Remembering the Family Farm During the Great Depression

Numerous family reunions took place at our house, especially on July Fourth. Eager cousins took turns cranking the two-gallon ice cream freezer. Uncle Ernest had an icehouse so he brought the chunk of ice. He cut ice each winter and kept the chunks between layers of sawdust in the icehouse. They had an icebox in their kitchen-a "modern appliance"-before electricity, so they needed ice. Sometimes the men pitched horseshoes while they waited for dinner.

Mom handled these large gatherings very capably. She always had a large garden; the cellar shelves were loaded with canned fruits, vegetables, pickles and relishes. Every time Uncle Frank came she opened a jar of watermelon pickles-his favorite. A few young roosters became the meat for dinner, they'd been tiny chicks in the brooder house only a few months before. Mom usually served creamed new potatoes with peas from the garden on the Fourth. The potatoes were small, yet everyone raved over that dish.

Dad never had a tractor, but since his death in 1964 my brother, Ken Armstrong, has farmed the Armstrong homestead. He doesn't have horses., I've often thought what a different kind of life his daughters have had growing up on that same farm. They never knew the house when it didn't have a bathroom, running water or a furnace. I wonder now why I didn't freeze going to the outhouse on below zero days.

Lucille Anton
Circle Pines, Minnesota

Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.