Reply #32: The depression didn't afffect these folk that much. [View All]

[trof]

Cajuns are very self sufficient, generally.
They hunt, fish, trap, and farm.

Bert's family had the land they lived on and it provided a 'living'.
They were cash poor, but there weren't many things that they needed to buy.
They trapped and hunted and fished for meat, and had a huge kitchen garden for vegetables. Many of those, like tomatoes and peppers were canned. A root cellar or spring/well house kept onions, potatoes, milk, cream, and butter.
They needed staples...flour, sugar, salt, etc.
But in many cases they could 'trade' for these things back then.

The local store would accept eggs, poultry, game birds (ducks, geese), venison, crawfish, blue crabs, shrimp, etc. in exchange for the few things the people couldn't easily produce.

Also, there were several small lumber mills that supplied building materials and a few jobs. Mostly cypress from the swamps.

Bert's house was made entirely of cypress. Framing and siding.
It's one of the most durable woods existent. Virtually bug and rot proof.