Walter Runyan

The Way It Was Growing Up in the Southwest During the Great Depression Walter Runyan

The Way It Was, Growing Up In The Southwest During the Great Depression was written by two people who grew up in the Southwest during the second quarter of the 20th century. Their childhood encompassed both the Dust Bowl days and the Great Depression and since one of the authors was raised on a small farm in Eastern Oklahoma and the other one in a small town in the Texas Panhandle, it would appear that between the two of them their experiences represented a reasonable cross-section of life in the Southwest during that time.

Some of the book chapters are entitled Spare-Time Activities, Transportation, Food, Water, Home Medical Remedies, Clothing, and Schools. These chapters collectively describe the life they experienced. In addition, to help the reader better understand the reasons for many of the things discussed, a moderate amount of history has been woven into the chapters. The authors' believe that even though living conditions in the Southwest were unpleasant at times, what with all of those black widow spiders and rattlesnakes, droughts, and blue northers, their childhoods were actually pretty good. Their parents probably did experience some rather rough spots; but they too found life quite tolerable.