My Mom’s Favorites from a Depression-Era Childhood

I’ve recently written about the foods that I missed from my childhood, and that led me to think about other people and other times. My 95-year-old mother, Ginny Kettleson, was an obvious choice. That’s Mom on her wedding day in 1944 in the title photo above. Growing up in a large family in the Depression, what was it like and what did she miss? We’ve all had our own experiences after a year of locked-in meals, but what about cooking for a large family in the stressful times of the 1930s?

Turns out, it wasn’t that bad. We might not classify it as great eating, but my mother testified that her experiences were all pleasant. With a family of four girls and a son, her father was fortunate because he was employed by the local Del Monte food-packing house, known by most in town at the time as “The Canners.”

Short on cash, long on cans

“Money was tight in the early 30s, but we always had a meal. We never went without food,” my mother said. “And, each day, one of us kids had a chore of going to the bakery for bread and then picking up cigarettes for my Dad. We got three loaves of fresh-baked bread for 25 cents, sliced, wrapped in paper and tied with a string.”

For my mother and her siblings, a slice of that bread, with butter and sugar, was a special treat. Yes, it seems meager by our standards, but she said that meals during that time tended to be simple – potatoes and usually meat, but never salad. Working at Del Monte, my grandfather Warren Dodge was able to buy dented cans of vegetables at a deep discount, so the family had more than its share of perfectly good peas, corn, and beets.

Sunday bounty

Sundays always were time for a big meal: either roast beef or roast pork, with potatoes and a vegetable. “My mother always made pie on Sunday, with fresh fruit, when available – apples and peaches, usually. She never made a pear pie or custard.” When it wasn’t pie, her mother, Bess Dodge, made a cake from scratch.

My mother did note that her parents had a garden in the back of the house. In the summer that meant fresh tomatoes, radishes, onions, and leaf lettuce. There was also a rhubarb patch, and Bess would often make rhubarb sauce and pie in the spring. Del Monte also had stewed tomatoes in dented cans, and she would sometimes prepare stewed tomatoes with saltines. “it was one of my favorites. I liked it then, and I still like it,” my mother told me.

Mush for the kids

One of the more unusual combinations was fried corn meal mush. When Warren was not home for dinner, Bess prepared the mush. The corn meal mixture was stuffed in a can with both ends cut out, then pushed through the can while it was being sliced. Those corn mush slices were then fried until brown on both sides. The family ate them with butter.

In short, though the times were lean, no one went hungry, my mother said. And she has good memories of her mother’s cooking. What more could you ask for?

Do you have similar stories from your parents or grandparents? Please share them.

To comment, please click on “Read in Browser” or on the headline to view the blog on the website. You can log in and comment at the end of the blog to share your thoughts and start a discussion.

If you’d like to share the blog, click on the Facebook icon or one of the others. Thanks!