Historians across the country will delight in reading Gail Lee Martin’s “My Flint Hills Childhood – Growing up in 1930s Kansas.” The book, which won the 2010 Ferguson, is short in length, boasting a mere 197 pages including photos. But the message is larger than life and calls to mind the sacrifices and scrimping made by a 1930s family during the Great Depression.
Martin, now with adult children and grandchildren of her own, details her years growing up in an era that some say America is likely to face again, given the current economic climate and scarcity of jobs.
American Jobs Act, Great Depression Era
During Gail Martin’s early years, her family roughed it through the Great Depression, but the joy and laughter were still present, too.
Her historical account of that period of time does mimic the current one being experienced by Americans to some degree, with families trying to tighten their belts as jobs become more scarce in the country that now has a steady unemployment rate of 9.1 percent.
Gail’s father, however, had a job during that time, unlike many in the country today.
Pres. Obama unveiled his American Jobs Act this week in an effort to try and change the course of a country potentially heading into another Great Depression Era Ms. Martin’s family endured.
His proposed speech to Congress didn’t seem to generate much excitement when first introduced, however, with one congressman saying he wasn’t even going to probably show up to hear it, as he was “sick and tired” of speeches by the president.
During Gail Martin’s youth it wasn’t presidential speeches that saved the day either for those living on less. It was her family’s efforts — especially her mothers — to learn every way to save a penny and recycle household items.
Flint Hills Childhood Memories
Martin’s book depicts the way her mother created Christmas and Halloween decorations on a shoestring budget. Gail talks of coloring eggs with beet juice and wild elderberries instead of coloring tablets or dyes from a store.
Dresses were made from flour mill bags and string for popcorn and cranberry tree decorations at Christmas came from the same sacks. Tin foil from chewing gum was saved and used to cover “Big Chief” writing table cardboard for tree stars and ornaments.
But the most surprising creative use of resources during the difficult era at the Martin’s house stemmed from an unusual source in today’s culture: the Phillips Petroleum Company.
Phillips Petroleum Company and Flint Hills
It wasn’t Pres. Obama or other current advocates of solar power who made sure that the most precious resource in Kansas — water — was available to Gail Martin and others in need during the Great Depression (or since). It was Phillips Petroleum who did, according to Martin’s memoir.
Martin says that her father, Clarence Oliver McGhee worked for the company that provided housing and dug wells for their workers during that period of time in the state. She says that the company’s ingenuity in creating a catchall for the rain water that fell onto the families roof — and a filtering system that cleaned it afterward — was a lifesaver.
The company even dug wells for the runoff water to be housed and made cisterns to draw it up for use later. Buckets were used to transport the water from the well to the home.
Interested readers wanting to learn some 1930s Kansas history and money-saving tips are encouraged to pick up a copy of Gail Lee Martin’s “My Flint Hills Childhood” book for themselves. Here’s the link to the purchasing site that carries it.
This is one octogenarian who has a page-turner on her hands and loads of useful information told in an entertaining and positive way. But Gail Lee Martin isn’t resting on her laurels, as she is about to celebrate her 87th birthday, tomorrow, September 13, 2011.