Were you raised by Depression-era parents

[omni550]

To get a handle on how many posters may have been impacted into frugality/FI* by being raised by Depression-era parents, here's a poll.

(*as mentioned in this post http://www.early-retirement.org/for...re-motivated-by-childhood-memories-94637.html)


omni

 

[Dtail]

Parents born in the 1930's, but there was never any talk of substance about the Great Depression. They were frugal though for the most part.

 

[ABQ2015]

The Depression and WWII made significant impacts on my parent's lives. Lots of hardships that were a topic of discussion in my home. I was always interested in their stories.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Most definitely. I was raised through the age of 8 by my grandparents (born in 1927 and 1932) and lived with my mother from 9-17'ish and the way they dealt/respected money and how my mother dealt/didn't respect it was night and day. Thankfully, I took my grandparent's cues over my mother's and I give them a good 75% of the credit for my financial ways.

My Grandad (who was always my "Dad") was also raised in an orphanage for a significant amount of his childhood, so there were lots of lessons to be learned about how damn lucky I was as a kid.

 

[Walt34]

Oh yes, it had a huge impact. Dad was born in 1910 and Mom in 1913, so both were young adults in the 1930's. Dad was an electrician and he never mentioned long-term unemployment, but I'd imagine that perhaps that was a valued skilled trade even during the Depression. I don't know for sure though. Mom left Buffalo, NY where her family was to take a job with the then War Department (now Dept. of Defense) as a secretary because she couldn't find any work in Buffalo.

Because Dad had a hearing loss in one ear most military services wouldn't accept him but he did get into the Coast Guard and served there during WWII.

 

[MRG]

Most definitely. Parents born in 1917. My dad's DF was an orphan raised by his GPs, married before the civil war. DGF died at work in 1929, months before the depression. DGM had 3 kids to take care of including DF. He was a scared kid, never openly talked about it. I learned, perhaps not how I wanted to.

I remember a night when DM was making something from cabbage, something I'm not too fond of. Being a 8 yo kid I said something, that discussion was fast and furious. I was thereafter grateful for cabbage to eat!

I saw older family do all kinds of things, most greatly influenced by their experiences in the depression. My Aunt always saved her bacon grease for cooking, started in WWII. The number of times females in my family heard "that is your husband's job" was pretty weird to people in 2000s.

 

[maestro]

My dad was born in '27 and grew up in steel area in eastern PA. He will be 93 next year, and is doing great, but moving slow. As a kid, a favorite story is how they used to use the black pitch off the streets for chewing gum. He retired when he was 56, and set the bar way too high for us 5 children. But his model made me frugal all my life.

 

[KB]

My father was born in 1920 and his father was a dentist. During the depression, dentists weren't necessarily paid with money, maybe vegetables or other food, so my grandmother had to go to work to put food on the table for 4 kids. That definitely had an impact on my dad.

My mother was born in 1924 and the impact wasn't very pronounced, her family had money so the depression really didn't affect her.

My dad was a saver, my mom was a spender. My dad talked a lot about saving, not getting into debt and smart spending. My mom spent. It was a very clear picture for me.

 

[travelover]

I was born in 1952 when my dad was 59, so he was a young adult during the depression. He used to hide cash in his dresser. After he had a stroke, my mother found $3000 in cash in a drawer. This was about 1963 so about $25,000 today.

 

[COcheesehead]

Parents were born in 1919 and 1920. I heard many stories from them growing up as kids in the Depression. Crazy stuff.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Both parents born in 1918. Dad lost his savings in a bank, but got something back many years later. After the war went on to a successful career on Wall Street and there was always plenty of money. They always had the best of everything and when my Dad passed at 99 was still a multi-millionaire.

 

[Big_Hitter]

my folks were born in the late 20s in Oklahoma (i.e. not well off by any stretch of the imagination)

the depression had a huge impact on them growing up, obviously

 

[big-papa]

Dad was born in 1922 and remembered and the time he spent in the south pacific in WWII. Mom was born in 1936 but was too young to remember the worst of it. Heard a lot about it from my Dad - it definitely influenced him his entire life.

