Possum for Supper and Other Memories from the Great Depression

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Great Depression, Joy Neal Kidney's family didn't eat strange food for fun. They ate what they could find. Sometimes that meant possum. Other times, it meant even less. But in the middle of the hardship, they found ways to stay connected, to laugh when they could, and to keep going.

Joy reflects on the meals that got them through and what they taught her. Joy is a regular contributor to Our American Stories and the author of Leora's Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next a story from our regular contributor out of Iowa.
A listener Joy Neil Kidney, and she listens on who
in des Moine a great iHeart station. Joy is the
author of Leora's Dexter Letters, the scarcity years of the

(00:33):
Great Depression, and today she shares the story of a
unique meal her family eight during those tough financial times.
Take it away, Joy.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
When I heard about someone having to eat raccoon or possum,
I thought of poor folks in the Deep South. Dad
wasn't a hunter, and having grown up on an Iowa
Hogen cattle farm, I couldn't imagine having any kind of
wild meat instead of good old cork and beef. But

(01:07):
from old family letters, I learned that both raccoon and
possum shut upon the table of my mother's family during
the Great Depression. Some family members reported enjoying them. Clay
and Leora Wilson had seven children, five sons and two daughters.

(01:27):
Clave taught his sons to trap and hunt pelts could
be sent to Sears, Roebuck and Company in exchange for
food and clothing. Clay insisted that his boys wait until
they were twelve and could demonstrate safe handling of a
gun before he was allowed to carry one to go hunting,

(01:47):
and no animal was to be killed just for sport.
Squirrel and rabbit were their main sources of protein during
those days. The saying was that Leora would cook anything
the hunters brought her, as long as they were already skinned, cleaned,
and ready for the skillet or the roasting pan. Clave

(02:09):
taught the boys how to do that and to stretch
pelts to cure. During the hard weeks of winter, Claive
hung carcasses on the porch, where they'd freeze until they
were needed. Dinner and supper also included fruits and vegetables
from their big garden. Fresh during growing season, leoricnned hundreds

(02:31):
of glass mason jars filled with produce anything she could
put up for winter. Because of the depression, Claive had
no steady job. The two oldest Wilson brothers, Delbert and Donald,
graduated from Dexter High School in nineteen thirty three. No
jobs for them either. A classmate had joined the Navy

(02:54):
and was happy having a full belly days filled with
activities and an income. Leora said that the boys with
not enough to do would probably get into trouble, so
she and clave okayed the plan, only asking them not
to get tattoos. Those boys in the navy were so

(03:17):
good to write home. Young siblings followed their world travels
on a map. Their mother saved all those family letters.
What a joy for me to read through and transcribe
them decades later. One was from Leora on her forty
fifth birthday, dated December fourth, nineteen thirty five. My, what

(03:39):
a wonderful present from my navy boys. Thanks a lot. Boys.
They had sent a card in some candy. We had
roast coon two years ago today, remember, Leora went on,
that would have been just before Dilbert and Donald enlisted
in the navy. You caught the last one on December third,
and the folks that would be her mother and brothers

(04:02):
from Oha came and surprised me. But the next day
was the fourth, and we had that nice fat coon.
Their next brother, Dale, age fourteen, wrote about a football
banquet and added, today we had possum and sweet taters. Boy,

(04:23):
it was sure good. Dale's twin Darlene enclosed her letter
in the same envelope. The sun is shining beautifully this morning,
she wrote, Dad and the boys are out trapping this morning,
So Mom and us girls clean house and get dinner
ready for the hungry hunters when they come. They come
in with two possom yesterday and today we're going to

(04:47):
have a possum and sweet taters. Yum, yum. She chatted
about her twin playing football, older sister Doris playing basketball,
younger brother Danny be old enough to hunt with their dad. Well,
I'll write more after having a piece of good old
opossum with the fumes just to oozin out, and some

(05:10):
gravy and some sweet potatoes. A possum were good for
something else than food. Clay wrote just before Christmas that
he'd shipped eight skunks and five opossum to Sears in
trade for goods from the Male Order catalog. Two years later,
in November nineteen thirty seven, Dilbert rode home from the

(05:34):
USS Chicago. You boys coming home with all that game
makes me sort of homesick. I thought for a while
you boys weren't going to take to hunting and trappin
so well, But it looks as if you boys will
break downs in my records go to her boys. It's
good outdoor exercise and a lot of fun. Sure like

(05:58):
to sink my fangs into some coon meat for a change.
In spite of Dale's and Darlene's comments about how good
powesome and sweet taters were, and even Delbert's memories of
coon meat, I'd have to be desperate as they were
during the Depression to try Annie. Just in case you

(06:20):
want to try roast coon or possum with the fume
zoosan out. You can find recipes for both of these
these days on the internet.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
And great job is always by Monte Montgomery on the
production and a special thanks to joy Neil Kidney, a
fan of the show and also one of our best contributors. Hawesome, raccoon,
and rabbit all showed up at the family dinner table
during the Great Depression years. The kids they all knew
how to trap and hunt, and Mom well, she'd cook

(06:53):
anything that was shaved and clean. Dinner and supper included
food from the garden they came and any and everything.
The story of joy Neil Kidney and her family during
the Great Depression their food measurement here on our American
Stories Leehabib here and I'd like to encourage you to

(07:30):
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(07:54):
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