How Life Went On, based on an interview of Novella Mulford

How Life Went On

Based on an interview of Novella Mulford
by Mariann Stubbs on December 7, 1997

Novella Mulford remembers about living in the small town of Torrey during the Great Depression. She remembers about the clothes she had, the food she ate, the movies she saw, and the songs she sang. She remembers everything as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

I was born in the little town of Torrey, Utah, which is now a gate-way to Capital Reef National Park. I was born on October the 5th, 1920. We lived on a ranch way out of town. There was no running water, there was no indoor plumbing, and we just all had to work. We raised a garden, we raised our fruit, and did all of our canning. My father was a farmer and a cattle man. We had plenty to eat, but sometimes we didn't have very much to wear. Not new clothes for school and that sort of thing.

At that time, in the Great Depression, there was not much money. I remember my dad sold cattle in the fall and didn't receive very much, and so our economic situation was pretty poor. We had plenty to eat, but we didn't have money to buy lots of clothes. So we just had what we could get by with.

I remember going to school and we were lucky to get two new dresses at the beginning of school; we also got a new pair of shoes. When we came home from school, our school clothes were changed into grubbies. We never went hungry. So I think we faired probably better than a lot of people did in the Depression, but there was not much money to do a lot of extra things with.

My mom raised a big garden; she canned and dried all of her food. My dad raised pigs and, of course, being in the cattle business we always had plenty of beef, and we always had plenty of pork, and lots of fruits and vegetables. It was really difficult to find money at that time with kids in school to buy for. He raised the wheat for flour and we took it to the grist mill and had it ground. But there was sugar, and salt, and baking powder, and soda, and the essentials of life that we had to buy. I never remember going without, never. We did fairly well, I think.

As I got a little bit older, we moved from the ranch into Torrey, and, of course, [for entertainment] they were all silent movies. I remember going up to the church house and someone would come in with a little projector, and they were silent; you had to read what they were doing. It was really funny, but that was a big treat to get to go even to a silent movie.

My mother had a beautiful singing voice, and she sang a lot and so the songs that I remember—of course, we all went to church— I remember the church songs very well. And my mother played the mandolin and just as a family group we would all get together and sing, and it was a lot of the older songs that you hardly ever hear anymore. So, but we enjoyed it.

I wasn't old enough then to work other than we all had our responsibilities at home. Mom and us girls usually took care of all the planting of the garden, weeding the garden, harvesting the garden, and harvesting the fruit. Scrubbing on the board, there was absolutely no electric washing machines. We did the scrubbing on the board. I remember as a child, no more then 10 years old, seems like my job was to, lots of big brothers and a father and irrigating, and what-not, their socks were so dirty that it seemed like every Saturday my job was to scrub these dirty socks on the wash board. I use to hate Saturdays.

I remember at one time I don't know whether it was because of drought or what, but cattle prices dropped to nothing. I do remember the government buying some of the cattle. I remember my dad had an old white milk cow that we just adored, but she was getting old and he said we can't afford to feed her. I think it was because of a drought, there wasn't much feed and so he did sell to the government, I don't know, something like twenty-five head of cattle or something. Literally, they dug a big pit, and they dropped the cattle up there and shot them. Covered them over and didn't save the meat for nobody or anything. They just shot the cattle in this big trench and covered them over and let them stay there.

I think the depression has affected Lamar and me. Here I am seventy-seven years old, he raises the garden, and I do all of the canning. I like to have my year's supply. I'm a great one for saving, and I am not a spend-thrift. I think due to the fact that I lived in this day and age is what made me as conservative as I am today, but we get by just fine.

At my age I can see that a lot of the old remedies and things that we did, for instance, like making our soap, and the young kids today would have no idea how to handle things. So I think it would be a good thing if the young kids would learn a few of these old time recipes or whatever you want to call it. Learn to do a few of these things like use herbs and what-not; people didn't have chance to go to the doctor and so I think young people can learn from a lot of these things. I think this is a great idea, to have these young kids interview us older people because they can sort of get an insight of what our life was like. I am grateful to have been able to live in that era, and today. What a difference, and I'm sure the next fifty years will bring us as many changes as the past fifty have.

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