thedrifter
02-22-09, 07:36 AM
Posted on Sun, Feb. 22, 2009
'Rosie the Riveters' offer advice to survive economic climate
By Sonya Sorich
In tough times, they didn’t take out an extra credit card, hire a financial planner or map out a savings plan.
Survivors of the Great Depression just got by.
“Nobody saved money. They all spent it as soon as they got it,” said Carrie Pettit, 84. “It was different altogether than life now.”
But maybe, in today’s weak economy, there’s a lesson in those differences.
Pettit, who lives in Columbus, was born in Liverpool, England, in 1924.
She belongs to the Columbus-area Rosie the Riveter group. The national organization is composed of members of the millions of women who worked and volunteered on the homefront in World War II.
These women watched their parents struggle during the Great Depression.
Then, while earning their own incomes in a better economy, they thrived on frugality.
They are the ones who recycled before recycling was cool.
“How do you think I learned? By doing without,” said June Tinker, 83, of Waverly Hall, Ga.
To some, their financial advice ranks right up there with tales of trudging through miles of snow to get to school every morning.
Columbus resident Juanice Still, 84, knows what you’re thinking:
“You’re too old to know anything.”
Maybe not.
Power of $1
As a teenager in West Virginia, Tinker once babysat for a week to earn $1.
When it was time to collect her money, she learned the family had moved. She was never paid.
“I’ve never forgotten that,” Tinker said.
It’s just one job that was later replaced by job titles like defense plant worker, waitress, and cashier.
But that lone $1 speaks to a time that for long made it hard for Tinker to throw away her leftovers.
She was born in 1925. Her father was a coal miner and she and eight siblings lived on foods like cornbread, potatoes and beans.
Store-bought bread was a treat, she said.
Their toys consisted of things like a dried-out pig’s bladder that doubled as a football.
“There just wasn’t any money extra,” she said.
Things got better in the early ’40s, when her older brothers joined the Marines and started sending money home. Two years later, Tinker got her defense plant job.
And things kept changing.
Decades after her family saved resources, Tinker worked as a cashier and once watched in disbelief as a customer specifically requested pink toilet paper.
Now, when she hears murmurs of a recession, she offers advice rooted in the cornbread-and-beans simplicity of her childhood.
“Don’t spend more than what you make,” she said.
Payday to payday
Sometimes, not spending more than you make requires choices.
Jean Liparoto, 89, remembers the decisions she and her husband made while shopping.
Even after the height of the Great Depression, they talked in terms of “either/or.”
Discussions Liparoto hopes today’s shoppers have already confronted.
“We had to make choices and they had to learn to make choices,” she said.
Liparoto, born in 1919, grew up on an Indiana farm. Her family raised their own food.
“You didn’t throw anything away,” she said of her childhood, a time when she owned just one dress.
After some housework jobs, she got a factory job in the early ’40s. She started a family with her husband, who was in the military.
She opened her first bank account around 1958.
“I’m still pretty careful. I don’t need to be,” she said of her finances.
Now, Liparoto doesn’t live payday to payday. Nor is today’s economy bad enough for her to, like her parents, live in a home without major utilities.
Even in a weak economy, most of today’s families have it better than what Liparoto and her fellow Columbus-area Rosies saw growing up.
But a little prudent decision-making never hurts, Liparoto said.
She advised: “Stop and think: Do I really need this? Can I really afford this?”
Financial fears
There are some financial decisions you may never have to make.
Carrie Pettit, the woman born in England in 1924, remembers when her country’s shipping industry faltered and her father needed work.
She watched her family collect stamps for food. She wore shoes repaired with cardboard.
“Everybody was rationed. It was poor times,” Pettit said.
And like the other women, Pettit — who as a teen took up factory work — watched things get better.
When she and her husband got married, they had luxuries like their first indoor bathroom.
As the economy recovered, Pettit savored her new financial freedom: “We spent it and enjoyed ourselves because we’d gone without so long.”
But that recovery came slowly in the United States, especially for people like Juanice Still, who grew up poor in south Georgia.
“We were all in such a bad hole to start with, it took years,” she said.
She took up her first teaching job in the early ’40s and made $45 a month. About 10 years later, she made $100 a month.
She’d use her money for things like presents for the family, while her husband’s salary took care of utilities.
“People were afraid of debt then. They aren’t afraid of it now,” she said.
She still remembers the stigma that surrounded government assistance.
“We didn’t expect any help on anything,” she said.
And if these women’s stories hold any value to today’s average penny-pincher, maybe it’s just that:
Listen to their sacrifices. Read their advice to realize that the money you have — or lack — is yours alone.
