I was watching the movie “Seabiscuit” this past Saturday night, and if you have never seen this movie… go rent it.  It is a great story of several people, in the depression era,  who end up coming together because of a horse named Seabiscuit, and surviving those very, very difficult times. The movie has sections with narration and images from the 1930′s, showing what people suffered through to make ends meet. The message of the movie is “You don’t throw a whole life away, just ’cause it’s banged up a  little”.

As it did the first time I saw the movie, some of the images really hit directly in my heart.  Images of children sleeping on cots, in cars, outdoors, with no family around and older children (12 years) doing what it takes to survive.  I find anything that has kids suffering and in pain, I can easily relate to and compare to my own children. It is painful to be reminded of what people went through back then and how lucky we are today.

That was this past weekend; the same time as Hurricane Ike was hitting the Southern States, gas prices here in Nova Scotia and Canada went going up again (even though oil prices were down, I’m still trying to figure out that formula…hmm), and then the big news in the States early this week with regards to Lehman Brothers, AIG and the stock markets in the US & Canada.

All this news brought back the images from the movie. It makes me think and wonder, what if the impossible happened again, how would our family and many others take it?   I think of the hardships so many went through back then and wonder… do we have what it takes now to survive?  We are different people today, with all the conveniences of the 21st century and technology.  Sacrifices people make nowadays hardly compare with those made by our forefathers.

My kids will tell me they are hungry, but they have never experienced true hunger.  My husband and I both have jobs and like many, dream of better lives, but we really do have a good life.

I have several Aunts & Uncles who were separated for months and years, in order to make a living for their families.  My husband’s Uncle left Italy for Canada for several years, before being able to send for his family. Years.  I can’t imagine doing that with my family.  My grandparents left Wales in 1929 with four children to take a parcel of CNR farmland in Alberta.  My grandmother’s first trip home to visit her mother was in 1952 – 23 years had passed since she had seen her mother.  Just prior to leaving; word came that her mother had passed away. Heartbreaking; yet she still went to Wales, by herself.  I would have been an absolute wreck.

Most of these situations were because my relative’s were seeking a better way of life for their families, many of us have a “decent life” now and could never imagine having to do what families in the 1930′d had to do.

I truly hope and believe that everyone will come out okay; they will rebuild homes and lives after the hurricanes, companies and employees will come through the hard times and that the price of oil, gas and food will stabilize; that we will all survive.

Thinking about the hardships of the 1930′s, makes me appreciate all the more the life I have now, especially when I have, what I think, is a bad day.  I probably have not seen a true “bad day” when compared to life 75 years ago.  Another reminder to embrace your life and family, they are everything.

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