Great time to listen to our elders

I recall many times through my childhood and adulthood when a grandma, grandpa or an elder of no relation starting talking about surviving tough times, relating tips they learned during the Great Depression.

My mind often tuned out those stories, thinking those days were over, nothing like that could ever happen again, and those stories were nothing but quaint lessons that would never need to be learned. Life was all about prosperity, Play Stations and pumpkin pie, I thought.

Now I find those stories fascinating. I wish I had listened more closely.

News from Wall Street in the past weeks and months is certainly cause for pause, if not outright concern. Are we heading into a second Great Depression?

Some say so, but let's remember that it's often the most shrill of the commentators with the most dire of predictions that gets air time.

But even the president is drawing comparisons to the Great Depression.

Is it coming? I don't know, and would hope not. But I do know a few things.

As one letter writer this week says on this page, we have been living beyond our means for years. I would include myself in that category, but perhaps a little less than most. My wife and I both work, have a reasonable home with a small mortgage, no children, no big toys like boats, ATVs or snowmobiles. I own my car and don't have a loan for anything but the house at the moment. I pay my credit card bill in full every month. I have a pretty safe, stable job.

And I'm nervous. I don't understand why most people aren't more nervous.

It's not that I wouldn't love a couple of ATVs, a sports car, a huge boat or an 80-inch plasma TV. And heck, I could have all of those things today with a few swipes of the credit card.

But after buying everything I thought I "needed" in college and accumulating a few thousand in debt, those stories from my elders started sinking in. No one "needs" a slightly larger television. No one "needs" to buy a new couch or a new car stereo.

We bash Wall Street for over-leveraging everything and causing a derivatives mess. They must have learned from us -- we over-leverage our own lives. We take a $50,000 income to buy a $40,000 car, get $30,000 in credit on a few cards, and buy a $250,000 house. Now we're not 40-1 leveraged like Wall Street, but we're not exactly flush, either.

I often wonder if people of my generation could survive a real Great Depression, or if those who lived through that were just plain tougher than us. I really hope we don't get a chance to find out.

In the meantime, I'm going to listen very closely when one of my elders blesses me with a bit of their time and wisdom.

If you're of that generation, and have some tips for today's youth, please consider sending us a letter to the editor telling us how you survived the Great Depression. This time, we're listening.