Monday, April 27, 2009

So you think times are tough now?


By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer

First published: Sunday, April 26, 2009

Does the thought of spooning into a steaming plate of woodchuck, muskrat, raccoon or squirrel leave you squeamish?

Then you didn't live through the Great Depression the way 91-year-old Russell Gordon did.

If this brutal economy grows even meaner and nastier than it already is, you might need to rethink the notion of recession roadkill, Gordon reckons.

In 1931, Gordon's dad was laid off from the textile mill near their home in Whitehall, Washington County, and struggled to feed his wife and 10 children.

The family's very survival came down to a large ceramic bowl set on the kitchen table each evening. His mom would point to it and say, "If you don't eat that, you don't eat." The kids knew better than to complain. And they always cleaned their plates of the rough-hewn casserole of parsnips, potatoes, onions and tomatoes from a backyard garden and rodents killed that day for meat and pelts that would fetch a buck.

"We did what we had to do to survive," recalled Gordon, who was hired in 1935 at 17 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and labored four years building state campgrounds in the Adirondacks. A monthly $25 government check sent home to his widowed father kept the large brood afloat.

In today's grim economic landscape, we could learn a thing or two by studying the survival skills of the "greatest generation." Their experience of gutting it out in tough times, a deep streak of self-reliance and abiding commitment to frugality — turning off lights in unused rooms, darning holes in socks instead of throwing them out, recycling aluminum foil from food packaging — resonates anew in 2009.

"Everyone in those days was self-sufficient. We could put a stick in the ground and get a potato. I worry that young people today aren't prepared to take care of themselves if things get really bad again," said Ruth Hand, 88, of Clifton Park, who grew up on Old Post Road in Rotterdam. She recalled a Depression-era childhood spent tending chickens, growing vegetables and cleaning rooms in the tourist home her family ran to supplement her dad's income from a foundry job.

(snippet)
"We've only been in this recession for 18 months and nobody knows what it will look like in two years," said Hochfelder. But federally insured bank deposits, unemployment insurance, welfare programs and a social safety net that wasn't in place during the Great Depression will lessen the impact of a prolonged recession this time.
Story here

16 comments:

  1. Having never experienced a serious crisis in 4 generations, I'm afraid Americans have lost their capacity for self reliance. Most people today believe the Government will not let it get that bad again. Almost as if the Government is some sort of omnipotent being with incomprehensible powers. Most cannot imagine the unimaginable. It is time to start thinking the unthinkable. Time to start building a foundation based on frugality.

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  2. Taste like chicken!

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  3. Teflon Barack will pull us thru.

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  4. Self reliance is still possible but it will take on a different appearance. Put aside some canned goods, dried grains, everday staples, cuerrency, learn to raise rabbits or chickens in a small confined space, and develop an industry cottage marketable skill outside the electronic arena. Urban or suburban survival skills so to speak.

    The day will arrive when regardless of your belief or the intention of government, no one will be able to control the outcome of financial, biological, or natural disasters.

    We are fortunate to have escaped true calamity. Observe the suffering occurring in other nations around the globe.

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  5. So what if the Lord wants you to eat the rodents/roadkill? I believe Paul declared all foods clean in the New Testament and I will gladly eat anything Jesus brings my way in the coming times.

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  6. This article is from upstate NY, not a very long growing season here. Watervliet is a city (a very, very small one but still city sized lots) so the idea that you could grow enough fruits and veggies in a space that is smaller than most people's houses now a days doesn't fly.

    Oranges don't grow here and you'd get shot from stealing from someone's orchard. You eat what you can.

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  7. That is nice you are content in your vegetarian lifestyle. Unfortunately, people DO exist on meat by and large. This is not something individuals were conned into but rather a biological, evolutionary fact. As Dennis Leary said, "Not eating meat is a decision. Eating meat is an instinct." Go in your decision humble and, hopefully, healthy. But leave the rest of us out of it.

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  8. Reminds me of the scene in the original Terminator where the little girl is clubbing a rat for food as Reese is walking through the underground bunker.

    Youth today is so spoiled and pampered I don't see them being able to adjust to 'survival food.' Me - point me to the nearest anthill, dumpster or roadkill. Nearly starved once - didn't like it. The only part of it I really hate is knowing that our owners will be dining well and washing it down with champagne.

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  9. You can grow 100 lbs of potatoes in a 4 sq. foot area..google it

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  10. Probably not enough rats to feed the world anyway.
    And just when you develop a taste for them...
    Obama takes over that food supply too and raises the prices!
    The least Jesus coulda done is left behind a few good recipes for preparing roadkill before he buggered off.

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  11. It's not about vegetarian lifestyle it's about surviving on something people still have some control over.
    City folk aren't allowed to keep "food" animals.
    Anybody with a yard who is not utilizing it for their own rainy day is a fool and is welcome to my govt "food stamp" allotment of Rat Chowder.

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  12. The day I eat Rat is the day I divorce my sister and smash my banjo.

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  13. 100lbs of potatoes won't last long with ten kids and two adults.

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  14. Probably not enough rats to feed the world anyway.
    And just when you develop a taste for them...
    Obama takes over that food supply too and raises the prices!
    The least Jesus coulda done is left behind a few good recipes for preparing roadkill before he buggered off.


    Actually, in India in the slums, the goverment started, about 6 months ago, distributing a free rodent cookbook.

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  15. That rules. My neighbor's dog has a lot of meat on him. j/k Can't do that. Death wouldn't be such a horrible option if the quality of life was so low. No biggie just a ride anyway. Back to the astral.

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  16. We have plenty of squirrels around, i've been wondering how they would taste lately seeing that we are going to hell on a sled. I have a garden too and save seeds, even a book on eatible plants. You can survive on sunchokes as well, and they are tastey and easy to grow . planted a bunch of them too, dude. transportation, no problem , I can bike for 40 miles as the norm off road on road.Got a rifle and lots of ammo for hunting to boot.

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