 

[Beer-man]

Man, you guys are old! Jk! My wife and I’s parents were terrible examples of frugality even though they were raised by depression era parents.
Our grandparents were very frugal but also worked in some capacity into their 70’s, though most of it was part time.
Retrospectively, the 2008 recession’s affect on our finances coupled with our grandparents passing seemed to solidify our frugality.

 

[braumeister]

And of course all these stories about growing up with hardships in the Depression, impressive as they may be on the surface, would be considered trivial to anyone living in Yorkshire.

 

[REWahoo]

And of course all these stories about growing up with hardships in the Depression, impressive as they may be on the surface, would be considered trivial to anyone living in Yorkshire.

+1

And you try to tell young people today that - and they won't believe you.

 

[HadEnuff]

My father was born in 1920 and his father was a dentist. During the depression, dentists weren't necessarily paid with money, maybe vegetables or other food, so my grandmother had to go to work to put food on the table for 4 kids. That definitely had an impact on my dad.

My mother was born in 1924 and the impact wasn't very pronounced, her family had money so the depression really didn't affect her.

My dad was a saver, my mom was a spender. My dad talked a lot about saving, not getting into debt and smart spending. My mom spent. It was a very clear picture for me.

My Dad was born in '24, and his Dad was a dentist. All four of his grandparents emigrated from Sicily. My grandmother was especially frugal, and it rubbed off on my Dad. By the time my kids knew my Dad, he was a "rich" retiree. My kids don't believe me when I tell them stories of Dad putting water in the ketchup bottle, to stretch it. (It sucked. It stretched it because nobody would use it after that), and Dad strictly enforcing the "2 pieces of bacon" rule, and scooping the ice cream himself so nobody took more than 2 scoops. (Of course, after we went to bed he'd demolish the rest of the half-gallon)...

My mother was born in Italy in 1926, her father died before the war, and they became war refugees, homeless, trying to keep the brothers out of the Nazi's hands, and eating cats when they could find them. Eventually a war bride, yeah, she was pretty frugal.

 

[happy2bretired]

My parents were older when I was born. My mother was born in 1909. So I guess she was a young women during that time. My husband’s parents definitely lived during that time.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Mom was born in North Dakota in 1914. When she was 2 her father died. Her mom remarried, and by the time her second husband croaked (a natural death, I assure you) there were 10 kids in the house. Mom left school at 16 and went to Chicago to work as a nanny on the Gold Coast. One of her employers was a mobster named Frank "Skippy" Cerone, whose little brother Jackie "The Lackey" eventually ran the Chicago Outfit.

 

[Ronstar]

My parents were born in the early 1930's, so yes they were impacted by the Great Depression. My grandparents were impacted more. When I was a youngster, my grandmother told me that they lost the farm in the Great Depression. I had a hard time figuring out how someone could lose something as big as a farm.

 

[Bamaman]

My father's family had a milk cow named Bessie, and they sold the butter she produced. And my father had a paper route. My grandfather was a local gutter hustler.
A wealthy doctor cousin paid my grandmother $25 a month to take care of Grandma Brown who was blind and almost 100 years old when she died in 1936. She told my father how terrible it was living through a major war in the Battle of Franklin at the end of the Civil War. And she sure hated Yankees.

 

[street]

My parents born 21 & 22 and both talked of the very hard times. Farm families and large families and had nothing. The kids were farmed out to work for nothing in exchange for meals. The stories of those dirty thirties were not good but they had one another and God.

 

[splitwdw]

I was not but my parents were. Only left over frugalness that I see is both sets of grandparents and my great aunts and uncles have well stocked pantries.

 

[maestro]

So here's an off topic, is another 'depression' possible in our lifetimes and why, or are the 'safeguards' in place to prevent it from ever happening again throughout the financial infrastructure? (I think I have a couple stacks stuffed in my mattress, or maybe those are just lumps [emoji4] )

 

[Teacher Terry]

My parents were both born in 1920. They didn't marry until my Dad came home from WW2 at age 25. They met shortly before he left. My Mom was engaged at 18 but he died. Recently I found out I have a sister from when my Dad was in England. They had food and a place to live but not much else. My Mom owned 2 dresses. 1 for school and 1 for home.