I am working on a chapter about money and how it influences our lives. In the next few weeks, I’ll focus on questions regarding our individual relationship with money. Not how much we have or how we spend it, but how it helps shape who we are.
Our generation is distinct in that we were touched by the Great Depression; we witnessed the Golden Age of Prosperity that followed; and, we have been living through a serious economic downturn for two or three decades. Obviously, I’m not an economist. I’m interested in how these huge national movements have affected our individual lives.
My first question is this: How did the Depression influence you, and what lessons did you learn that still help you today?
Women & Aging 
I wasn’t aware of a depression. When my father returned from WWll service, he bought a termite ridden frame house in a neighborhood of old houses. Old houses, big trees, and lots of young families with lots of kids. He and his army buddies worked hard at getting their their civilian lives going, and we kids played hard. And the wives/mothers? They were there, in the background, lowly visible. But they were watching, guiding, busying themselves with housework, churchwork, the responsibilities of being a good neighbor—cooperative, obedient, on duty. That’s what I remember of that era.
When I grew up in the 40s and 50s, I never felt that we were poor and I think we were very middle class.
My father was very saving on electricity and water. If it was light outside, the curtains were open and the lights were off. We never left the water running if Dad was around. I grew up very conservative and do worry about having enough money to get through the month and pay the bills. This stems from our early years of marriage when we lived from pay check to pay check.
I was born in 1934, so the stock market crash and subsequent depression had some influence on the way I grew up. Food was not wasted, new purchases were made only when there was enough cash to pay for it all, hand-me-downs were prevalent, and not many toys required batteries or electronic devices. Small town mom and pop stores, telephone party lines, Sunday nights around the radio, entertaining at home, vacations by car somewhere close to home or to relatives’ homes. Then WWII and rationing, saving tinfoil, airmail letters to servicemen overseas. A simpler life, yes, but not always easier. Because of these influences, I still find it hard to throw away leftovers or toss a favorite blouse that I know I can’t fit into anymore. And it’s no longer cheaper to fix something that is broken in this throwaway culture. I’d say I’m not a tight wad, and not a hoarder, thank God, but just conservative.