My parents grew up during the Depression. My grandparents raised their families mostly during those bleak years. Many people in the small eastern Iowa community they lived in suffered from hard times. Some people failed to make mortgage payments and lost their homes. Some left the area looking for greener pastures, some moved in with relatives.
My mother used to talk about those years a lot. Dad, not so much; his taciturn nature didn’t lend itself to a lot of reminiscing. Growing up on a farm, at least Mom and her parents and siblings always had plenty to eat, and maybe there were some nostalgia goggles in place, but my mother always insisted on one thing: People didn’t steal. An act of theft would get you ostracized, and one can’t live in a small community like that.
But some people are claiming inflation and the bad economy as justification for theft.
Needless to say, times were a…
