Ella Mae and the Great Depression

Ella Mae lived during the Great Depression. Her father was injured in World War I, leaving him an emotional invalid. He had to be hospitalized off and on during her childhood, leaving her mother to make a living for three young daughters. Living conditions were extremely uncomfortable, and her mother and the girls had to work very hard to have enough food to eat and to maintain a living. Having enough food required hard work, such as plowing the fields, picking tomatoes and cotton, and canning or preserving for the winter. The children carried a biscuit and salt pork to school for lunch. Some of the children at school made unkind remarks about the girls because their clothes and food were not very desirable. Their homes were cold and uncomfortable with cracks in the floors, so one could see the chickens underneath the house. Cardboard was placed against windows, walls and floors to shut out the wind. Polio was epidemic and many lived in fear. Ella Mae's cousin contracted polio, leaving him crippled. Ella Mae disobeyed her mother one day by pretending to go home with a cousin, but instead went home with a student that her mother did not know. Boy did she get into trouble. Of course, there was no running water and water had to be drawn from a well. Clothes were washed on rub boards or washed in wash pots with fire underneath. The clothes were boiled and transferred from tub to tub for rinsing and then placed on wire clotheslines for drying. Neither were there any bathrooms. Outdoor toilets were placed over a hole in the ground and then moved to another location when full. The old hole was then covered with dirt. During the times when her father was home from the hospital, he had severe flashbacks from the war, even threatened to throw Ella Mae in the well. Before long, he would have to be sent back to the hospital for treatment. Treatment was severe and it appeared he was terribly mistreated, because when they visited him, he had bruises all over. When he was stable, they would send him home and he told stories of the horrors he experienced in the War. He told of lying in trenches, body lice, trench mouth, trench foot, chemical gasses and with dead bodies all around. During those stable times, he was a hard worker and provided relief for the family. People married younger in those days, but not usually as young as Ella Mae. She married at 14-years-old. She thought living at home had been hard work. But, it was nothing compared to being married. She found out that hard work was just beginning. After that, she had to cook, wash, and care for her new husband, his father and two brothers. Boy, did she have a lot to learn. She soon had children of her own. She dreamed and dreamed of having her own home, a warm, comfortable home on a hill, with running water, and a bathroom. She did at one point almost get it. And, it was almost the same one she dreamed about. Of course, it did not have running water or a bathroom. In fact, it was so small she and her husband barely had room to turn around. But, Ella Mae was a worker and she never gave up her dream.