We are at the last part of our 1943 study, I hope that all of you that have been living like 1943 have learned many new facts about this time in history. There is always much more to learn and why we go back many times to study.
We have learned with our history studies that often we need to back up and gather new information further back in history and I mentioned in my last post we are moving into the great depression years for a new study on January 1, 2023.
Charles and I have jumped into 1929 as of today as I am writing this, December 1, 2022. We felt we need the month to get things ready for the history study and work out our plan.
We are ending our study of 1943 and there is still rationing going on. This is just a few examples of the points for just a few of the items.
Baby beef roast 9 points, lb .25 cents 3 points pork roast lb .29 cents, 4 points pork chops lv .34 cents, 2 points fresh spare ribs lb .25 cents.
8 points cut beans no 2 can .11 cents, 19 points colonial peas no 2 can .13 cents. 5 points snowdrift shortening 1 lb jar .24 cents. 5 points Wesson oil pint bottle . 27 cents. 5 points Crisco shortening 1. lb jar .24 cents. Canned goods and oils are still being rationed. The war is getting more intense and the next year of1944 was a difficult year, rationing was still going on and D-Day happened in June of 1944.
Many public libraries have research rooms with microfilms that help greatly with studying the war or any historical time. Also Newspapers.com is a wonderful place to get information for a very reasonable monthly fee at the convenience of your home and you can read from a span of many years. I have no affiliations with them so I do not get anything for saying that, I just appreciate another option for research.
We also read different archives from National archives, I found them by typing in what I was looking for such as rationing during ww2 and such as that. I have many diaries and journals I have collected through the years, I have clippings from my paternal Grandmothers scrapbook. I also study genealogy.
Each year we make a change to keep our interest going and to learn about the many eras and times in history. But we study a bit different because we are looking to find what goes on in the home and try to figure out how people lived and how they got through difficult times.
For the 1943 study we found that families had no choice but to work out their points if they needed food. They ate more of the unrationed food such as fresh fish. We were told family stories of people wrapping their tires in cloth to keep them going and patched most anything. Hems went up to save material only to go back down after the war.
This new study, we will be studying the years of 1929 through 1935. We have chosen to study like this because we want to be living like these times. As I said to a friend of mine, the reason we will study several years at the same time during the great depression time we can get settled better.
If you think about this, what is the difference in your home and routine from a ten year span, 2012 and now 2022?
Wrapped Pasties for lunches.
Here at our house, our routines and household is pretty much the same the last ten years other than our history studies have caused much moving around of the furniture and objects in our home, and we have picked up some new old things because of the study. We have not made a lot of changes unless something needed to be repaired or replaced and in our case, since we live more like the past, we have just done without it.
If you did make changes, did you go in debt? Many people did in the 1920's and big debt, and things did not go so well because they were living beyond their means. There was a lot of consumption of alcohol, purchasing bigger and newer houses, buying cars since owning a car was a big thing. Advertisement enticements were everywhere offering credit to most any one. Life was rather loose and fast and busy.
In the 1920s crime became a big problem, there was bootlegging, gambling and with new cars they were car thefts and drug trafficking, the mob, gangsters and bank robbers. Everyone seemed busy and moving about, going to movie theaters became an addiction.
Then there was the investing in the stock market even to the point of borrowing money to invest, never a good thing to do.
Many people overlook our farmers then and now. We needed our farmers then as we need them today. It is my understanding that farmers had a heavy load to produce enough for the large demand during world war 1. They did things such as borrowed money to buy more land and equipment not realizing what would happen after the war which was the demand dropped leaving the farmers with debt many could not pay.
This lifestyle was not good then or today. Lenders were getting rich..... But... then debt got so high and with wages not great people were over their heads and could not pay their debts and the rest is history.
So here we land, smack down in 1929! The stock market crash. The horrible times to come, the job losses, banks closing.. It was horrible! Or was it?
Was it as bad as they say it was? Yes for some it was. But many people did not change their ways in the 1920s. Some remained the same as they were before the roaring twenties. They had just come out of world war 1, and a flu pandemic that killed millions. Some people must have felt entitled after this, because that is the way they acted but others more wise remained cautious and sensible.
We are going to read both sides of this story. The 1930s was not all bad, as bad as it was, there was still good so let us study about this.
This study will have much measured intention because we want to be one of those that were more wise and steady during the roaring twenties. Now that we are entering the 1930s, we must get through this trying time (the great depression) and we (everyone) need to figure out how to keep afloat and keep our households running and our family fed.
My study of the candle above, it is my understanding that a candle has a memory and when you light it for the first time we do not need to snuff it out so quickly so it will form its rim.
Otherwise it will remember where it left off.
Now it can be snuffed out and if left balanced and out of draft it should burn well all the way down without spilling over.
Candles are lovely but they never need to be left alone. If we do things properly we can get the best use of something that costs money.
The edge of this candle got bumped just a bit on the edge when snuffing it out so it remembered that and spilled over a bit when lighting it the next time.
This candle has continued to burn steady with no drips. Placing a candle out of a draft is important. We want to be like this candle, we do not want to lose any of our wax (money).
To save money so we do not have a high bill, we do not light the rooms that we are not using, we should try our best to only have a couple of lights on at the same time. With practice and becoming aware we can learn this. In the past there were not as many lights or items that used electricity.
We measure rather than let it run, our generations knew how to use less because they did not have it flowing to them in the first place. When I was young, my mother washed my hair in a bowl because that was how she did it. She told me that when she was young, she and her sister would take pitchers out in the yard and take turns washing their hair pouring water over each others hair.
When I was a young adult I continued to wash my hair in a basin or in the sink and then at some point in my life I changed to letting the water run in the shower to wash my hair. This was a time when I let the electricity run too and this was also a time when we had debt because there was no measured intention. Have you ever taken a wash bowl bath or washed your hair in a pan?
It is difficult to explain living simple. It is just that, and when you do, it feels right unless you don't really care and would rather just pay the bills. But we want to learn more. This study has a lot of wonderful new information. I was so excited today because I had learned three new things that I never knew and I could not wait to see Charles to tell him. I will be sharing all of this with you and I hope you do your own studying as well.
I am going to work real hard to figure out how to share all of this with you. My problem is my excitement in what I am learning and I want to tell you all about it right now but it too must be with measured intention because if I do not do this right it could be too much to absorb and we need to be able to "apply" this to our home, to our lives.
So this is where we are. I will finish up this years diaries the next diary posting and then when the new study starts, we will start with new diaries including a do over with Sarah's diary and this time post all of it as so many wanted since I have found a better routine for typing out the diaries and sharing them with you. I will be giving suggestions off and on through the next several weeks.
This is a hot milk cake which became popular in 1923. It is a favorite of Charles and myself. It is between a pound cake and a sponge cake. It carried through time and was popular in the 1930s as well.
We enjoy it with strawberries and cream. I was thinking I had posted the recipe before but I cannot find that I did so I will be posting the original 1923 recipe.
I am considering books I will read this new year of 1929-1935. I hope you will find a good book or two. Charles and I were going to go through the house today with a notebook and write down what does not belong in the house for this new study. We will do it Saturday instead for there is much to do at this time. I hope you have your thinking caps on about what you change or pack away in your home if you really were in the early 1930s.
Grandma Donna
