Any Depression-Era memories?

[Marc Ross]

Hello,

Has anybody experienced possible past-life memories of the Depression-Era 1930s?

With the current economy compared to the Depression-Era, more and more people are rediscovering that very resourceful wisdom necessary for survival; which may have stemmed from family stories, media, and even Internet accounts of life back in the 1930s.

Can the rediscovery of resourceful habits from the Depression-Era serve as a 'tirgger of sorts' for possible past-life memories dating back to the 1930s?

Out of conjecture, I've attempted to approximate that my PL was teen-aged during the 1930s (as I've said, my memories of WWII 1943 North Africa meant I was of age to serve in the military; my age being at least into my early 20s).

I've had a memory or two of interest of late 1930s design-style cars; yet no memories of what day-to-day life was like in the 1930s.

Thank-you

 

[Nightrain]

Has anybody experienced possible past-life memories of the Depression-Era 1930s?

Hi Marc!


Being, myself, a "boomer" and the child of depression-era parents, I am probably too close to that generation to separate my own experiences from those of a previous generation. However, I still flatten tin cans and save them for recycling. Plus, the thought of eating another bowl of bread and milk cereal makes me gag. By the way, has the depression even ended yet?


Kidding aside, military service during WWII strikes a note for me, as it does you. However, I'm at the stage where possible memory leakage could account for some of my many impressions.

 

[Truthseeker]

Hi Marc. I believe that I was a German soldier during WWII. Before the Nazi Party took over Germany's economy was in dire straights. I had a dream one night that was from what I assume was the same WWII lifetime. I was a young man in probably my teens or early twenties. It was before I became a soldier and I was a thief. I was unemployed and stole for survival.


In the dream I was at a theater. The show was over and the crowd was exiting. I was approaching what looked like a wealthy middle-aged woman. My heart was racing as a got closer. At first I (current me) thought I (past me) was going to kill her. Then I saw she was wearing expensive jewelry, and that's I when realized that I wasn't planning on killing her, I was about to try to steal from her. That's when I started to figure out that I was a thief. I don't know if I got her jewelry. I woke up from the dream before I made my move.

 

[Florence]

Hi Marc...


I was born in 1933 so I have a lot of memorie of the 30's. I had 4 older sisters...the 3 eldest were 13, 10 and 8 years older.


It was the era of the BIG BANDS....all of that great music.. I often went downtown with my mother on a street car. They were long with a motorman and a conductor...they also made clanking sounds as they swayed traveling along on their tracks.


You had to stand in the middle of the street to wait for one to board.


Remember the man who came through your neighborhood with a pony. You could get your picture taken on the pony and if you had a fenced back yard maybe keep the pony all night...


The Waffle man came in the evening clanging his bell selling waffles..his vehicle pulled by a horse The Breadman and the milkman both had horses to help them deliver...


Saturday movies were 10 cents and you got a free comic book. You saw 2 movies, watched a couple cartoons and saw a news reel. I got to go with an older sister once in a while.


Soda fountains were everywhere. Cunningham Drug stores had long fountains. You could get a Coke and have the clerk add some cherry juice to it or get an exta thick Chocolate Malt...


Penny candy....remember that ?? ...or for 2 cents you could get a "Guess What" and take a chance on what was inside


Radio was all we had...Remember any of these???


The Green Hornet, Superman, Jack Armstrong ( all American boy). Jack Benny, Red Skelton and a frightening program called Intersanktom ( sp.?)


The announcer on that program would say "Turn out the lights....turn them ALL out"


We had a coal furnace and an Ice box. We bought 25 cents worth of ice fom the ice man who came by truck. I remember how big and muscular he was even though I was probably only about 6 or 7


I hope this might spark a memory or two.....

 

[Nightrain]

Hi Florence!


Although I came along in '47, and most of the things you described about Detroit had disappeared, I have always had memories of some of those things you mentioned. I tried to share some of them with my older sister, who was born in '43, but she drew a complete blank. Since coming to this Forum, I have gained some insight as to the source of these memories of the East Side. Thanks, big sister!

 

[Florence]

Then Johnny you have to remember how popular shooting marbles were. We had many boys in our neighborhood and shot marbles with them all of the time. I had a can full and my sister Monie ( 2 years older ) had 2 cans.


You talked about squashing tin cans to dispose of them....WE squashed them so that the sides came up around your shoe and ran down the cement alley pretending we were horses with the cans clinging to our feet. We also played "Rain on the Roof" in the alley by throwing a tennis ball up on a garage roof


We would also hide behind the big garbage bins and catch a ride on the back of the "Sheenie" man's wagon. He would let us hang there for about one house and then snap his whip back over our heads....we would be gone like a flash....


Do you remember boys making "Rubber Guns" They would make BIG rubber bands out of bike tubes that went inside bike tires. They used pieces of wood and clothes pins. They stung like crazy when you got hit. When they learned how to make double shooters they gave Monie and I each an older single shooter so we could join in on the rubber band fights. Yes....Monie and I were great Tomboys


They also used orange crates, 2 x 4's and the rollers off an old street skate to make a scooter.


Boys were very clever and used their imaginations to make all kinds of things. Today everything is just handed to them and I think it cheats them out of using their ability to invent and create things out of scraps....


