We called it ‘The Depression’

As we read story after story of heartbreaking cases of anorexia, it brings back memories of the early years of my life.

We did not have television then but we had Kodak cameras. Looking at some of these old photos it looked like a lot of us were anorexic. Almost every picture of our family showed us as skinny, bony-looking kids.

The 30s were the formative years for people in our age group. If there was a drug problem we never heard of it. There was crime but it seemed to be concentrated in large cities. We heard and read about John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and some others but the local crimes that we hear of today hardly existed. Most homes were never locked. We had nothing anyone would want to steal anyway.

The Depression as I remember it lasted about eight years. It would seem like maybe it had bottomed out and then the drought hit. These were the years from about 1933 to 1939 when it seemed like it never rained in the summer but snowed a lot in the winter. Jean grew up on a farm and her family always had a few cows and chickens but sometimes had little food for either as crops dried up and withered under the relentless sun. My father lost his job with the railroad in 1936. It was almost four years before he found steady work again. He somehow got hired by Iowa Power and Light Co. He retired from this company in 1959.

As I read stories of pretty girls starving themselves to death I wonder if they would have done the same thing back then. You see anorexics who should be cheerleaders, supermarket checkers or radiant young mothers showing off a new baby to everyone who will look.

The people in the know say this is a disease that is sexist in nature. It seems to hit only young girls and a few young boys, about 20-1 in favor of the girls. I cannot ever remember seeing an anorexic in my entire school career. I would have given anything in high school to have weighed about 20 more pounds. The best football players seemed to be the heavier kids on the team. We had one kid about 200 pounds and he was called Spuds. In practice we would argue who had to take out Spuds. You ended with sore ribs if he hit you square.

Television brings anorexia wholesale into our living room. Any time you turn on the television you can see starving Somalians by the thousands. Some other countries that we never see on television could be even worse. A lot of these countries have money for guns and wild parties but have nothing for the peasant or peon who is starving.

No one has ever starved to death in this country to my knowledge. I’m sure there were plenty of Indians pushed from there own homes to reservations who did starve. Unfortunately this was swept under the carpet until recently.

As I see anorexic victims on television who are literally starving themselves, it still brings back memories of the kids who grew up in the 30s. They were hungry too. We called it “The Depression.”

For nearly 25 years, until his death in 2015, retired grocer Don Behm wrote a column for The Storm Lake Times, “Cracker Barrel.” Don’s everyman view of everyday life was a favorite of Times readers. This was first published on Jan. 28, 1995.