Due to the drop in value of commodities and wages, farm families may have had food but often lacked the cash for fuel, repairs of machinery and household items. Using a horse and wagon for travel became popular again.
Farm wives made do with simple meals with food they raised like vegetables, eggs, milk and meat; purchasing only the bare necessities like flour, sugar, oatmeal and coffee. They mended their clothes, used feed and flour sacks to make new ones and altered second-hand clothes to fit.
The Pennington County Homemakers club learned how to make furniture from barrels, crates and scrapped wood. They used printed flour sacks or purchased fabric to upholster the furniture. It was an inexpensive way to decorate the home.
This photograph is from a Pennington County Extension Homemakers scrapbook in the Museum’s collection. It explains how to “make-do” by repurposing ordinary objects into furniture. According to the scrapbook, “The large easy chair is made of a candy barrel covered with cretonne, casters attached to bottom and back filled with excelsior and cotton batting, cost $2.25. Occasional chair is barrel with legs added and padded and covered with khaki twill; excelsior, cotton batting, burlap for underlining and twill cost $1.75. Foot stool made from prune box, covered with split spools, with padded velour removable cover, $0.36. folding table of scrap lumber painted orange and black cost $0.85. Lace cover is made of bits of donated lace. Cover with 5 Doilies only $0.08."
The exhibit Drowning in Dirt: Joseph Hutton and the Dust Bowl is opening at the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum on Feb. 27, 2023. Come visit the Museum and learn more about Professor Hutton’s work, the 1930s Dust Bowl and its effects on South Dakota.