Strangers would walk up the driveway begging for food - Stories from the Great Depression

To help with Us Enduring, I've joined quite a few relevant communities on Reddit. I'm mainly looking for relevant stories or news to share, or common questions that need answers or could benefit from helpful discussion.

I just came across this post and it spoke to me:

2 things that I see in this story - first of all, the negative. "People were really struggling to eat enough, a complete stranger would walk up the driveway begging for food ..."

With the economy clearly struggling and us coming to grips with the fact that it's likely to get much, much worse, would that sort of thing happen in the modern age?

Would you ever get that desperate? Or what would you do if someone else walked up your driveway?

It's hard to answer these questions honestly because we can't quite envision it happening, but it did.

The second thing I noticed was more positive and, quite frankly, the purpose of the Us Enduring community - "... we would invite him in to feed him. We relied on our neighbors and we all helped each other out in one way or another and we got through it."

They would invite him in. Wow. Being honest, I'm not sure that I would invite a stranger into my house, one that would probably look a little dirty and beat up.

We, as a society, are all a little more paranoid now than we used to be (and for good reason). We don't pick up hitchhikers. We don't let our kids play down the street by themselves.

But, in a time when it would be absolutely necessary for us to show love to each other, would we invite a stranger in? It's hard for me to answer that.

But that's how they got through it. Together. One of the comments to that Reddit post was a story of someone who went through the Great Depression:

"My grandma grew up in DC during the depression. She said if anyone in the neighborhood had work, they would buy eggs or trade household projects with other neighbors with some of their earnings. You helped your neighbors and they would do the same for you."

Whether we can easily see ourselves doing the same in a modern-day version of an economic depression, we should all start learning how to be more thoughtful toward and love our neighbors just a little bit more.