This story takes place in Northern Richmond County during the nineteen thirties, but it could have taken place at any home in America during those turbulent times. A little background before we start our story.
It was during this Great Depression era in our nation’s history that a lot of Americans lost just about everything they had except for the clothes on their backs and just maybe a mailbox number. Although a lot of folks just picked up stakes and moved to California hoping to get a job and a better opportunity for their families.
It was after the reconstruction years and the early nineteen hundreds in the south that a lot of farmers left their broken-down farms and moved to towns and villages to work in the cotton mills. It was hard work, but it fed their families and put clothes on their backs.
In April,1917 our country went to war in Europe, which was known as World War 1. The fighting continued until a peace agreement in Nov. 1918. Farmers during the war years faced a mixed bag, soaring demands and higher prices during the war, due to the need in Europe, brought temporary prosperity. All the while farmers were borrowing money to buy more land and equipment. But not long after the war ended a severe crash occurred in our country’s economy. Farm prices plummeted leaving many in debt above their heads while the boil weevil and labor shortages pushed many farmers off their land.
It was also during these years that most folks living on the mill hills and villages were short on work and most owed their souls to the local company stores. Cash was short to say the least, but folks still had to eat, put clothes on their children’s backs, and buy coal or wood to heat their company houses. When Christmas came around, if a child got an orange or apple and a stick of candy it was a blessing.
If you lived on a farm during these troublesome times, you might at least have something to eat because most farmers kept livestock and canned fruit and vegetables out of their gardens. They also had plenty of wood to heat their houses.
It seems that both groups of these working people had at least one thing in common and that was about twice a year a “Wish Book” would come in the mail. It was a mail order catalog known as Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Why if’en you had the money you could place an order to buy toys, sporting equipment, household goods, tools, clothes, shoes and even order a kit and materials to build your own house right out of that large book. This was the modern-day Amazon or E-bay of today. To place an order, you just picked out what you wanted, then you carefully filled out the order form with item number, size, and colors
and mailed a check or money order to Sears. If you wanted your order to arrive for Christmas, you best order it early because it could take several weeks or a month to get it back. These mail order books could send you products that could only previously be purchased in large cities or department stores. These catalogs were a bridge gap between rural and urban America.
Many a child, although they nor their parents couldn’t afford it, would flip through the pages of this large book and just wish for about anything in their imagination.
So happened in the 1930’s there lived this large farm family in northern Richmond Co. N.C. They lived and farmed on a hundred-acre farm they owned. They were a very close-knit family and worked very hard but hard times caught up with them. The father had borrowed money from the local Land Bank to buy another hundred-acre farm that adjoined their farm right before the Great Depression. He had put up his original 100 acres for collateral. That same year the wife died, the farmer lost two mules, cotton prices dropped rock bottom and on top of it all he had a lot of medical bills to pay.
This family was suffering just like a lot of families were during the depression years. With not enough money to pay off his loan the farmer lost it all, his home and his land. Like I said the whole family was close knit and it so happened that the man’s brother, who also was a farmer, furnished a house and land to farm while the family tried to get back on their feet.
Time went on and three of the man’s older boys decided it was time to move on with their own lives, so each one moved to Virginia to work at the Dupont Plant in Martinsville. This was a sad time to see the family slowly drifting apart, especially for the younger kids who nearly worshipped their older brothers and depended on them.
Times were even harder for the family after the older boys moved. But after the boys got settled in and started drawing their paychecks, they would send money home to their family in Richmond Co. The older boys wouldn’t come home but a few times a year but always would be home for Christmas. The younger children were told by letter, from their older brothers, to pick one thing out of the old Sears and Roebuck Catalog because they thought that they would run across Ol’ Santa Claus on their way down from Martinsville. Seems Ol’ Santa would always come through.
I hope your family is as close as my family was during these tough times back in the thirties. Although Sears and Roebuck Catalog have ceased to carry our wish list anymore, I hope each and everyone have a wonderful Christmas and Ol’ Santa brings what you want.