To hear my parents oral histories, times were hard, but the people described in this story seem to be well off, and they even have enough money to dine out, to afford servants and buy a variety of foods. When my dad spoke of that era, he described his boyhood hunting pigeons and squirrels to keep his fsmily from starving. He walked along the railroad tracks and gleaned handfuls of grain, apples and onions that had fallen out of train cars.
The memories of being hungry troubled him even 50 years later, and food was very important to his self worth. As a child, my family ate well, and my dad insisted that meat was always served at dinner. Still, we were taught to be frugal and wasted nothing. We were 'preppers' before that was even a word, and the family pantry was always fully stocked because of my father's fear that another disaster could happen without warning, but he was determined that we would not want for food.