I have fond memories of my great grandfather telling us as children how the family lost darn near everything they had but the house was paid off and he still had a job (RR) and they raised their own vegetables and hunted for most meat but it was very scarce due to hungry people and they couldn’t raise a chicken due to thieves (they watched many a thief steal a chicken and actually confronted a few and said if you had the courtesy to ask they would have provided them with a few eggs and some vegetables that would last longer. Everyone felt sorry for everyone and he had a saying something like “the depression brought the real men to the forefront and the lazy succumbed”