Comments on: Retro-Depression Thursday: Big Rock Candy Mountain

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:31:17 +0000

Well now, it sounds like there are a lot of you who should be doing the guest- and co-blogging on this! The Depression is at least 150 years away from my field of expertise, so I’ll certainly welcome any contributions or informed commentary any of you might offer.

Love the poetry about the utility of kitchen tools/items that women were familiar with versus the specialized tools that men know, Rachel. You know I love those iceboxes and utility wagons!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:16:43 +0000

Don’t forget to throw in some Depression-era kitchen material culture like an iceless refrigerator, utility wagons made from old children’s buggys, and a feather duster made from nylon stockings. Here is a poem I found during my research on Depression-era farm women and their kitchens which illustrates the ingenuity of rural women to come up with innovative labor-saving devices and kitchen utensils to save on money as well as create a more efficient home:

At home it seems to be the rule
Pa never has “the proper tool”
Or knack to fix things. For the stunt
That stumps Ma, tho, you’ll have to hunt.

The caster on the table leg
Fell out. Pa said a wooden peg
Would fix it up. But Ma kep’ mum
And fixed it with a wad of gum.

He scare could open our front door
It stuck so tight. And Pa, he swore
He’d “buy a plane” as big as life-
Ma fixed it with a carving knife.

The Bureau drawer got stuck one day
An’ push or pull, ‘twas there to stay,
Says Pa, “Some day ‘twill shrink I hope.”
Ma fixed it with a bar of soap…

So when my things get out of fix
Do I ask Pa to mend ‘em? Nix!
But Ma just grabs what’s near at hand
And tags things up to beat the band.

More verses and odd kitchen equipment available if you’d like!

By: HistoryMaven

HistoryMaven — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 02:48:45 +0000

Happy to help out, Historiann. I spent the last year researching the Great Depression and New Deal in Ohio. Can send along some great stuff.

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:28:16 +0000

I'd love to read a series on the 1930s. Bettina Friedl's American-studies undergrad course on the documentary impulse in the 1930s changed my life. We watched The Plow That Broke the Plains, critiqued Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange's work, talked about Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theater Project, read The Grapes of Wrath and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. A career-change and most of a Ph.D. later, I still like to use cultural history as a way to teach politics and social history. In recent TV, the very historically-detailed HBO series Carnivale, set in a Depression-era traveling circus in the West, is a delight to watch if you know 1930s US culture at all. (The series-long plot is not for the faint of heart, courtesy of a truly diabolical Father-Coughlin-like character, but the visual detailing and characterization is very sharp.)

By: Bing

Bing — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:02:43 +0000

Oh, I would love it!

HJ

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:55:01 +0000

Ha!

By: Profane

Profane — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:24:26 +0000

I cannot help but be reminded of. . .

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/166184/internet-transients

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:38:35 +0000

Thanks, Historiann. I’m always looking out for fluff, even at the end of a soft week, much less a hard week!

I wooshed I’d of saved some of that glass, but the auctioneer said there was a hot market for it. Maybe I did save a piece or two, in which case I’ll send along some pics.

By: Matt L

Matt L — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:21:08 +0000

Sure! as long as you’re willing to give a tip of the hat to 1873, “the Other Great Depression (TM)”!

Depression photography would be great too!

By: truffula

truffula — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:15:53 +0000

Hey! I used to use a popular book about the Depression era on the southern high plains as the text for an environmental change class! Among other things, we watched “The Plow That Broke the Plains” and talked a lot about the idea of courage. I’m all for new insights into this era.