The Sadness in a Depression-era Grocery Receipt

The pathos of the Depression still shows up in 2009. You can see it.

It could be a grandmother who keeps all of her kitchen cupboards, two hall cupboards, and a fridge and freezer so stuffed with cans and packages of food that there isn't room for anything more, with the stuff in the back, untouched, perhaps ten years old.

It could be a grandfather who for Christmas gives a 30-year-old granddaughter a worn and outdated thermos picnic set bought at a garage sale because it's "still good."

Or it could be a 1930 grocery receipt from the Ypsilanti Archives.


John G. Lamb's grocery, formerly Charles King's grocery, was possibly the longest-running one in Ypsilanti, lasting from 1840 to WWII. It was also one of the first to institute a cash system. But by the Depression, the store had gone back to running monthly tabs for its customers. This one is from P. R. Cleary.

The Irish-born former penmanship teacher P. R. Cleary was the founder and president of Cleary College at this time; he would retire 8 years later at 80 years of age. His wife was the president of the Ypsilanti chapter of the D. A. R. and a member of the Ladies Literary Club. The Clearys had four successful children, Charles, Marjorie, Ruth and Owen. The couple was active and prominent in Ypsilanti social doings.

But in 1930, they apparently could not pay their grocery bill.

For the month of January, Cleary bought $25.92 in groceries. He already had a running tab of $156.64 [$2,000 in today's dollars] and the January foods brought his bill up to $182.56 [$2,300]. A terse note from the grocer is written sideways on the bill: "A payment will be appreciated/J. G. Lamb & Son."

It was a grim time, even for college presidents.

Postscript: For those who, like me, are curious to know what a college president ate during the Depression, here is a transcription for each January day:

2 1 coffee, 1 lb. oats, 25 sugar, 1 bread, 2 lb. loaf sugar, 12 oranges, 6 soap
3 1 butter, 3 P. O. soap, 1 gold dust [scrubbing cleanser], 1 lettuce, 1 cabbage
4 2 bread, 1 box salt, 1 qt. mazola, 1 cheese, 1 lettuce, 1 coffee
7 1 bread, 1/2 bacon, 6 oranges, 6 [more expensive] oranges, 1 lb. crackers
10 12 eggs, 3 D [Dutch?] Cleanser, chipso [laundry soap flakes]
11 1 sani flush, 1 bread, 2 celery, 3 Crisco, 12 oranges, 3 grapefruit
14 1 coffee 12 eggs, 1 peck [quarter bushel] potatoes
15 1/2 lb. tea, 1 bread, 12 oranges, 2 grapefruits, 3 lemons, 1 ripe olives
16 1/2 lb. B. ham [?]
18 1 celery, 5 [lbs?] scratch feed [for chickens] 1 lb. peanuts
21 2 bread, 1 catsup, 1 cabbage, 12 oranges, 1 coffee, bread [cheaper], 12 eggs
23 1 butter 1 lb. ham, olives, 2 cheese, 2 bread
24 coffee 6 soap, 1 chipso, 12 eggs, 5 [lbs?] scratch feed
25 12 oranges, 2 bread, 2 corn [?] 1 lettuce
27 3 grapefruit, 1 rumford [?], 2 soup, 1 celery
28 1 peck potatoes, 12 oranges, 1 gelatin, starch, ham