Teacher's guide: Grandmother - For teachers - The Great Depression: Impact over time

Introductory script

This excerpt is about Stan Hyatt’s grandmother and how she earned a living.

The recording

Play the Grandmother oral history excerpt. Running time: 1 minute 8 seconds.

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Transcript

Rob Amberg

Was there farming in your background at all?

Stan Hyatt

My grandmother had farmland and leased it out, and I helped with the tobacco chores and gardening and growing corn, things like that — feeding the pigs and feeding the chickens, milking the cows — when I was growing up with her.

Rob Amberg

So you had all of those things. And would you classify your grandma as somewhat self-sufficient on the farm?

Stan Hyatt

She was extremely self-sufficient. She lived after she raised six kids of her own. I lived with her a while, and she would have me go out to the woods and get roots and things out of the ground that she made medicines out of. I hunted. I would bring squirrels and fish back, and rabbits. My grandmother could fix anything. When her husband was still alive she cooked for a sawmill up there in Dillingham area. She was the most self-sufficient woman that I ever knew.

Follow-up questions

What do we learn about Mr. Hyatt’s grandmother? What kinds of animals did Mr. Hyatt bring for her to cook?
What kinds of things show that his grandmother is self-sufficient?
According to the excerpt, what happened in Dillingham?
What are the two or three ways that people in Mr. Hyatt’s family earned money, according to what you’ve heard so far?

Next: Teacher's guide: Impact of the Great Depression

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