How Did The Great Depression Affect Josephine Anderson

JOSEPHINE ANDERSON The Great Depression was the longest, toughest, and most extensive economic crash in the history of the industrialized United States, and Josephine Anderson experienced the fatal event firsthand. Josephine was just a young girl at the time of the collapse, but despite her juvenile stature, she remembers the outbreak of unemployment and catastrophe as clear as day. “We were the lucky ones,” Josephine stated.“Living on a farm helped us tremendously, but it was still a very tough time.” Approximately 15 million Americans were unemployed in the heat of the Great Depression. Although many people think that the upper eastern states encountered the more demolishing part of the depression, Union City and small towns throughout
Oklahoma had been hit just as hard. Josephine pointed this fact out to me early in the interview. Life was tough for everyone during the Great Depression. Since the farmers had the food, many bargains were made between Josephine and her classmates. Josephine packed fried chicken nearly everyday for her school lunch. At lunch she would trade her fried chicken in return for another girl’s slice of cake. “I tried to find all of the sugar I could,” Josephine jokingly added. Living through the Great Depression packed an unconscious sense of not wanting to leave anything behind, such as food, in Josephine and the people throughout the nation. “My mother wouldn’t let us leave the supper table until our plates were clean.” It was ingrained in them to not leave any food behind. Unknowingly, Josephine and her siblings had paved their way into the “clean plate club”. I suspect many families across the United States had entered into this prestigious club as well. Looking back at these rough times in her big, comfy armchair, Josephine says she became a tougher and more disciplined person because of the unforgettable event that changed lives throughout the nation. It put people in despair and without hope, but it left people stronger and wiser than they were before.“Even from my young age, I knew that this was going to be something that lived on throughout history.” The virtues and morals that were learned back in 1929 are evidently influenced in the lifestyle of Josephine and the extraordinary family she raised up. The night is darkest just before the dawn, and in that night you can either decide to give in to the darkness or hang on long enough to see the light.