Recession? Are You Kidding? First Draft

Everyone's talking "Recession!" We're supposed to be in one. Are you kidding? I lived through one, and it wasn't like this! I lived in a small town in Maine. We had a nice house, with a wrap-around porch, a car, a huge barn, garage, apple trees, rhubarb patch, an ice-house, in town. Also, dad had a small farm outside of the town, with a cow, pig, small cottage/shed. We were living well. Then the recession began.

Fortunately we still had the pig and cow, so there was plenty of milk and butter, and when the pig was slaughtered we also had meat. But, buying groceries and clothing became very expensive, and since no one had a regular job, including dad, we were soon eating "hand to mouth" with enough food for today, but tomorrow would be iffy. A big pot of baked beans on Saturday had to last several days for the family. We had to grow a garden for our vegetables, and we kids (I was between 5 or 10 yrs) had to do all the weeding. Dad repaired cars in the back yard. I grew to love homemade bread with molasses on it; and bread chunks with milk and sugar over it was a favorite Sunday night supper.Fortunately, mom was a great bread-baker--she baked six loaves a week. By the time the end of the week came around, the remaining loaf had a suspicious green tinge perfect for propagating penicillin. You simply scraped off the green and made sure the slice was well toasted. My favorite food from that time--pickled pigs' feet. And I still find it once in a while in the supermarket!

Recession? To us, it was an adventure--both in our gastronomic experiences and in finding value in whatever we had, whether it was someone else's hand-me-downs or some small thing earned by our own labor. Perhaps this "recession" will become as rich an experience for today's children as my "recession" was for me.