One of my  recent posts I commented about Pinterest and how it makes me try new things. A positive was I found a blog that mentioned some books about eating and living during the Great Depression. My parents lived through that and I remember them talking about how hard it was. As a result, I often have that Great Depression mentality of worrying about the future, reusing stuff, finding resourceful ways, and not wasting food.

Over the weekend I had the oppoortunity to go to the library and checkout a book called "A Square Meal - a culinary history of the Great Depression" by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe. I wasn't sure what it would entail, but discovered it elucidated so many things during that time that I had not been fully aware. 

The book started out before the Depression, in the early 1900s and how things had changed as more of the population decided to leave the rural farm life and head to urban areas. 

Apparently even before the stock market crash, there was a bread line in New York City that was substantial, but the rub was it was open from midnight until 1 a.m. because the area businesses didn't want the line around during business hours.

After the Depression hit, the bread lines were plentiful, but only men went; it was thought it was there might be too many rough men in line for women and children. There were a few places that catered to women and their children, but many women refused to go because it would be an admittance of being not able to take care of themselves and needing a man to protect them.

Many of the cities who offered "relief" or "welfare" would publish the names of those who were on the rolls. I can only imagine what that did to the dignity of so many and probably kept some from applying. 

We often talk about someone having "spring fever" as in acting a certain way. Apparently there was something truly called spring fever: it was when people, when winter was winding down, but before spring was arrived, who no longer could have vegetables or fruit, fresh or canned, and their bodies would get weak and lethargic. This was made even more so when food was hard to come by and people were eating mostly starches to try and survive. 

Under President Herbert Hoover's administration, he wanted states and charities to step up and take care of those who were poor and hungry. Many churches and charities did, but there were so many it was impossible. The government did eventually get involved by hiring "experts" who were to talk about how to feed folks and then someone had the bright idea of giving food based on one's employment: a carpenter should receive more food since his job was far more taxing than that of a store clerk. As a result, so many people starved. Yet, Hoover's administration said the data didn't show that big of a difference in the overall health and that people losing weight was a good thing and the flu numbers weren't as high. Talk about skewing the data!

FDR, when elected, did do many beneficial things, taking charge and having the federal government start programs to feed as well as employ many. But even he and his administration made mistakes, especially withdrawing money too soon and a recession came about. The book was scary and fascinating all at the same time.

My Papa and his family were hard scrabble, yet he would say they never received a government hand out. He said his patches had patches on his overalls. His mom was the one who worked at home, cooking, cleaning, and figuring out how to get by. His father had left and I never knew why. His uncle Alex worked at a local restaurant and other odd jobs. His aunt Dorothy worked various jobs. His grandfather and grandmother lived with them and they moved often. So, all these adults and my father and his little brother trying to scratch out a living. If someone offered them something, they took it; one time a neighbor had a grape arbor and after picking what they wanted, offered the rest of the grapes to my grandmother. She and the boys went to pick them all. She made grape jelly and canned it. 

Papa told me once when I was making grape jelly he was sure it was good, but he didn't want it. He said for many days  after the grape jelly his mom made, that's all they had, bread she had baked and grape jelly for meals. It almost makes me feel guilty when I see the bowl of fruit on my island and my full pantry!

I'm sure y'all remember the slogan, "Build it and they will come." 

Well, it rang true. Not only in the movie, "Field of Dreams" but now for the former movie set in Dyersville, Iowa. 

Our local tour company offered a short overnight bus trip there and my husband is a big fan of the movie and he was all for it. 

We arrive in Dyersville Tuesday afternoon and are met by two ladies from the local Chamber of Commerce. We are given a short tour while on the bus and then are taken to Basilica of St. Francis Xavier there in Dyersville. Not being Catholic I was sadly ignorant of the difference between a basilica and a church, but were soon schooled in the difference. The sanctuary was magnificent and then we were treated to a tocatta on the pipe organ which was nothing short of glorious.

Another stop was the National Toy Museum -- it's Iowa so three guesses and the first two don't count on what the toys depict. Wait, did you say farm implements? If you did, you'd be correct. Many, many of them from well known John Deere and Case and Ford as well as little dioramas of farms hand made by a local man. Ertl is a toy company that once made many of these toys in the same city. 

Our next day was to the field and farmhouse. And it is outside of town in case you wondered. 

I will admit it, I like Pinterest. Too much. It seems to be my go to site some days when I'm not sure.

As a result, I've tried new recipes, tried new crochet patterns, and even found some cool genealogy templates. I like blue willow dishes and I have one very big "board" of all sorts of blue willow. Peter Davison is one of my favorite British actors and I have a board with stuff about him. 

I have even searched frugal living on Pinterest. There seem to be quite a few things to pin there as well, but I've noticed there are a lot of repeats. 

I can't decide if Pinterest is valuable or a time waster. Hopefully valuable since I tend to get some good info from it.

My latest project was to make an apron using men's ties. It took me two days since I sewed everything by hand. My machine is not heavy duty and sewing through ties would be too much for it. It's kind of cute. I found the ties for 10 cents each so I have 90 cents worth of ties and used some other stuff around here. I was pleased the way it turned out and plan to give it as a Christmas gift for a man who likes to cook, but hates those "girly" aprons. 

I will admit Pinterest often tempts to try new things and get involved in stuff that hopefully has some value. It just makes it way too easy to find things. That's a good thing, right?

A friend from church called this morning. He asked if we were going to be home. I said we were. He and his father brought over some aspargus and rhubarb. What an unexpected gift! Bet you know what we will be enjoying! 

We don't have a lot of grocery stores where we live...Aldi, Kroger, Sav-a-lot, and Walmart are basically it. Target has some grocery items, but not a whole lot. So, we basically shop Aldi and Kroger and when Walgreens has something on sale nonperishable wise, I will go there. I felt like I had a savings win this week at Kroger -- between using some of the coupons I received after emailing some companies, using Kroger digital coupons, and buying stuff on sale, I saved over $35 -- over a third of what I would have spent. I can't do that every week, but it was nice to see that on the register tape. I then took photos for Fetch and Receipt Hog. Sadly, nothing I bought was for anything Ibotta was giving credit for.  Not extreme couponing, I know, but still a win. 

We planted some radishes earlier this spring and we had a chance to have some of them this week. We still have some that aren't quite ready, but I know the packet of seeds cost less than what a few bunches of radishes would have cost. Plus, I know when they were picked and where they were grown. We've also been enjoying some herbs. I picked our first green onion this week too. I don't know why, but I get awfully thrilled when we can enjoy some of the things in our garden. I'm going to consider this a win.

A number of years ago I wanted a Christmas tablecloth. Silly, I know. I looked at the cost of them and was gobsmacked. Plus, if I bought a cheap one, I've discovered after they are washed, they tend to shrink so using them over and over is often not possible. We were doing our weekly thrift store foray -- someone had donated some yards of Christmas fabric. It was less than $10 for quite a bit of material. I bought it, measured it, cut it, and made myself a Christmas table cloth. Plus, I had extra and made some table runners which I use on the sofa table, the pie safe, and the buffet. The other day I noticed I still had some scraps. I have been recovering my hot pads. I decided to recover one with the Christmas fabric. I looked at it and thought, maybe I could stitch around some of it and make it "pop." So, I did.  It took quite a bit of time, but it was relaxing for me to do this. I used a hot pad I had, material that was scrap, and quilting thread I had...basically using stuff up I had. I thought it turned out decently and other than my effort, wasn't expensive and I have something "new" to use. Hopefully the photo will come out below.  I'll call that a win as well.