Depression Era Bucklin Babies

Here is a photo of my mom’s family toward the end of the Depression.  The Depression officially started on October 27, 1929, and lasted for about a decade.  My grandparents Fred Bucklin and Myrtle Phenice must have been dating when it started, because they were married a few months later on Mar. 12, 1930.

This photo was taken around 1938.  I base this on the fact that the youngest one in the photo is aunt Loris who was born at the end of August in 1937.  She looks to me to be a few months old.  Grandma and Grandpa would have been in their early thirties at this point.  The girls in the front (starting with the oldest on the left) are Sylvia at age 7, Betty Lou at age 5, and little Alma at age 2.

It looks like Betty Lou is a bit shy and is hiding behind her big sister.  It reminds me of a photo of our family when we were young and Jamie is doing the same thing next to me.  I wonder what Alma was distracted by.

It’s not a professional photo, but like I said at the beginning, it was during hard times.  Grandpa was a nurseryman during this time and grandma helped him out with that.  I know they didn’t have a lot of money at the time because my mom talked about how special it was that her cousin had a ‘real’ doll to play with.  Obviously this means that my mom and her sisters did not have store-bought dolls to play with during this time.

But things were different back then.  People were not used to the prosperity that seems so prevalent now.  The family seemed to deal with it all pretty well.  My mom was quite frugal all her life.  It really wasn’t necessary for her to tape up ziploc bags to store things in her purse!  But she couldn’t be persuaded.  She should be named the patron saint of recycling!