Possom for Supper?

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No matter how ludicrous the situation. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois. 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 Neal Kidney. And she listens on W.H.O.

in Des Moines, a great I heart station. Joy is the author of Leora's Dexter letters, the scarcity years of the Great Depression. And today she shares the story of a unique meal her family ate during those tough financial times.

Take it away, Joy. 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 hog and cattle farm, I couldn't imagine having any kind of wild meat instead of good old pork and beef. But from old family letters, I learned that both raccoon and possum showed up on the table of my mother's family during the Great Depression.

Some family members reported enjoying them. Claib and Leora Wilson had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Claib taught his sons to trap and hunt. Pelts could be sent to Sears Roebuck and Company in exchange for food and clothing.

Claib insisted that his boys wait until they were 12 and could demonstrate safe handling of a gun before he was allowed to carry one to go hunting. 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. Claib taught the boys how to do that and to stretch pelts to cure. During the hard weeks of winter, Claib 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.

Leora canned hundreds of glass mason jars filled with produce, anything she could put up for winter. Because of the Depression, Claib had no steady job. The two oldest Wilson brothers, Delbert and Donald, graduated from Dexter High School in 1933. No jobs for them either. A classmate had joined the Navy 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 Claib okayed the plan, only asking them not to get tattoos. Those boys in the Navy were so good to ride 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 45th birthday, dated December 4, 1935. My, what a wonderful present from my Navy boys.

Thanks a lot, boys. They had sent a card and some candy. We had roast coon two years ago today, remember?

Leora went on. That would have been just before Delbert and Donald enlisted in the Navy. You caught the last one on December 3, and the folks, that would be her mother and brothers from Omaha, came and surprised me. But the next day was the 4th, and we had that nice fat coon. Their next brother, Dale, age 14, wrote about a football banquet and added, Today we had possum and sweet taters. Boy, 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 possum yesterday. And today we're going to have a possum and sweet taters. Yum, yum.

She chatted about her twin playing football, older sister Doris playing basketball, younger brother Danny being 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 ooze and out. And some gravy and some choy potatoes. Opossum 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 mail order catalog.

Two years later, in November 1937, Delbert wrote home from the 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 trapping so well. But it looks as if you boys will break Don's and my records.

Go to her, boys. It's good outdoor exercise and a lot of fun. Sure like to sink my fangs into some coon meat for a change. In spite of Dale's and Darlene's comments about how good opossum 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 any. Just in case you want to try roast coon or opossum with the fumes oozing out. You can find recipes for both of these these days on the Internet. And great job as always by Monty Montgomery on the production. And a special thanks to Joy Neal Kidney, a fan of the show and also one of our best contributors. Opossum, 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 anything that was shaved and clean. Dinner and supper included food from the garden.

They canned any and everything. The story of Joy Neal Kidney and her family during the Great Depression. Their food regimen here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.

Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.

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