During the Great Depression, brothers Del and Don Wilson were the best boys about writing home from the Navy. “We just couldn’t stand it very good if you didn’t. That’s the brightest ‘spot’ to us–you boys’ good letters,” their mother wrote toward the end of the second year of their enlistment, 1935.
Leora had mailed them a package of homemade divinity fudge, just like she had the Christmas before. The nuts in the candy were from “down on Jim Creek, south of the big spring where you boys got water when you were hunting squirrels,” their dad wrote. Black walnuts.
Men with sons in the Navy or CCC were cut off relief (welfare) jobs first, including their father Clabe, so he stayed busy trapping. He’d start out early by moonlight to check his traps, but was often disappointed. Only six skunks and five opossum so far that fall. He shipped eight skunk and five ‘possum pelts to Sears, writing to his sons that at least it’s a good healthy job. Clabe had sold their “roadster” a year earlier and they had no vehicle.
You may remember that earlier in the year, Clabe was desperate enough that he’d hiked into Dallas County asking farmers for work.
Clarence Goff was one of Leora’s younger brothers, one who was allowed to complete high school. His heating business in Omaha had doubled, and he expected the same for 1936. Clarence, or C.Z. as he was known, sent his sister’s family $10 for Christmas. Another brother, Wayne Goff, shipped a box of very welcome fruit from California, since Iowa in December is pretty colorless, the homeliest month of the year.
Willis Goff, another of Leora’s seven brothers, lived in Southern California, where the USS Chicago was based that winter. Willis and Ann invited Delbert and Donald to spend Christmas with them and their daughters, Connie and Shirley, who’d asked for a Shirley Temple doll for Christmas.
Leora took a photo for their “Navy boys” of the five kids at home on Christmas Day. Doris and Darlene look like the daughters in a well-to-do family, don’t they? Doris said she altered hand-me-down so no one would recognize who used to wear them.
You may find more Depression Era stories of the Wilson family in Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.
What a fantastic story, Joy. I never tire of these.
Thanks, GP! I keep noticing new connections for the old photos.
People were very resourceful back then and made do with what they had. Mom always said, “It wasn’t a sin to be poor, but it was a sin to look poor.”
Good thinking, Darlene!
Love this, Joy. Such a wonderful photo…your resilient, loving family. (Including sweet Spats!). 🥰❤️🥰
Thank you, Vicki. Spats just might need his own “board” on my Pinterest page!
Ohhhh! I love it! 🥰
What a delightful piece. I still feel that inside me though I never lived it. I like to work hard and reuse everything.
Thank you, Jacqui! We do as well, but we’re at the downsizing stage and find we’ve saved to many things “just in case.”
I grew up with hand-me-down clothes, too. As did our daughters. But by the time the fourth daughter got them, she looked like a Depression-era kid! 🙂
Wow, did she mind?
An uplifting story in such a difficult time. Thanks for sharing, Joy.
Thanks, Pete!
It’s been so long since I had Divinity Fudge.
Same here, Don, but I lack the gumption to make some. It’s also been a long time since I’ve used the word gumption!
I don’t use the word gumption ever since I lost my gumption about ??? years ago.
Hey, you just used it twice!
Hey maybe I got it back
If you will, I will!
Truly wonderful and informative stories… I did not know that family members were let go from their jobs when children were in the military?
Thank you, Kelly. They were government-funded part time jobs, but much needed!
Doris and Darlene do look very stylish in their made-over winter coats. Both my grandmother and my mother were good at making over garments for a new life.
Their mother bought a treadle machine from Sears about 10 years earlier, and the sisters took home ec in high school.
My mother worked at a Singer store when she was first married, so she was able to get an employee discount to buy a sewing machine and accessories to get herself set up to make the family’s clothes. And slipcovers. And curtains. I remember her ordering fabric from the Sears Roebuck catalog.
It sounds like Clabe didn’t accept any defeat and just kept on going. Great photo!
He wasn’t afraid of hard work.
This is a great story, Joy, with interesting information for me to contemplate. It makes me thankful that I haven’t been through a Great Depression, and brings back the memories of my mom sending me pictures of my family at home while I was in Vietnam.
Thank you, Tim. Guy and I were married while he was in Vietnam. We sent letters and taped messages, photos as well.
The five siblings sure looked happy and well groomed despite the challenges of the day. Darlene is taller than her twin Dale and she doesn’t appear to be wearing heels. He must have had a huge growth spurt after this pic was taken. I enjoyed your account of Christmas 1935 and how they handled their struggles. Hard work! Thanks for continuing to share their story, Joy. 🙂
Thank you, Nancy. Leora took a photo just of the twins to show that Darlene was taller, to send to their Navy boys. “I thought you boys should know,” she wrote on the back!
Ha, ha!