My great aunt wrote about her life during the Depression. I wish I could find the article, but it was an interesting perspective from a farm girl, who was so poor she had to take steak, chicken, pork chops and fresh fruit in her lunch, while the rich girls got potted meat and canned fruit.
Great granddad was a farmer and nurseryman (who ran for US Senate at one point to force attention on a couple of issues) so everybody was well fed, and he could feed all the help he could get. There just wasn't any money coming in because so few people had any to buy anything with. He traded a lot, including meat and produce for the butchering, but some things do require cash.
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