Colleen Liming of Shell Rock, age 100, still remembers clearly her childhood, growing up in the Great Depression. Currently, she is writing a book about what her life was like and memories she shared with her family.

The Great Depression hit the United States in 1929, when Liming was 4 years old.

“I felt lucky at the time and probably should have felt luckier because I knew we didn’t have much money at all, but I don’t even know how we got by,” Liming said. “My folks always taught us to be happy.”

Before she was born, Liming’s grandfather, who fought in the Civil War, and his family came to Iowa from Missouri in a covered wagon. They first traveled from northern Missouri to Greensburg, Indiana. Then, they traveled to the Mississippi River and took a ferry to get to Iowa.

In 1927, her f

See Full Page