The local economy was agriculturally based. This was not the best of times for the local farmers but most of them survived. Most farmers did not have a mortgage on their modest hill farms so they were able to keep from losing their farms. Cash income was very meager so they tried to conserve it as much as possible. The key to that was raising almost all of the food for the family. I am writing about my first hand experiences growing up during the Great Depression. Most farmers had a huge garden to raise the food and the children would all do their part in cultivating the garden patch. All the modern herbicides were not available then so the weeds were either chopped with a hoe or pulled by hand. This was before the days of the modern rototiller. The weeds close to the plants had to be pulled by hand to keep from damaging the plant roots. While hoeing, the sight of the freshly dug earthworms hastily squirming their way to cover would remind the boys of the old fishing hole down at the creek where they would much rather be spending their time. The potato beetles would be dislodged from the leaves with a stick into a tin can with some used motor oil in the bottom, which did them in. After a rain, all the