During the 1930s Depression, 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.
Feed, sugar, flour and salt was sold in cloth bags. Many women recycled the bags into clothing, curtains and aprons. The finer, softer fabric of sugar and salt sacks often ended up as diapers and baby clothing. When the bag manufactures realized that women were recycling the bags into useful items, they began printing the bags with colorful designs.
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.