Residents remember Thanksgiving during the Great Depression

Heather Hasty

Valley Press

As the U.S. economy officially goes into recession, now is a good time to remember that there have been worse moments in the past. The Great Depression left many stomachs empty and wanting, but for local residents who can remember Thanksgiving in the Depression, things weren’t much different.

Clara Herman was born and raised right outside of Dixon and remembers that it was bad back then but Thanksgiving didn’t change much.

“My mother always cooked for all the bachelors and if they couldn’t get there she would bring the meal to them,” Herman said. “She made a lot out of a little. But of course when she cooked a meal she cooked a big meal because you never knew who would show up for a holiday. She worked very hard.”

Ada Schmoyer said much the same thing.

“We raised most of our own stuff so we didn’t really worry much,” Schmoyer said. “We always had to watch what we were doing but mom always kept a big garden. We always had a lot of hired hands but Thanksgiving was just as good a day as any of your holidays.”

Most around Montana were  very self-sustaining, living off the land, which made Thanksgiving during the Depression a normal day. Chicken was often the main dish.

“We were short on stuff,”  Annie Stene said, “I remember my mother would buy chickens from the neighbors for 10 cents and we had to scratch to get that. We never had beef and didn’t even know what a turkey was.”

Modern times are much more cheerful at the Plains Senior Center, where light music kept a smile on most faces, most of whom don’t remember much of the Depression.

“I can’t remember that far back,” Bill Moore said with a grin, “We didn’t hurt too much. At Thanksgiving we had a pretty nice dinner, we scraped and scraped a lot. And after the Depression we had steaks once in a while, lets put it that way!”

Herman Whisenand said that nothing really stood out in his mind about the day back then either, “It was just practically another day,” he said.

Many of those that lived through the economic devastation don’t really remember feeling the desperation.

“We always had plenty to eat,” Melva Welty remembered, “We might not have had turkey, but we had what we had, I had a happy childhood…Our parents never made us feel [the Depression.] But I tell you what, if you put it on your plate you had to eat it.”