THE DEPRESSION 1929-1941

Was the depression so bad?

Well, that depends... There was a lot of unemployment and money was scarce.

We were lucky, my father had a job, and there was always enough food and a

roof over our head.

Our parents were frugal and "made do" with what they had.  Others were not so lucky. My wife's father worked at what ever he could find.  He would shovel out a barn for 50 cents a day .

 Money was different then.  Every evening my mother would send me down to the neighborhood grocery store to buy a dime's worth of round steak, which along with this and that  she put together was enough  for a meal for the 5 of us.

Summer or part time jobs for kids were scarce.  Each of the boys in our family had a paper delivery route,

which didn't net very much--it was hard to collect what was owed too us, and the paper publisher would 

add extra papers and charge us.  My oldest brother(the smart one)m established a "Saturday Evening Post"

and "Ladies Home Journal' magazine route which each of us took over in turn when we were old enough.

I got a summer job at the local drug store as a soda jerk, but cut my thumb badly sharpening an axe at a Boy Scout camp, therefore unable to work at the soda fountain.  We didn't make much money, but we learned a lot.  My first full time summer job after WWII as a car jockey for the Lincoln Mercury dealer

paid $42/month.  

 Of course there was WPA, part of Roosevelt's stimulus.  When I think of the WPA, I see a group of men standing around a pile of dirt or a hole in the ground  leaning on their shovels or kids wearing striped bib overalls to school, the clothes furnished by the government.

Rioting in the streets?, No not much, there was in 1932 the veteran's (WWI) march and encampment in Washington, demanding the bonus they were promised, but congress reneged--sounds familiar? And some localized racial clashes-- my Dad feared a race war, but it didn't happen-  order was re-established.

Depressions conjure up images of all sorts of tragedy and mayhem, but in fact the last one was bad, but not universally felt.  Think about the tremendous wave of construction during the thirties. Hoover Dam (1936),Empire State Bldg. (1931), Santa Anita Race Track (1934). Las Vegas  and any number of post offices, buildings and developments.

So, no one had any money, yet some did and others somehow found some when they had to.   My older brother and I were born during the depression.  We also had tonsillectomies and other health and dental

procedures ( without health insurance).

The point of this article is: don't despair we can make it through bad times , just as we did then, because when things are bad they rarely are all bad.  The present crisis is of course different--yes, also  brought

on by our corrupt banking system and further exacerbated by our government,and not so easily solved, because never has debt been so great and money so inflated.   

The Great Depression officially lasted from 1929 to 1941, but was no match in intensity for the previous great depression of 1873. More on that in later editions.

Meanwhile, 

With love and kindness,

THE HATMAN