how did the people live threw the great depression?

Question

what was life like for them?

Answer 1

Read "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. A very good description. The book is about the dustbowl depression in the midwest, but it is very much a description of typical depression situations.

Answer 2

it depends on who and where you were. the depression was a lot worse for some then others. it was extrmely difficult for farmers in oklahoma and the "dust-bowl" states. they had to deal with the depression as well as conditions that made their land un-farmable. this was called "the dust bowl". but it was tough all over. people were so poor, but they made ends meet the best they could. unemployment was rampant, you just couldnt get a job. people just did whatever they could for a buck. there were soup kitchens to feed the hungry, which was most folks.

AND back then folks were, for the most part, on their own. until roosevelt became president and introduced some of the social programs still in place today, there just wasn't any help from the federal government. in many many ways, it was just a tough time period to be an american. but as usual, we got through it!

Answer 3

Alot of people, who lived near a railroad track, sent their kids out to pick up pieces of coal as their stoves burned it for heat in the winter. Some stole ducks off of ponds, chickens out of the coop. It was a brutel, and i am glad It wasn't me. They pumped their water from a well, washed their clothes in a tub with a wash board. If there were 4 people in their house, the water was heated on the stove and the last person who had their bath first, was last to get a bath the next time. They got a clean water bath once month.
Some people took their own lives, mistaking material things as the most important things in life.

Answer 4

it is amazing what we can live through when we are faced with adversity. It tore families apart and brought other families closer together. A couple of pennies went a long way back then. Trade of personal goods & services were key to survival. There was a stronger farming community back then as well and a lot of outreach type programs with churches, food kitchens etc.

Answer 5

It was really hard and I remember thinking my grandmother and my aunt were really cheap, but as I grew older, I realized it was the depression that formed their frugality. My aunt would sit in a house with a 40 watt lightbulb and would turn it on only when it got pitch dark and would beg us not to turn on the car radio because it would wear out the battery. When we were little, she would only give us one square of toilet paper to clean up - yuck! I also remember my grandmother using a tea bag twice to save money and to keep the family out of the soup kitchens. It was a really scary and difficult time. You were really lucky if you had a job.

Answer 6

Some didn't. Some threw themselves out of high-level windows in total desperation

Answer 7

Hard. Very very hard. My Grandfather was one of 9 kids and they all had to work. They had a garden which helped to feed them, but it made them all tight with a dollar.

Answer 8

Very hard. No jobs, no food, no clothes, no anything! The economy was very poor and it was very hard to regain the prosperity that was once there just months before.

Answer 9

well when the next president came he tried as hard as he could to help this dying country and taxes did get high but they got banks and all those places back but farmers had to move depend on all other farmers but are country is strong now from all hard work they did did i mention when new pres came people got jobs
the end

Answer 10

Simplistic as it sounds, the answer is simply "they didn't die".

Every person is a different story of survival in those times, every one a different way of doing it.