I have very fond memories of my childhood even though we were terribly poor. I didn't know we were poor until I was about 12....We were all women....5 girls and my mother. My mother never spoke of being poor and she managed money very well. If you remember the movie "Little Women" that was very close to us....


All that was in Detroit down by 14th street and McGraw....I moved in the summer of 41 out nearly to Rouge Park ( Marlowe and Plymouth Rd. ) The War started on December 7th...the day my Grandfather died. We were considered in be out in the sticks and no more horses out there....


Memories then were of rationing stamps for coffee, sugar, butter, gasoline, you name it.....


We had black-outs and every street had a warden who would make sure all of your lights were out.


Almost every man you saw on the street was in some kind of uniform. My older sister Betty was in the USO . Men between the ages of 18 to 41 all served unless they had some kind of physical problem


The war ended the summer of 45 just before I turned 12....

 

[Nightrain]

Then Johnny you have to remember how popular shooting marbles were. We had many boys in our neighborhood and shot marbles with them all of the time. I had a can full and my sister Monie ( 2 years older ) had 2 cans.
You talked about squashing tin cans to dispose of them....WE squashed them so that the sides came up around your shoe and ran down the cement alley pretending we were horses with the cans clinging to our feet. We also played "Rain on the Roof" in the alley by throwing a tennis ball up on a garage roof

Yes, I remember the marbles, and had two bags full of both sizes. I can't remember what we called the big ones. I remember the wood-crate scooters and the inner-tube sling-shots. I also remember the sound of those tin-can shoes clip-clopping along the cement alleyways, and hiding behind the concrete garbage bins, and the horse-drawn "sheenie" wagon that traveled the alleyways. I couldn't remember that word until you reminded me. What a memory rush! I also remember the ice man who let us have broken pieces of ice during those hot summer days, the old knife sharpener who walked his wheel door-to-door and used to set up in front of our house. I remember the guy with the pony who would visit our street twice a year. I remember horse-drawn produce wagons and delivery carts of all manner and shape. I even remembered the long street cars that ran along Gratiot and the Boulevard. Some of these things were still around during the early "fifties", but some only existed up until the end of the war, but I never noticed that they should not fit in my memories. I'll bet there are many more of your memories that would resonate with mine.

 

[Florence]

Thes are the names I remember from soo long ago.


Regular size marbles were called agates, cat eyes, puries, steelies and the little ones were Pee Wees.


The larger marbles were Boulders or Shooters. When you bought one you called it a Boulder....but...when you used it...you called it your "Shooter"


The very worst thing that could happen is in trying to knock someones marble out of the circle with your Shooter, you didn't hit it hard enough and they BOTH stayed inside.....fair game to the next people to shoot...I still remember a beautiful Blue Purie Shooter I lost that way. I went home and cried....


Gene Autry was in the westerns at that time and when you came along I think it was Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger....Gene Kelly!!! and the wonderful Mario Lanza !!.

 

[Nightrain]

Gene Autry was in the westerns at that time and when you came along I think it was Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger....Gene Kelly!!! and the wonderful Mario Lanza !!.

Don't forget old "Hop-along"!

 

[sarque]

I believe that I was a German soldier during WWII. Before the Nazi Party took over Germany's economy was in dire straights.

This is similar to what I remember, too. As near as I can figure, I was born in 1913 in my last life, and was a German fighter pilot during WWII, so I was a teenager/young adult during the early 30s. I do have some memories of the 1930s, although a lot of my memories are from during the war.

 

[Ministargazer]

Ridin' The Rods


Hi Marc,


If you look in "Go Back Jack" you'll see that I had a flood of memories in 1972 about a past life spent as a black, boogie-woogie musician who rod the rods during the Great Depression. I still get "nostologia feelings" every now and then about that time when "music was King and Swing was the thing". A lot of the songs that I wrote and played back then came back to me in this lifetime and I recorded and played them on stage again, only this time as a Caucasian Canadian female.


I remember a simpler time - when romance was in the air and Hollywood was booming. Excitement and glamour, even through the war - and during the Depression, hitching a ride on a boxcar was a ticket to adventure, even better if it was headed West - the magic land where dreams came true.


As my father used to say, and he lived through those times - music meant everything to the soldiers fighting the battle of World War 2. You didn't know if you were going to come back that day alive but you went out the door with a song in your heart - "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Lili Marlene".


He came back alive to tell the story and what a story it was!


I remember a life lived in the Deep South where black men hadn't been liberated yet and dinner often came from a catfish pond and the local garden, if you bad teeth you couldn't afford a dentist so had them pulled out. This song comes from past life memory. Judge for yourself.


Belle's Bugle


Back in New York when times were frugle


My ole friend Luke went and stole Belle's Bugle


BY the time she gets around to realizin' the lack


She'll have to follow us to Frisco to get it back


Chorus: So we're rollin' along


On our way to SF


We got holes in our pants


And I got 50 cents left


Well ole Belle loved that bugle like a baby


So I kinda think she'll follow us, justa maybe


But you know that Luke and me did it all in fun


Oh whoops! Here comes ole Belle on the run.


Stargazer