“Don’t depend on anybody else but yourself,” Still said.
Ellie
'Rosie the Riveters' offer advice to survive economic climate
By Sonya Sorich
In tough times, they didn’t take out an extra credit card, hire a financial planner or map out a savings plan.
Survivors of the Great Depression just got by.
“Nobody saved money. They all spent it as soon as they got it,” said Carrie Pettit, 84. “It was different altogether than life now.”
But maybe, in today’s weak economy, there’s a lesson in those differences.
Pettit, who lives in Columbus, was born in Liverpool, England, in 1924.
She belongs to the Columbus-area Rosie the Riveter group. The national organization is composed of members of the millions of women who worked and volunteered on the homefront in World War II.
These women watched their parents struggle during the Great Depression.
Then, while earning their own incomes in a better economy, they thrived on frugality.
They are the ones who recycled before recycling was cool.
“How do you think I learned? By doing without,” said June Tinker, 83, of Waverly Hall, Ga.
To some, their financial advice ranks right up there with tales of trudging through miles of snow to get to school every morning.
Columbus resident Juanice Still, 84, knows what you’re thinking:
“You’re too old to know anything.”
Maybe not.
Power of $1
As a teenager in West Virginia, Tinker once babysat for a week to earn $1.
When it was time to collect her money, she learned the family had moved. She was never paid.
“I’ve never forgotten that,” Tinker said.
It’s just one job that was later replaced by job titles like defense plant worker, waitress, and cashier.
But that lone $1 speaks to a time that for long made it hard for Tinker to throw away her leftovers.
She was born in 1925. Her father was a coal miner and she and eight siblings lived on foods like cornbread, potatoes and beans.
Store-bought bread was a treat, she said.
Their toys consisted of things like a dried-out pig’s bladder that doubled as a football.
“There just wasn’t any money extra,” she said.
Things got better in the early ’40s, when her older brothers joined the Marines and started sending money home. Two years later, Tinker got her defense plant job.
And things kept changing.
Decades after her family saved resources, Tinker worked as a cashier and once watched in disbelief as a customer specifically requested pink toilet paper.
Now, when she hears murmurs of a recession, she offers advice rooted in the cornbread-and-beans simplicity of her childhood.
“Don’t spend more than what you make,” she said.
Payday to payday
Sometimes, not spending more than you make requires choices.
Jean Liparoto, 89, remembers the decisions she and her husband made while shopping.
Even after the height of the Great Depression, they talked in terms of “either/or.”
Discussions Liparoto hopes today’s shoppers have already confronted.
“We had to make choices and they had to learn to make choices,” she said.
Liparoto, born in 1919, grew up on an Indiana farm. Her family raised their own food.
“You didn’t throw anything away,” she said of her childhood, a time when she owned just one dress.
After some housework jobs, she got a factory job in the early ’40s. She started a family with her husband, who was in the military.
She opened her first bank account around 1958.
“I’m still pretty careful. I don’t need to be,” she said of her finances.
Now, Liparoto doesn’t live payday to payday. Nor is today’s economy bad enough for her to, like her parents, live in a home without major utilities.
Even in a weak economy, most of today’s families have it better than what Liparoto and her fellow Columbus-area Rosies saw growing up.
But a little prudent decision-making never hurts, Liparoto said.
She advised: “Stop and think: Do I really need this? Can I really afford this?”
Financial fears
There are some financial decisions you may never have to make.
Carrie Pettit, the woman born in England in 1924, remembers when her country’s shipping industry faltered and her father needed work.
She watched her family collect stamps for food. She wore shoes repaired with cardboard.
“Everybody was rationed. It was poor times,” Pettit said.
And like the other women, Pettit — who as a teen took up factory work — watched things get better.
When she and her husband got married, they had luxuries like their first indoor bathroom.
As the economy recovered, Pettit savored her new financial freedom: “We spent it and enjoyed ourselves because we’d gone without so long.”
But that recovery came slowly in the United States, especially for people like Juanice Still, who grew up poor in south Georgia.
“We were all in such a bad hole to start with, it took years,” she said.
She took up her first teaching job in the early ’40s and made $45 a month. About 10 years later, she made $100 a month.
She’d use her money for things like presents for the family, while her husband’s salary took care of utilities.
“People were afraid of debt then. They aren’t afraid of it now,” she said.
She still remembers the stigma that surrounded government assistance.
“We didn’t expect any help on anything,” she said.
And if these women’s stories hold any value to today’s average penny-pincher, maybe it’s just that:
Listen to their sacrifices. Read their advice to realize that the money you have — or lack — is yours alone.
“Don’t depend on anybody else but yourself,” Still said.
Ellie