about that-How things have changed! My dad drove our cattle from Garden County in 1942 when we moved-21 days on the trail with 3 teenage boys helping him-tent, chuckwagon and all! I was 6 years old that spring."
Only someone who has seen the Nebraska Sandhills can imagine what a trek across them in a wagon while driving a herd of cattle would be like. What I wouldn't do to witness this and events like it...at least I have a first-hand description.
-Daniel Uden 1-27-2009
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