Families that were enjoying life with economic stability and security were now financially unstable, or even worse.
A common motto during these times was "Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without." Lots of families struggled to keep up appearances and carry on while they adapted to new economic conditions. Families started patching up worn out clothes and stopped going out to the movies as they were working hard to not lose their cars or homes.
Radio shows and magazines now discussed topics like stretching food budgets with casseroles and one-pot meals. Some of these were dishes like macaroni and cheese, chili, and soup. Many families also had "kitchen gardens", where they tried to be self-sufficient and grow small amounts of food on their own. "Thrift gardens" provided food for thousands and thousands of people, where you could often see office workers who had lost their jobs working in the field, still wearing their work clothes.
People stopped going to expensive places, and theaters began shutting down, while board games and family activities became very widespread. Monopoly and Scrabble were among these. However, some families couldn't even survive and many families split up and broke down. Marriage rates lowered and abandonment increased.
4 comments:
I really like how you included images to accompany your descriptions of the adaptations families had to make with food, entertainment, and clothing in order to make their salary go the furthest it could. I also found the information about the lowered marriage rates very interesting. Furthermore, according to Johns Hopkin's the Hub, the divorce rates decreased at least 25% as well. Great job!
This post was really insightful, and it brought me to reflect on the economic structure of the 1930's. After a lot of the lower class members of society lost their money and their jobs, they could no longer be thrifty consumer or really purchase anything at all. With all these poor people, the revenue gains of business must have taken a hit and created some sort of reverse "trickle down effect."
These specific examples you use of theaters shutting down and people not going to expensive places helps me understand more what was going on during that time period. Based on this article I have an image in my head of a ghost town almost where all the expensive stores and closed and dusty. However, there still are people in this town, but they are just always sad and walking places quickly.
I like how you provided those two images to show how they used to be and how their lives changed extremely. It shows me that it really affect them and there lives changed a lot.
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