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the “When”, the ‘Why’, & the ‘Wow’. The Great Depression, for which Depression Glass is named, was the time from Oc- tober 1929 through the year 1939. This period was not called that because the time was great as in ‘grand’, but because it encompassed so much time, places, and states, along with millions of Americans. It started with the financially disastrous crash of the New York Stock Exchange in October, 1929. Then in 1933 North America was hit with a terrific drought throughout the Midwest United States and portions of Canada. Crops died and animals starved. The inability of farmers to provide food for the markets began to ef- fect the economy in the large cities as well as the farm- lands. One in every five people were unemployed. It was a struggle for the ones who were employed, most re- ceiving lessoned salaries, to take care of themselves and their families. Unfortunately, it would ultimately take our entry into WWII to pull America out of the Depression Era. It meant sending millions of young men to war as the United States’ fighting forces while those who couldn’t enlist went to work in reopened factories to build and sew what the fighting forces needed. But recovery did- n’t happen overnight. So,ingenuity and survival instincts of American Glass Making Companies put something else into play. Indiana, Imperial, Anchor Hocking, Jeanette and U.S. Glass, to name a few, were determined to keep our country viable in the industrial minded world. In the 1930’s families were still having their meals together, at home. People served and ate on glass, bone china, and crystal, not plastic or paper. Sty- rofoam was still decades from being presented to the general public as a means of carrying dinner home. Another thing that was still prevalent in the early part of the 20 th century was a trousseau. A young girl planning marriage would be given a hope chest. This chest was usually made of cedar and about four feet wide, three feet deep and about two feet from front to rear. The young woman would use the chest to hold all of the items she collected to use in her first home. These items included linens, nighties, and glassware. So American glass companies decided to make their everyday utilitarian glass more eye catching. They added color – pink, blue, amethyst, red, amber and even black – each color getting a different name from the manufacturer who developed its hue. And then they decided to make it all available, not at an extra cost, but in what most people had to have after all. The companies offered cups, saucers, plates, glasses, and cereal bowls in soap powder, cereal boxes, and even through TV Yellow and S&H Green stamps. Packages usually had premium points coupons printed on them that were saved and traded for impor- tant serving pieces or even flatware. Some glass place settings were offered as premiums at movie theaters and carnivals so that a beau would plan date nights with his betroth around certain nights to attain the dishes she needed to complete her every day dinnerware set for the hope chest. Since these everyday items were given away free in popular, practical ways they were primarily taken for granted. No one ever thought they would go away. They were acquired in products that were common place in American life. So no one thought they would ever cease to be useful or change. But they did. According to study.com, Baby Boomers are a designated group of people who were born between 1946 and through 1964. They grew up seeing decorative mass produced patterns like Old Café, Cabbage Rose, Miss America, Oyster & Pearl, Sandwich, Iris & Her- ringbone, Moderntone, Waffle, and Bubble, just to men- tion a few. They were displayed in their grandmothers’ china cabinets and kitchen cupboards. During the 1960’s these practical giveaways began to disappear from inside of product packages, along with some of those products as well. As pieces of these naturally breakable glass products got broken, leached by calcium, or discolored with dish washer use, the undamaged pieces, of what resulted in incomplete settings, were eventually pushed to the back of the kitchen cabinets. Then, when the par- ents of the boomers became owners of those happy memories of their own parents’ colorfully set tables, the hunt began to replace the missing pieces. 4 SOUTHERN SENIOR MAGAZINE | Winter 2023 Depression Glass By Lynne Adams Barze’ Author, writer, poet Continued on Next Page...